All new features, newest first. The project started on 6 July 2026. The chat assistant has been on a live store since 9 September 2026 and the search since 13 September 2026.
thunderbar.io has a new design and is now available in English, Greek, German, French, Spanish and Italian. Each feature has its own page with an example, and the old addresses redirect automatically to the new ones. Statistics cookies (Google Analytics) load only if you allow them in the cookie window, and you can change your choice at any time from "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page.
The search window and results page are now available in six languages: Greek, English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. The language is picked automatically from the store language (OpenCart module 1.40.0). The snippet for other platforms has the same texts.
Product codes, models and brands in your store are now matched exactly: "gtx" no longer shows GX or GTS and "salomon" no longer shows salmon-coloured clothes. When a model is not in the store (e.g. "XT-6"), shoppers see "We couldn't find «XT-6»" and the closest products, with AI phrase understanding from the same brand first. When a phrase does not match as a whole, we keep the model, brand and product type and leave out colours and general words first. The colour a shopper types counts more, and for a "gift" with no price the very expensive products move further down.
Search already ignored accents and capitals in the title and category. Now the same applies to the description, tags and brand: Greek words typed with or without accents, or in capitals, find the same products even when the word only appears in the description. Store synonyms also work with and without accents.
For stores that run on your own server, we set the search server centrally. The module (OpenCart 1.39.6) checks it every 15 minutes and keeps the last answer, so it keeps working when thunderbar.io does not answer. If your server needs maintenance, we can move the stores to another ThunderBar server without changing anything in the store. A new store on your own server gets its number from the central ThunderBar, so its statistics are the same everywhere.
The "Notify me when it is back" emails are sent by default by ThunderBar with your store's name. Now you can also choose where customer replies go (e.g. your store's info@ address) or send them from your own mail server (SMTP). Before saving we send a test, the password is stored encrypted and, if your server does not answer, the email is sent by us so the notification is not lost. Settings → Features & connections → Sending email.
The search window does not change the page, so Google Analytics could not see searches. We now send the standard events (search, select_item, add_to_cart to GA4 and Search / AddToCart to the Meta Pixel), wherever they are already on your site. With gtag.js they go straight to GA4, with Google Tag Manager they go to the dataLayer. It is on by default and can be switched off in Settings → Features & connections. Nothing personal is sent: only the search term and the products.
When a shopper searches for a size you do not have (e.g. "adidas samba 46") or opens a sold-out product, they can leave their email. On product pages there is also "Cannot find your size?". We check stock every hour and, as soon as it is back, send one email in your store's name. In Marketing you see what shoppers are waiting for and how many orders the emails brought (counted in ThunderBar sales). The newsletter is a separate, optional choice and emails are deleted after 90 days. It stays off until you turn it on.
If you turn them on, results show small badges: "Popular choice" for products often chosen by people who make the same search, and "Popular this week" for products with at least 2 orders through ThunderBar in the last 7 days. No numbers, and only when they are true.
A new Marketing report: searches with no results and the sizes shoppers ask for (e.g. "nike 44"), with a check of whether they are in stock today, plus what people are waiting to be notified about. Downloads to Excel for your orders to suppliers.
In Products you see searches with words missing from the titles of the products shoppers end up clicking, with AI title suggestions. Plus a supplemental feed for Google Merchant Center with a custom label from search: trending, top in search, clicks without sales.
A private link with the figures of every day (searches, clicks, orders and revenue from search and recommendations, searches with no results). In Google Sheets with =IMPORTDATA it updates by itself, and from there it goes to Looker Studio. Settings → Features & connections.
In Settings, a page that shows what you use from ThunderBar and what not, why it is worth it and how to turn it on, with examples from your own data of the last 30 days and the next steps. It saves as a PDF to share with your team.
On every page, in your account and on the site, a button with an arrow appears at the bottom right once you scroll down and takes you back to the top of the page. Handy on long pages such as Marketing and Searches & sales.
