Merquly AI Search documentation

What Merquly does

Merquly adds AI-assisted product discovery to WooCommerce. Shoppers can describe what they need in natural language, refine an earlier product request, and receive relevant products. Merquly can also answer store-information questions from content sources you select, such as shipping, returns, privacy, opening hours, and FAQ pages.

The customer-facing plugin connects to the managed Merquly service. Store owners do not need a separate AI service account.

Requirements

• A WordPress site with WooCommerce.
• A Merquly account with activation available.
• Outbound HTTPS access from WordPress to the Merquly service.
• Working WP-Cron or a server cron so the WooCommerce Action Scheduler can process background work.

Install and connect the plugin

1. Sign in to your Merquly account and download the WordPress plugin ZIP.
2. On the store, open Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin, install the ZIP, and activate it.
3. Open AI Search → Setup Wizard.
4. Use the activation information from the Merquly account to connect the store. One subscription activation is intended for one connected store.
5. Continue to product synchronization, choose content sources, and finish the wizard.

Keep all activation information private and use it only on the store being connected.

Setup Wizard

The wizard guides a store through connection, product synchronization, content sources, and completion. On the product step, Synchronize & Continue starts a full product synchronization. Continue Without Sync skips it; the same synchronization can be started later in AI Search → Control Panel.

The content step lets you select and synchronize store-information sources without leaving the wizard. Product indexing and content indexing are separate, so informational questions do not need to return products.

Product synchronization

Merquly indexes WooCommerce product titles, descriptions, categories, tags, attributes, taxonomies, prices, stock state, URLs, images, and generated product-analysis fields used for relevance. Embeddings allow semantic matching, while keyword and structured matching preserve exact names, properties, and constraints.

Ordinary product creates, edits, stock changes, and deletions are added to a local synchronization queue. After a short quiet period, background processing sends the final saved state. This coalesces repeated edits and large imports instead of spending resources on every intermediate save.

Standard WooCommerce import and WP All Import are supported. Long imports are not interrupted by the quiet period: processing begins when changes settle, while later changes remain queued for another background run.

Sync Products, Run Queue Now, and Daily Light Sync

Sync Products scans the catalog. Without Force, unchanged products are skipped and new, changed, incomplete, or previously failed products are processed. With Force, all eligible products are rebuilt, including embeddings and product analysis, so it costs more AI processing and should be used only when a complete rebuild is needed.

Run Queue Now immediately processes pending product changes. It appears when work is waiting and is mainly a recovery or manual-control action; normal changes are processed automatically in the background.

Daily Light Sync is a safety reconciliation. Once a day it scans for changes that WordPress hooks may have missed. It is not required for the normal save queue to run, but it is recommended for stores with imports, integrations, or unusual inventory workflows.

Product analysis and partial results

During synchronization Merquly derives searchable product meaning such as purpose, audience, product type, color, size, use case, and other properties supported by the product data. Analysis is saved with the product index and used with semantic, keyword, category, attribute, price, and stock signals.

Analysis partial means the core product is searchable but one optional analysis stage was unavailable or incomplete. A later non-force synchronization retries incomplete or failed work. When service connectivity returns, run Sync Products without Force or process the pending queue.

Exclude products and categories

Store owners can exclude selected products or categories from the AI index in the plugin settings. A later catalog synchronization removes newly excluded items from the Merquly index and adds items that become eligible again. The product count shown by the wizard reflects eligible products processed, not necessarily every WooCommerce record.

Store content sources

Content sources teach Merquly public store information such as shipping, returns, privacy, payment information, opening hours, and FAQs. Select only sources that should be used in shopper answers.

Merquly extracts rendered content from standard WordPress, Gutenberg, Elementor, WPBakery, and supported custom post types or HTML blocks. Large pages are split into smaller sections so a question can retrieve the relevant heading and answer. Saving, deselecting, unpublishing, or deleting a selected source queues the corresponding update.

Source links are shown only when an answer is supported by a linkable WordPress page or post. Internal content types such as an HTML block may support an answer without exposing a public link.

Shipping and payment information

Where enabled, Merquly can synchronize public WooCommerce shipping methods and payment-method descriptions as store information. It does not index customer orders, payment credentials, or private checkout data. Dynamic delivery prices that depend on an address, cart, or external carrier may still require the shopper to use the cart or checkout calculator.

Search widget

The floating widget provides conversational search. A follow-up that continues the same product request can use recent conversation context. A new request, such as switching from products to shipping information, is routed independently so products and informational answers do not get mixed.

