Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote in regards to the paradox of selection—that’s, whenever you’re faced with too many options, it may well be difficult to select.
Shoppers are sometimes faced with an unlimited array of options. This abundance of decisions—while seemingly advantageous—can result in indecision and ultimately drive shoppers away out of your site. Thankfully, ecommerce product filters may also help them narrow down offerings, so customers can easily find and buy the correct product for them.
What are ecommerce product filters?
Product filters narrow your site’s product offerings based on criteria—size, color, features, etc. Built across the unique attributes of your products, filters let your customers sort what you sell to search out what they’re in search of.
If you’ve greater than a handful of things in your online store, filters let your customers narrow their searches, allowing for a fluid user experience, more sales, and fewer abandoned carts.
Most ecommerce web sites allow customers to use multiple filter values. Let’s say a customer is shopping from a house essentials brand: They may filter by product type (“dinnerware”), material (“stoneware”), color (“cream”), and elegance (“rustic”).
By applying multiple filters, the shopper saves the trouble of sorting through a whole lot of things and as an alternative only has to pick from a couple of. If the applied filters still don’t narrow down the choice enough, the shopper can check more filter boxes to further hone in on the product they need.
Kinds of ecommerce product filters
Filters allow your customers to sort products based on a couple of common criteria:
Price filters
Price filters let your customers sort by price range, displaying only the products inside their budget. Some ecommerce sites let customers pick from a predetermined menu of filtering options (“under $20,” “under $100,” etc.) while others allow customers to input their very own upper and lower cost limits.
Rankings filters
Customer rankings filters organize your site by the variety of stars customers have given your products. You’ll be able to add a filtering choice to sort products from highest-rated to lowest-rated. This helps customers feel confident the product’s they’re taking a look at are tried and true—a type of social proof.
Brand filters
Brand filters are best for sites carrying large numbers of products from many various brands. In the event you’re listing all of your brand filters in a sidebar, it’s an excellent idea to place the preferred brands at the highest, for ease of navigation.
Category-specific filters
These filters are for attributes unique to at least one sort of product (think resolution for TV or waterproof rating for outerwear). Category-specific filters may also help customers who know exactly what they’re in search of quickly navigate to the correct product page.
Such a filter may only be accessible on individual category pages. That way, the shopper can begin their journey on a straightforward homepage, click over to the relevant category page, and further refine their search from there.
Color
Color filters are inclined to be most relevant for clothing brands. In the event you offer products in a spread of colours, you may also help customers narrow their searches by providing a drop-down menu with swatches of colours to pick from. Once a customer selects one (or more) colours, only matching products are displayed.
Thematic filters
Assign thematic filters to sort items based on seasons, styles, or uses. You’ll need to manually tag your products with these attributes, but assigning thematic filters can prove immensely helpful to your customers in the long term. For instance, you may allow customers to sort clothing by vibe, offering clever categories like “pumpkin spice latte season” or “goth girlfriend.”
Suggestions for creating effective ecommerce filters
Filters are an amazing option to help direct your customers to what they need—but in the event you don’t set them up the correct way, they’ll hinder sales by hiding products and frustrating customers. Here’s the best way to effectively implement ecommerce filters:
Use your intuition
Your filtering system should align along with your customers’ instincts. Keep categories easy and straightforward to know. As a substitute of industry jargon, use language your customers use in real life.
For instance, you may allow customers to sort clothing based on whether it’s formal or casual. In the event you sell skincare products, it’s natural to sort products based on the skin type they’re designed for—oily, dry, normal, or sensitive.
Arrange filters with the preferred at the highest
Sort your filters by how often they’re used. You’ll be able to do that initially through the use of search data out of your site to find out which product attributes customers care about most.
As an illustration, if customers purchasing ski goggles are most concerned about polarization, place the filter near the highest of the menu. Essential filters must be the simplest to search out.
Use promoted filters
You’ll be able to drive traffic to your hottest categories by incorporating filters into banner images in your homepage. By displaying top-level categories in an attention grabbing way, you enable customers to simply find the style of product that suits them.
Once they’ve clicked over to the category page, you may offer a more thorough filtering process. For instance, an organization selling bicycles might include clickable graphics on its homepage for “road,” “trail,” and “touring.”
Ecommerce filters FAQ
How do I set filters on Shopify?
Adding filters to your Shopify site is easy:
- Within the Search & Discovery section, navigate to “Filters” and click on “Add filter.”
- Select the product attribute you wish to turn right into a filter. You’ll be able to rename the filter in the event you like, so your customers see a special word or phrase than you do.
- Click Save.
- You’ll be able to reorder your filters by clicking and dragging them into the sequence you wish to show your customers.
What are filters on Shopify?
Filters are organizing features that kind your site’s products based on attributes like size, color, and use.
Why do you have to use ecommerce filters?
Filters are an amazing option to help your customers find what they’re in search of without having to sort through an amazing variety of options. When it’s easy to your customers to navigate your site and find what they need, they’re more more likely to click the Buy button.
