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Overview

Product discovery is the foundation of any commerce experience—it's how your customers find and explore products in your store. Elastic Path provides a comprehensive product discovery system that combines flexible catalog management with powerful search and filtering capabilities.

What is Product Discovery?​

Product discovery encompasses all the ways customers find products in your store:

  • Browsing through categories and hierarchies
  • Searching by keywords, attributes, or SKUs
  • Filtering by price, brand, size, color, or custom attributes
  • Exploring related products and recommendations

In Elastic Path, product discovery is powered by the Catalog API and Products API, which work together to deliver fast, relevant product results to your storefront.

How Product Discovery Works​

1. Catalog-Driven Architecture​

Elastic Path uses a catalog-first approach where:

  • Products are managed in Product Experience Manager (PXM)
  • Catalogs are published snapshots of your product data
  • Storefronts consume catalog data via API calls
  • Real-time overlays add pricing and inventory context

This architecture ensures your storefront always shows current, accurate product information while maintaining performance.

2. Multi-Layered Product Context​

When a customer views products, multiple data layers combine:

Base Product Data (from Catalog)
+ Price Overlay (from Price Books)
+ Inventory Overlay (from Stock)
+ Localization (from Headers)
= Complete Product Information

3. Flexible Product Types​

Elastic Path supports four product types to match your business needs:

  • Standard Products: Simple, standalone items (e.g., gift cards)
  • Parent Products: Containers for variations (e.g., t-shirt in multiple sizes)
  • Child Products: Individual variants (e.g., t-shirt size M)
  • Bundle Products: Groups of products sold together with rules

Key Concepts​

Catalogs vs. Products​

Products are your master product data—descriptions, images, attributes, and relationships. Catalogs are published views of that data, optimized for specific channels, regions, or customer segments.

Think of it this way:

  • Products = Your product database
  • Catalogs = Your published product pages

Search and Discovery Context​

Every product discovery request includes context that affects results:

  • Catalog ID: Which published catalog to search
  • Currency: For price formatting and conversion
  • Locale: For localized text and sorting
  • Customer Segment: For personalized pricing or visibility

Hierarchies and Categories​

Products are organized in hierarchies (category trees) that help customers navigate your store. A single product can exist in multiple categories, and categories can be nested to create rich browsing experiences.

Why This Approach Matters​

Performance Benefits​

  • Catalog snapshots eliminate database joins during customer browsing
  • API-first design enables fast, cacheable responses
  • Overlay architecture keeps dynamic data (prices, stock) separate from static content

Flexibility Benefits​

  • Multiple catalogs for different channels, regions, or customer types
  • Headless architecture works with any frontend technology
  • Extensible data model supports custom fields and relationships

Developer Benefits​

  • Consistent API patterns across all product operations
  • Rich filtering options built into the API
  • Comprehensive relationship support for complex product structures

Common Use Cases​

B2C Storefront​

  • Browse products by category
  • Search by keyword or filters
  • View product details and variations
  • See real-time pricing and availability

B2B Commerce​

  • Role-based product visibility
  • Customer-specific pricing
  • Bulk ordering from product lists
  • Integration with procurement systems

Marketplace Platform​

  • Multi-vendor product management
  • Federated search across sellers
  • Dynamic pricing and inventory
  • Category-based commission rules

Next Steps​

Now that you understand how product discovery works in Elastic Path, you're ready to implement it:

To LearnGo To
Build your first product listingQuick Start Tutorial
Fetch and display productsList Products
Show product detailsGet Product Details
Work with product variationsVariations Overview
Handle product bundlesBundles Overview

Ready to start coding? Jump into the Quick Start Tutorial to build your first product discovery experience.