Release Notes / Autumn 2026

Voice Search for BigCommerce: Make Product Discovery Easier Without Typing

By Stacy

Oct 01 2026

2 min to read

Typing a product name into a search bar sounds simple until a shopper is doing it on a phone, one-handed, with a long or technical query — "waterproof hiking boots size 10" isn't fast to type, and every extra tap is a chance to give up.

Meet Voice Search, a new feature in Smart Search and Product Filters by Searchanise. It gives shoppers a way around the keyboard entirely: tap the microphone, say what you're looking for, and get results without typing a single character.

Table of contents:

Why Add Voice Search to Your BigCommerce Store?
How to Use It
How to Enable It
Best Practices
Worth Knowing

Why Add Voice Search to Your BigCommerce Store?

Voice Search isn't about replacing traditional search. It's about giving shoppers another way to get to the products they want — particularly when typing is inconvenient.

How to Use It

A microphone icon now sits in your store's search bar. When a shopper taps it, their browser asks for microphone permission (a one-time prompt per device), a red indicator shows the mic is listening, and their spoken query is converted to text in real time. From there, it runs through the exact same search engine behind your regular results — your synonyms, filters, and merchandising rules all still apply, so a voice query gets treated with the same relevance logic as a typed one.

What happens next depends on how you've configured it: you can have the shopper land directly on the results page the moment they stop speaking, or have their spoken query typed into the search bar first, so they can review or edit it before searching.

Available on all Smart Search and Product Filters plans, plus legacy Game-Changer and Advanced.

Voice search

How to Enable It

Go to Search & Filter control panel > Search & Navigation > Preferences > General tab > Voice Search, and toggle Enable voice search to ON. You can also configure:

Icon color — match the microphone icon to your theme
Display options — show voice search on mobile, desktop, or both
Redirect to search results page — jump straight to results after recognition, or have the query typed into the search bar first

Click Apply to save. That's it — the microphone icon will now appear in your store's search bar.

A full walkthrough is in our help docs.

How to turn in on

Best Practices

Voice Search isn't a separate search experience. It's another way for shoppers to access the search experience you've already built.

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Test the redirect setting with your own catalog before rolling it out — stores with broad, generic queries often do better letting shoppers review the recognized text first; stores with narrower catalogs can safely redirect straight to results.

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Check the microphone icon against your theme's color scheme once enabled — it's a small detail, but it's the kind of thing shoppers notice even if they can't say why.

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If your store skews mobile, prioritize enabling voice search there first — that's where typing friction is highest and where the feature earns its keep.

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Pair it with your existing synonym list. Voice queries tend to be more conversational, so if you haven't reviewed your synonyms recently, this is a good moment to.

Worth Knowing

Voice Search requires microphone permission from the shopper's browser, so it won't work for anyone who declines that prompt. If the icon doesn't sit well with your theme, our team can help — reach out at feedback@searchanise.io.

Already using Searchanise for BigCommerce?
Voice Search is live in your control panel now — turn it on from the Voice Search settings and test it on your own store.

Evaluating Smart Search and Product Filters by Searchanise?
Voice Search is part of a broader BigCommerce search experience that combines product search, filtering, synonyms, and merchandising in one setup. See how Searchanise can help shoppers move from query to relevant products with less friction.

Install Smart Search and Product Filters by Searchanise

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Stacy

Stacy is a content creator at Searchanise. Her professional areas of interest are SaaS solutions and ecommerce. Stacy believes that quality content must be valuable for readers and achieve business goals. When she is not busy writing, which does not happen often, she reads passionately, both fiction and non-fiction literature.