Next to "Your month in search" there is now "Your week": the last 7 days or any 7 days you choose, compared with the days before. In both cards sales now show all of ThunderBar: from search and from product recommendations ("Similar products"), separately and together, with their own box for recommendations. An order with products from both counts once. The comparison with the previous period can be switched off, e.g. for a store's first week.
When the shopper types the size together with the product, e.g. "adidas samba 44" or "nike 44", search understands it as a size and shows the products available in 44, with "Size 44" on top to remove with one click. It needs the sizes in the feed, just like "size 44". When the number is part of the name, e.g. "nike pegasus 41", it stays as it is. If the product is not available in that size, it shows in all sizes with a short message.
A link in Suggested links can now have an image as well, e.g. the store's gift card. In the search window it shows as a card with a thumbnail, above the products. Links can now be changed with "Edit" (words, title, URL, image) instead of being deleted and added again.
In Suggested links you can now put several words for the same page in one entry, separated by commas, e.g. "gift card, giftcard, gift cards". Whichever of them the shopper searches for, the page is suggested, and with the exact word and Enter it opens directly. Accents and capitals do not matter.
A store's promotion categories, e.g. "Clothes and shoes up to -50%", can now be left out of search. This way the word "shoes" brings shoes and not the clothes in that promotion as well. Nothing changes in the store, in category pages or in filters. We prepare the list from the category names and you confirm it.
On OpenCart, when the search window and search page show products in the store's own order, the order and filter counts now come straight from the search engine. The calculation for a search such as "nike" drops from about 0.7 to 0.12 seconds. The order covers every matching product (before, the 3,000 most relevant) and the filters count all products.
When search finds a single product, e.g. the shopper types its code, Enter opens that product page directly instead of the results page. It counts as a click from search as usual. On OpenCart from module 1.39.3.
On OpenCart, from module 1.39.3, the search window code loads from ThunderBar: improvements and fixes to the window reach the store without reinstalling the module and without clearing the site cache. It loads without holding up the store page, and if it does not load for any reason, the module's own copy is used automatically, as before.
The phrases search understands also work when the shopper types in Greeklish: «nike formes gia paidi agori» (kids, boy), «papoutsia gia ton antra mou» (men's), «kato apo 50 euro» (up to €50), «aspra» / «mple» (colour). Also, model names with a number such as "air max 90" are no longer read as a price ("up to €90").
For kids' items, when a shopper types "for a boy" or "for a girl" (e.g. "nike tracksuits for a boy"), search brings only the matching products, based on the store's gender filter or the title. Products that do not state a gender are shown after them. Before, "boy" appeared under "Understood" but girls' items were shown too.
When a shopper types part of the search in Greek and part in Greeklish, e.g. «παντελόνι XL mple» (blue trousers XL), search converts only the Greeklish words («παντελόνι XL μπλε»). Sizes (S, M, L, XL, XXL) stay as they are. Before, the Greeklish word was left out and trousers in every colour were shown.
The searches made often in each store are kept ready. When the catalog is updated or a stored result expires, they are recalculated in the background, so the shopper does not wait for the calculation from scratch. The results are exactly the same, just faster.
A search in the singular also finds the category in the plural: «φόρεμα» (dress) brings every product in the «Φορέματα» (dresses) category, and the same goes for diminutives («μποτάκια»). Also, a short word is no longer "corrected" to another with similar spelling: when the store does not have what the shopper asks for, unrelated products are not shown.
Search understands Greek diminutives ("μπλουζάκια" = t-shirts, "παπουτσάκια" = shoes). Greek words such as "αθλητικά" (athletic) are no longer mistaken for brands. Greeklish brings the same as Greek ("magio" = swimwear, "kaltses" = socks), even when the word appears in only a few titles. With the "Store's own order" the colour the shopper types counts ("white nike": white first), and the counts in the categories and filters of the search window are for the products shown. For special cases we also maintain a dictionary that applies to all stores.
When a shopper types a brand and Greeklish in the same search, e.g. "nike papoutsia 44.5", the brand stays as it is and only the other words are turned into Greek ("nike παπούτσια 44.5"). Before, search left out the word it did not understand and also brought other products of the brand, such as clothing and accessories.
