Navigation is the heart of any store. And product filters? They are the building blocks to well-organized store navigation! Product filters make a user’s journey seamless and exceptional by eliminating all the products they wouldn’t want – and showcasing only ones relevant to their preferences. Without them, your users may find themselves lost amidst your giant product catalog.
“84% of 50 major eCommerce sites had mediocre or poor filtering options.”~ Baymard.com
To say it another way, you simply cannot take product filtering options “for granted”. After all, they can elevate your store’s shopping experience. To help you further, here are the top 3 tips & best practices for creating advanced product filters that serve your customers exceptionally well:
Place the Important Filters at the Top
“84% of top 50 eCommerce sites don’t promote important filters at the top”
While adding product filters, it’s easy to get carried away by numbers. You may be overwhelmed by seeing the number of filters that your product page can have! But the key is to deliberately showcase only the ones which are really important. If you wish to display all the filters, you must ensure that the important ones are at the top of your list.
For instance, while buying a smartphone, users may first want to look through its specifications such as camera, RAM, internal memory, battery capacity or price range rather than color options available. Apart from this, you should also consider adding general filters such as product availability at the top of your list. You simply don’t want your customers to spend hours choosing a product only to discover that it is not available in their region.
Let Users Apply Multiple Filters Simultaneously
“32% of the top 50 eCommerce sites restrict users from applying multiple product filters on a single attribute.”
This may sound “pretty obvious”. But common sense is not “always common”! So many online stores restrict users from applying multiple filters for an individual attribute. God knows why? The purpose of product filters itself is to help users curate products based on their preferences! Thus, you must allow your users to apply multiple filters on a single attribute.
For instance, if we talk about a clothing store, a user may want to see shirts for men, which are of a certain size but in two colors: white and black! Here, if the store does not allow to select multiple color filters, the user will have to first select white – and scroll through products. When he has seen enough options, he will have to deselect white – and again select black! That’s a whole lot of work. Instead, he might switch to your competitor’s website with advanced layered navigation.
Show Active Filters at Multiple Locations
“42% of the top 50 eCommerce websites don’t display applied filters in both their original position & overview.”
You must ensure that the active product filters are easily accessible to your users. This is crucial if you want to prevent your users from misinterpreting your product catalog. You must keep all the filters right in front of them all the time.
For instance, a customer may be surfing your store with several filters turned on. Here, if he has narrowed down his preferences through various filters, he may see a very few products listed on the site. This is when he might want to broaden his search by turning off a few less significant filters. However, if your customer is unable to find the selected filters, they are very likely to shut your store and look somewhere else.
Final Words…
Above mentioned were just a few tips and best practices for enhancing your store’s product filtration options. One of the most preferable approach towards adding advanced product filters to your store is through a layered navigation Magento 2 extension. Such an extension will help you upscale your store’s navigational capabilities by adding advanced product filters to it. If you are ready to get started, grab a Magento 2 layered navigation extension today!
Recommended Read: How Advanced Magento 2 Layered Navigation can Improve Site Navigation?
