Generate-then-Retrieve: Intent-Aware FAQ Retrieval in Product Search
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Customers interacting with product search engines are increasingly formulating information-seeking queries. Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) retrieval aims to retrieve common question-answer pairs for a user query with question intent. Integrating FAQ retrieval in product search can not only empower users to make more informed purchase decisions, but also enhance user retention through efficient post-purchase support. Determining when an FAQ entry can satisfy a user's information need within product search, without disrupting their shopping experience, represents an important challenge. We propose an intent-aware FAQ retrieval system consisting of (1) an intent classifier that predicts when a user's information need can be answered by an FAQ; (2) a reformulation model that rewrites a query into a natural question. Offline evaluation demonstrates that our approach improves Hit@1 by 13 retrieving ground-truth FAQs, while reducing latency by 95 baseline systems. These improvements are further validated by real user feedback, where 71 explicit positive user feedback. Overall, our findings show promising directions for integrating FAQ retrieval into product search at scale.
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