In OpenCart, when the store's search page shows ThunderBar results in the "Store's own order", the window that opens while the shopper types now brings the same products in the same order. What they see in the window is what they find when they press Enter or "See all". If a search finds nothing with all the words, it searches more loosely, just like the page.
Stricter checks on everything from the catalog shown in the search window and results page, usage limits on the APIs, validation of feed addresses and protection on sign-in. Nothing changes in how search works.
In the Overview, under total sales, a list shows every order ThunderBar brought in the period you chose: the order ID in your store (so you can find it in OpenCart), date, whether it came from search or from "Similar products", the products with their amount, the word searched, the order total, status and payment method. Cancelled orders are shown in grey. The order ID now also appears in Live.
Next to page views (in the panel and in the OpenCart admin) a yellow "i" explains how we count: random sampling of 1 in 10 views, ×10, and how large the margin is depending on volume, e.g. ±6% at 10,000 views and under 2% from 100,000 upwards. No cookies.
Search now understands the season and the product type by itself: from October to March tracksuits, hoodies, jackets and boots come first, from April to September shorts, t-shirts, flip-flops and swimwear, with no rules that expire. When the shopper types "adidas tracksuit" or "nike pants", shorts and short sets go to the end (and the other way round for "nike shorts"), and words such as "winter" or "summer" are taken into account. Nothing is hidden, only the order changes. It is switched on per store in the settings.
A new box in the Overview shows all sales ThunderBar brought: from search and from "Similar products" on the product page, combined and separately, compared with the previous period. An order with products from both counts once and cancelled orders are excluded.
In the Marketing tab you type a question the way you would ask a colleague, e.g. "which brand grew the most?" or "what do people search on mobile in the evening?", and get a plain-language answer with the real figures of the period and what you can do about it. The AI answers only from aggregated search data, with no customer data, and says clearly when it does not know.
A card for every month with the highlights of search: totals compared with the previous month, the no. 1 search, brand and product of the month, the "surprise of the month", peak hour, busiest day and mobile share. It downloads as an image for a presentation or social media.
Live now also opens full screen for a TV in the office: big numbers for the day, searches as they happen, clicks and orders, with a celebration on screen every time an order from ThunderBar comes in.
New tools in the Marketing tab: Google Ads keywords from what your shoppers type and buy, and negative keywords from searches with no results (file for Google Ads Editor); a ready newsletter block with the 6 most wanted in-stock products, with UTM tags; rising searches with a button for a campaign page pre-filled with the most clicked products; pinned searches (e.g. "Black Friday") in the search window's popular searches, with start and end dates.
A message to email or your team channel (Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Google Chat) as soon as an order from search comes in, with an optional minimum amount. And an email when a search takes off (at least double the previous week), so you can catch it with a campaign.
A new "Marketing" tab in the store dashboard, for the people who plan campaigns: how often each brand is searched for and how many clicks, add-to-carts, units and revenue it brings from search, the same per category and per product (with the average position in the results), all compared with the previous period. It also shows searches that find products but bring no clicks, with a button for a new rule. Every table downloads for Excel (CSV): all searches, orders from search with status and payment method, products, brands, categories. The weekly report can now go to every team member and includes the brands of the week.
A search now counts once: corrections while the visitor types, the same search by the same visitor within 30 minutes and the store's results page for the same search no longer add extra counts. The rules are shown in the Overview under "How we count searches".
A new "Live" tab in the store dashboard: the latest searches as they happen (searches with no results in red), which products visitors click and the latest orders from ThunderBar. It refreshes by itself every few seconds and shows only your own store.
Clicks, orders and revenue from ThunderBar's "Similar products" under each product now have their own card in the Overview and are no longer mixed into the search numbers, so search statistics stay clean. With one store, logging in opens the Overview straight away.
On OpenCart, when a shopper clicks "See similar" on a product in the search window, "Show all" now opens the store's own search page with all the similar products, with the theme's filters and product cards, instead of the earlier search term.
