'Priority' gives importance to a specific 'Merchandised Search' term or 'Search Redirect' when one of more merchandised searches applies to a specific search query.
'Priority' is set to give preference to a merchandised rule over another depending on the business requirements.
When a 'Merchandised Search' or a 'Search Redirect' is set to 'Exactly matches' for a search query, the 'Priority' is set to '1' by default.
For e.g. Let us look at the example of the search query "Red Dress" where there are two different merchandised rules applied to "Dress" and "Red Dress".
'Merchandised Search' for the query "Red Dress" has three products pinned and is set to 'Exactly Matches'.
'Merchandised Search' for the query "Dress" has four products pinned and is set to 'Partially Matches' and Priority set to '1'.
When the visitor searches for "Red Dress", the merchandised rule applied to this query is prioritized for this search result since this is an exact match.
In case of queries with 'Merchandised Search' which are only set to 'Partially Matches', the 'Merchandised Search' with the higher priority will be considered for search results. If the priority for both the queries is the same, then the last updated merchandised rule would be considered.
'Merchandised Search' for the query "Dress" has four products pinned and is set to 'Partially Matches' with 'Priority' set as '1'.
'Merchandised Search for the query "Sale" has products with a discount percentage less than or equal to 10% and is set to 'Partially Matches' with 'Priority' set as '3'.
Now, when a visitor searches for "Sale Dresses", the merchandised rule of the query "Dress" would be prioritized since it is higher.
'Priority' in 'Search Redirect' function works similar to 'Merchandised Search'. The query with a redirect set to 'Exactly Matches' would be prioritised over other queries. However, when the 'Search Redirect' for a query is set to 'Partially Matches', the query with a higher priority ('1' being the highest order of priority) is considered for search results.
For e.g., If the search query is "Black Dress" and 'Search Redirect' priority '1' is set for the query "Dress", and priority '2' is set for the query "Black", the search results will prioritize the merchandised rule of the query "Dress". If the priority for both the queries is the same, then the last updated merchandised rule would be considered.