The widget position can be adjusted vertically in plugin settings to avoid overlapping another floating button. Its interface follows the store language supported by the plugin.

Standard WordPress search integration

Merquly can add an AI overview above the normal WooCommerce search results page. Standard results remain below it. When the AI needs clarification, the overview includes an input so the shopper can continue the same search instead of reaching a dead end.

Languages

Merquly uses the WordPress site language for its interface and answers. Product and content quality is best when the catalog, selected pages, and site language agree. If answers use the wrong language, verify Settings → General → Site Language, clear any page cache, and update the plugin.

Plans and monthly limits

Free includes up to 100 products, 100 AI searches per month, and 3 content sources. Starter includes up to 1,000 products, 1,500 searches, and 10 content sources. Growth includes up to 5,000 products, 5,000 searches, and 15 content sources. Pro includes up to 20,000 products, 15,000 searches, and 20 content sources.

Monthly and yearly billing options affect billing, not the monthly search allowance. Search usage resets each monthly usage period. At 80% usage, Merquly emails the account owner with upgrade options and optional one-time packs: 1,000 extra searches for $5 or 5,000 for $20. Extra searches are valid until the current usage period resets.

Subscription status and plan access

An active paid subscription enables its paid plan. A subscription that is on hold, cancelled, expired, or otherwise inactive falls back to Free entitlement after synchronization. Automatic renewal requires a WooCommerce Subscriptions-compatible payment gateway that supports recurring payments.

License activation and moving a site

A subscription activation connects one WordPress installation. Deactivate it from the currently connected store before moving it to another domain. Reconnect through the setup flow on the new installation. A new connection can receive a new site identifier, so a moved or rebuilt store may need a fresh synchronization.

Never send confidential activation or access information through public support chat.

Plugin updates

A connected store receives Merquly plugin update notices in WordPress → Plugins. Use Update now like a normal WordPress plugin. If no update appears, open Dashboard → Updates and click Check again, verify that the store is connected, and confirm it can reach merquly.com and api.merquly.com over HTTPS.

Index Status

Total indexed products is the number of searchable products stored for the site. Embeddings stored is the number with semantic-search vectors. Content sources is the number of selected indexed pages or records. Content chunks is the number of smaller searchable sections created from those sources. Pending sync queue is local product work waiting to be sent. Analysis complete, partial, pending, and error describe the product-analysis stage.

Troubleshoot synchronization

• Confirm the license status and service connection in AI Search → Control Panel.
• Leave WP-Cron enabled or configure a real server cron. WooCommerce Action Scheduler performs background batches.
• If work is pending, use Run Queue Now once and check Scheduled Actions for failed tasks.
• Use Sync Products without Force to retry new, changed, partial, or failed records.
• Use Force only for an intentional full rebuild.
• Check hosting firewalls, loopback restrictions, and outbound HTTPS access if requests fail.

Troubleshoot search results

First confirm that the expected product is published, eligible, in stock if the search requires it, and present in Index Status. Add clear titles, categories, attributes, colors, sizes, audiences, use cases, and descriptions. Then synchronize without Force. Very broad requests may return only the configured number of results; overly strict price, stock, color, or product-type constraints can correctly return no matches.

Merquly combines semantic meaning with exact product type, keyword, attribute, taxonomy, audience, price, and stock checks. A related accessory should not satisfy a request for the main product merely because both belong to the same activity.

Privacy and data boundaries

Merquly indexes the public catalog and public store information selected by the store owner. It does not use this public help assistant to inspect customer sites, catalogs, products, orders, account records, subscription status, search analytics, confidential access information, or private business data.

The Ask AI help panel sends the current question and up to six recent messages to generate an answer from this documentation. It does not store a support-chat transcript, collect feedback, or create support analytics. Do not submit confidential or personal information.

Frequently asked questions

Does a store need a separate AI service account?

No. The customer plugin connects to the managed Merquly service.

Can I close the browser during synchronization?

Yes. Product queue work runs through background scheduling. Return later to review Index Status.

How do I add newly imported products?

Normal saves and supported imports queue them automatically. Sync Products without Force also discovers new and changed products.

Does Merquly answer questions about a shopper’s order?

No. Order support is not part of the current public product and content search.

What if the documentation does not answer my question?

Contact Merquly support. Do not include confidential access information, payment data, or customer personal data in the message.