When it comes to ecommerce, customer experience is everything. If your store feels difficult to navigate, cluttered, or hard to search, visitors won’t stick around long enough to make a purchase. One of the most effective ways to enhance the user experience on your WooCommerce store is through product sorting.
Think of product sorting as a way to guide your customers on a seamless shopping journey. It allows them to easily find what they want, whether they’re browsing through your bestsellers, looking for discounts, or searching by specific product attributes. Product sorting doesn’t just improve the shopping experience—it can have a significant impact on your sales and conversion rates.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through the importance of product sorting, how to implement it effectively, and how tools like the WooCommerce Sorting Plugin can streamline the process.
Why Product Sorting Matters
Before we dive into the specifics of how to use product sorting on your WooCommerce store, let’s understand why it’s so important.
When customers land on your online store, they’re usually there for a reason. Whether they’re looking for a specific product, a particular price range, or a solution to a problem, your store needs to be organized in a way that helps them get to the right product quickly. Poor product organization can lead to frustration, and in the world of ecommerce, frustration leads to abandoned carts and lost sales.
Here’s why sorting is crucial for your store’s success:
Improved User Experience
Product sorting streamlines the process for your customers. It lets them search and filter products based on their preferences—be it price, size, color, or customer ratings. This saves time and reduces frustration, ensuring that your store becomes a place customers enjoy visiting again and again.
Higher Conversion Rates
When customers can easily find what they want, they’re more likely to buy. Whether they’re looking for discounted items, top-rated products, or the latest arrivals, sorting helps put the most relevant products at the forefront.
Better Inventory Management
Effective sorting helps you organize your inventory in a way that makes sense. Whether you want to feature new arrivals, push seasonal items, or highlight bestsellers, product sorting helps you manage your inventory visibility.
Increased Customer Satisfaction
A store that’s easy to navigate will increase customer satisfaction. Happy customers are more likely to return and make repeat purchases, helping build long-term loyalty and increasing lifetime value.
Different Ways to Sort Products in WooCommerce
Now that we’ve established why sorting is important, let’s dive into the different types of product sorting you can implement on your WooCommerce store. By offering multiple sorting options, you allow customers to refine their search and find what they’re looking for faster. Here are some of the most common product sorting methods:
1. Price: Low to High / High to Low
Sorting by price is a fundamental option. Whether shoppers are looking for a budget-friendly option or are willing to splurge on high-end products, sorting by price offers a quick way to narrow down the selection.
- Low to High: Ideal for price-sensitive customers or those looking for the best deals.
- High to Low: Ideal for shoppers looking for premium or luxury items.
2. Popularity
This sorting method allows you to showcase the most popular items in your store, based on customer purchases or views. Popularity sorting helps customers quickly identify the best-selling products, which tend to be reliable and have a track record of customer satisfaction.
3. New Arrivals
If you’re running a store that frequently releases new products, sorting by “Newest Arrivals” is a great way to keep customers engaged with the latest offerings. It’s particularly useful for fashion, tech, and seasonal products.
4. Customer Ratings
High ratings serve as social proof, providing potential buyers with confidence that a product is trustworthy. Sorting by customer ratings allows your shoppers to easily see which products are loved by other customers, boosting confidence in their purchasing decisions.
5. Custom Attributes
In addition to basic sorting methods, you can sort products by specific attributes, like size, color, brand, or material. This is particularly useful for stores with a large product range or products that come in multiple variations. For example, a fashion store might allow users to sort by size or color, while an electronics store might let users sort by screen size or processor type.
How to Implement Product Sorting in WooCommerce
Now that you know the different types of sorting, let’s look at how to implement them on your WooCommerce store. WooCommerce offers several built-in sorting options, but there’s much more you can do to create a customized and efficient product sorting experience.
Using Default WooCommerce Sorting Features
WooCommerce comes with a few default sorting options that are automatically available on the product archive pages (shop page, category pages, etc.). These include:
- Sorting by Popularity (best-selling products).
- Sorting by Average Rating (most highly rated products).
- Sorting by Price (Low to High or High to Low).
While these are handy, they may not be enough if you want more control or advanced sorting options. That’s where plugins like the WooCommerce Sorting Plugin come in.
The Power of the WooCommerce Sorting Plugin
The WooCommerce Sort Products takes sorting functionality to the next level by offering you more advanced sorting features and greater control over how products are displayed in your store. Here are some ways this plugin can enhance your WooCommerce store:
1. Custom Sorting Options
You can create custom sorting rules based on any product attribute. For example, you can allow customers to sort by fabric type for clothing or by processor speed for electronics. This is incredibly useful for stores with a wide range of products that don’t fit into typical sorting categories.
2. Category-Specific Sorting
One of the most powerful features of the WooCommerce Sorting Plugin is the ability to apply different sorting rules to different product categories. For example, in your “Men’s Clothing” section, you may want to allow customers to sort by size, while in the “Electronics” category, sorting by specifications like RAM size might make more sense.
3. Intuitive Drag-and-Drop Sorting
Setting up custom sorting options becomes easy with the drag-and-drop interface in the WooCommerce Sorting Plugin. You can quickly rearrange sorting options, change default sorting rules, or add new sorting categories—all without needing to write a single line of code.
4. Boost Mobile Experience
As mobile shopping continues to grow, it’s essential that your product sorting is mobile-friendly. The WooCommerce Sorting Plugin ensures that your sorting options work just as seamlessly on mobile devices as they do on desktop.
5. Automatic Sorting Updates
The plugin allows for automatic updates when new products are added to your store. This means that your sorting options will always reflect the latest additions to your inventory without you needing to manually update them.
Best Practices for Product Sorting
While offering multiple sorting options is great, how you configure them can make all the difference. Here are a few tips for optimizing your sorting strategy:
1. Set a Default Sorting Option
By default, WooCommerce sorts products by “Default Sorting,” which may not always be the most effective option. Consider setting a default sorting rule based on your product catalog and customer behavior. For example, a clothing store may benefit from a default sort of “Newest Arrivals,” while a discount store could benefit from “Price: Low to High.”
2. Test and Analyze
Don’t just set and forget. Regularly review how your customers interact with your sorting options. Use Google Analytics or WooCommerce reporting tools to track which sorting methods are used most often and adjust accordingly.
3. Offer Filters Alongside Sorting
Sorting is just one part of the equation. Filters give customers even more control over their shopping experience. Combine sorting with filters like size, color, or brand for a more customized experience.
4. Keep It Simple
Too many sorting options can overwhelm customers and clutter the page. Limit the number of options to only what’s necessary to avoid confusion and improve the shopping experience.
Final Thoughts: The Power of Product Sorting
Product sorting is an often-underestimated feature that can dramatically impact your ecommerce store’s performance. By providing a clear, intuitive sorting system, you can improve user experience, reduce cart abandonment, and increase conversions.
With the right tools, like the Product Sorting WooCommerce, you can take your store’s product sorting to the next level, making it easier for customers to find what they need and for you to manage your inventory efficiently.
So, whether you’re selling a handful of products or managing a large online store, effective sorting is one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to enhance the customer experience and drive sales.