On OpenCart, when the shopper pays by card and the bank notifies the store without the shopper returning to the "Order complete" page, the order now counts in "Orders from search". Search analytics also show orders from search by payment method (e.g. cash on delivery, card).
Each store now opens on an "Overview" page: one sentence on how search did, four big numbers with a short explanation (searches, how many found what they wanted, orders and revenue, compared with the previous period), bars per day with the number on top and orders below, and "What you can do now" cards (for example a synonym for a search with no results in one click). New statistics: peak hours, rising searches, revenue per 100 searches and which result position shoppers click. All store pages share one menu and are wider and easier to use on a phone.
In search analytics, orders and revenue from search also show how many were cancelled and their amount. A new table lists orders by status (e.g. complete, pending, cancelled), as in OpenCart. Cancelled orders do not count towards revenue.
When results are shown on your own OpenCart search page (with your theme cards), product clicks and the orders that follow now count in "Orders from search" and "Revenue from search", just like clicks from the search window.
In search analytics and audience insights you choose the period as in Google Analytics: today, yesterday, 7, 30 or 90 days, 12 months, this or last month, or your own dates. Searches, clicks, orders and revenue show the change versus the previous period of the same length, and the volume chart shows days, weeks or months depending on the range.
When the store keeps a different barcode for each size or colour, ThunderBar reads them all. The shopper scans the barcode on the box or label with the phone camera and sees the right product straight away. If the barcode is not in the store, no unrelated products are shown.
In the classic search window, filters (size, material, colour, price) and sorting now appear as simple pill buttons without borders. One click opens a small list with the options and product counts, and an active filter shows dark with an "×" to clear it. Suggested searches moved to the left column under the categories, so products appear higher up.
When a shopper types a product code (e.g. "SSR4419"), ThunderBar finds it even when it is part of the title and shows all variants that start with it. If the code does not exist, it does not show "similar" codes that differ by one digit, so the shopper does not mistake them for the same product.
On OpenCart the store's search page stays exactly as it is (its own controller, template, product cards and filters), but the products, count, pages and filter numbers come from ThunderBar. Searches in Greek, Greeklish or with typos (e.g. "φανελα", "ασικ") return results, and the store's filters (size, gender, brand, price) work on them. If ThunderBar does not answer in time, the store's own search runs as usual.
When a shopper types a brand in Greek letters or Greeklish (e.g. "ασικς") or with the wrong keyboard layout, ThunderBar finds the right word and the products. On OpenCart, when the results page is the store's own, "See all", Enter and the categories now open the search with the corrected word (e.g. "asics"), so the store's page and filters show the right results instead of none.
On OpenCart, search shows the small image your theme already uses in product lists (webp where available) instead of the original photo. Images in the dropdown and on the results page load faster, especially on mobile. Cached search results are also kept when the catalogue has not changed.
On OpenCart the search can open across the full screen width in three columns: results in five columns with brand, popular searches and "Did you mean" with a promo banner, and on the right categories and filters such as "By brand" and "By type". On tablets it opens in two columns and on phones in one, full width, without lots of filters. Width, banner, filters and colours are set in the module.
On OpenCart, ThunderBar can hand your own theme the product list (order, count, pages) for category and search pages, instead of the heavy database SQL. The look stays the same because your theme shows the products. Turn it on from the module settings, first as a cookie-only test. With active filters, or if anything is slow, the store's own query runs as usual.
On OpenCart the category page can start with the same order your store has set (per-category promotions, score, sort order), and products you have hidden from categories or from search stay hidden. New options: only products on sale, filters from OpenCart Filters, sizes only when in stock.
On OpenCart the category page keeps your theme's toolbar (product count, products per page, view, sorting, pages) and the filters follow the order and style of your site. New sorts "Highest discount" and "Lowest discount", and up to 120 products per page.
Every dashboard page (store, analytics, rules, audience insights, product inspector, page views) and the alert emails are now available in English. Switch language with one click at the top right; emails arrive in your account language.
Your dashboard shows how many page views your store has this month, the estimate for the whole month, last month and each day, next to your plan's limit. No cookies and no personal data.
The "Find the perfect gift" quiz now comes in two versions: for gifts and jewellery (who, occasion, what they like, budget) and for sportswear, clothing and shoes (who, sport, what kind, budget). You choose the sports and product types in the settings.
Typing a brand name in Greek letters finds Nike, Adidas or Puma, based on the brands the store actually carries. On large searches (for example a brand with thousands of products) sorting, pages and filters cover every result, and the first page mixes products from different categories (shoes, clothing, accessories) instead of just one type.
On OpenCart, Enter and "Show all" can stay on your site's own search page, with the same URL and theme, while products and filters come from ThunderBar. Less load on your server on busy days.
Choose whether the old price appears struck through or only the final price, and what the badge says: "Sale" with a percentage, your own text and colour (e.g. "OUTLET PRICE") or none. On the results page your theme's own badge is kept.
The search window, results page and quiz pick up your site's font and the colour of your buy button on their own. No custom CSS, and you can still change anything in the settings.
On OpenCart the results page and category pages use the same product card as the rest of the site (image, buttons, hover, columns), with no separate design work. Plus a price slider filter.
On OpenCart, each category list can come from ThunderBar, sorted by "Popular". Collapsible filters with search inside long lists and "More". On product cards: available colours, in-stock sizes on hover and a "NEW" badge.
The shopper types "brac" and sees "bracelets" in grey inside the same box, from the store's popular searches. Tab or → to accept, one tap on mobile.
When shoppers click the search box they see up to 8 popular products with image, price and "Add to cart". Chosen automatically from 30-day sales, clicks and views, or by hand. An "In high demand" badge only on real best sellers.
Four questions (who, occasion, interests, budget), then the shopper sees gifts within their price range. It also appears inside the search window.
HachiChat searches the catalog with ThunderBar and answers with the right products, price, photo and link. For example "a cross for a boy under €80".
Product feed with variations, categories, brands and EAN, plus the search window on the store. In final testing on a live store.
A store with about 5,300 active products and their photos, moved from preview to live for all visitors.
Answers visitors 24/7 in any language. HachiChat Starter free with every plan, Standard in Pro, Pro in Enterprise and Custom.
On mobile, shoppers scan a box barcode and find the same product in the store.
Pages like "Gifts under €100" or "Sale only", with a banner and products that update themselves. Ready for ads and newsletters.
All services are checked every 5 minutes, with a public status page.
Dashboard access for the whole team, with permissions such as "View only".
Account lock after 5 wrong passwords and a limit on attempts per connection, so nobody can guess passwords.
"You may also like" on product pages. On sold-out products, in-stock alternatives and a link next to the buy button.
"For my wife under €80" becomes filters: women, up to €80. The shopper sees "Understood:" and can remove any of them.
Shopify, PrestaShop, Magento or your own system: the catalog is read from the feed you already have for Google or Facebook.
Ready feeds for Google Merchant and ChatGPT, plus an MCP server so AI assistants can search your store.
Products shoppers pick for a search move up. In-stock products always come first.
Keyword and AI search in 120–155 ms, and 25–40 ms when the same search has run before.
The AI service runs permanently on its own resources, for steady speed from the first search of the day.
Shoppers upload a photo and see products that look alike. On every result, one click brings similar designs and colours.
Size, colour, price, category and a full results page inside the store theme.
What shoppers search for, what they cannot find, which searches bring orders and how much revenue.
Pin and hide products per term with dates, synonyms, and results that adapt to each visitor.
Two engines together: one for exact words and codes, one that understands meaning. With Greeklish, typos and voice search.
The first version of the smart search went live on a jewellery store with its full catalog.
The chat assistant (now HachiChat) went live on a jewellery store with its full product catalog, answering shoppers with products, prices and links.
Development of the smart search and the chat assistant begins at INWEBPRO.
5-minute setup, a preview before your customers see it, and go live when you are ready.
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