Ecommerce growth has been spectacular in recent years and continues to accelerate quickly. The competition is growing stiffer as more businesses go online, and eCommerce store owners strive to discover methods to improve the shopping experience. A study by SearchSpring found that eCommerce website filters can lead to a 76% increase in conversion rates. At the same time, according to Baymard Institute research, 35% of customers abandon a website owing to inadequate search and filter capabilities.
Contextual product filtering implies that the ideal filter set will rely on your product catalog, visitor preferences, and other elements. Your store’s particular set of filters will be used. For the majority of eCommerce sites, several typical product filters are acceptable. For most retailers, the optimal filters are the following:
- Brand;
- Price;
- User rating;
- Size;
- Color;
- Material;
- Theme;
- Popularity.
In this post, we’ll explore how to optimize eCommerce product filters to improve your consumers’ shopping experience and increase your sales.
If you have any problems with setting filtering, turn to professionals. Depending on the platform used, you may need development services, Magento or Shopify migration service, or even a maintenance team
Why Are Filters Vital for an Ecommerce Website?
Many troubles associated with online shopping are caused by the customer’s inability to locate what they seek quickly and easily. There might be various reasons for this, from a slow-loading site to poor design decisions, but in many situations, it can be boiled down to issues with the site search feature and, in particular, the absence of filters.Filters, however, provide multiple benefits to eCommerce websites.
1. Easier Navigation
You want all new and returning site visitors to be able to rapidly navigate your online store and discover the goods they’re searching for. With product filters, you may greatly simplify the overall navigation of your store. Customers only need to choose their requirements, and any goods that fit their choices will be sorted away. Customers will be able to make purchases more rapidly on your online store as a result.
2. Better Product Visibility
Indeed, product filters assist visitors in efficiently sorting through product assortment to find what they require. Consider filters to be highly specialized, extremely useful search engines that direct users deeper into your product inventory. However, filters are also an essential part of product discoverability, which is the ability of visitors to browse, investigate, and select items in a seamless, frictionless manner. As a result, they are essential to both marketing and sales. This is an excellent technique to increase the exposure of less popular goods. You may even add a “Featured” filter to promote them to more prospective buyers.
Recommended reading: eCommerce Website Development Cost: A Detailed Guide
3. Improved Shopping Experience
A good user experience is essential for every eCommerce site striving for success. Customers are more likely to leave your website if they can’t find what they need. But, by employing filters, you simplify the shopping process, and customers can discover the things they require with minimal effort. Thismay result in much better customer retention results. Apart from that, although consumers do everything themselves, correctly operating filters provide them with refined choices, as though a thoughtful shop assistant helped them.
4. Greater Speed of the Customer Journey
Each store should make an effort to limit the time visitors spend on the website. A quick and easy journey to the checkout guarantees increased conversions. If the filters are well-organized, the session won’t take long.
5. Structured Data
Customers may often filter goods by popularity or price. Websites can currently only show info that search filters have determined. Hence, it would be beneficial to include precise search criteria to present items in the way customers would find most convenient and desirable. You may make a filter for consumers who do particular types of product searches.
6. Improved PPC Marketing Results
The outcomes of business marketing may be enhanced by using filters on a website created by eCommerce website design services. Filters enable marketers to link advertising to extremely precise product groupings using PPC ads as opposed to larger categories with unrelated items that decrease user interest. Filters enhance ROI and encourage more effective use of ad budget.
Best Practices for Optimizing Product Filters
The key to a sound product filtering system is eliminating any difficulties customers may face either when looking for a particular item or discovering and comparing various products. Here are some of the best tactics you can use to ensure this.
1. Use Category-Specific Filters
In addition to site-wide filters like brand, price, size, ratings, etc., each category needs a unique set of filters based on the type of product it features. Product classification based on these category-specific criteria aids in the design and performance of the filtering system. Examine your product description to grab ideas for category-specific filtering. Make sure the parameter is significant enough to be included in the product description or title available as a filter.
Depending on the brand, category-specific filters can also address essential product qualities that are difficult to determine from a photo. For instance, on the Columbia Sportswear website, you can filter ski pants not only according to size and color but also according to the inseam type and the level of waterproofness.
Recommended reading: A Guide to Build the Right Product and Product Right
2. Include Thematic Filters
Virtually all companies and merchants sell things that have clear theme characteristics. At the same time, it’s clear that many customers do not begin their search with a specific product in mind but rather with a broad notion of what to buy, such as a “prom dress” or “home clothes.”
Look for higher-level groups of product tags or qualities when improving product filters to make it easier for customers to investigate related goods. When used correctly, thematic filters may also increase the value of a product.
3. Use the Language Clear to The Customers
Ecommerce product filters are intended to make your store’s assortment easier to explore and to assist consumers in finding what they are looking for. Examine your items and filtering system from your consumers’ perspective, and utilize the same terms your customers use to search and discuss things. Examine search queries to obtain a thorough understanding of how your customers communicate and to avoid industry jargon that they are unfamiliar with.
For instance, The Toy Store offers to choose from very clear general themes for toys, games, and other products, like monsters, space, trains, mermaids, etc.
4. Don’t Show Zero Results
The absence of search results has a detrimental influence on the user experience. Remove filters that provide no results. No consumer would be pleased to visit a website, browse a product, and use filters to narrow the results, only to receive nothing. Another alternative is establishing a separate landing page for those who get “no results found.” Based on their browsing activity, you can propose comparable products or relevant products here.
Ikea applies another strategy. It just won’t let you choose the filter if there are no relevant results.
5. Choose the Right Placement for the Filters
Most businesses believe that the left side of the page is preferable for eCommerce product filtering. Others perform better with the filtering menu on the right. One of the UX trends today is a horizontal toolbar.
Although the horizontal bar outperforms the typical sidebar in terms of use by combining filtering and sorting functions, its biggest constraint is space. Hence, for companies with a long list of filters, it’s wise to consider whether horizontal placement is a possibility at all. Nevertheless, unless you test placement on your own site, you won’t know for sure which option is the best.
6. Order Filters by Importance
Stores frequently order filters alphabetically. But, while configuring your filtering system, it’s ideal to show them based on specific criteria. See what shoppers are looking for in the search box, as well as the most often-used filters. This will assist online retailers in developing a more efficient filtering system for a smoother buying experience. Such configuration assists shoppers in narrowing down results before diving into the specifics, making the search faster and easier.
For example, the first filter shown on the Asus online store website is availability, and only then can you choose the filters for the category and series of the devices.
7. Make the Filter Change Easy
When researching products, shoppers frequently experiment with various filters. It could be aggravating if the eCommerce website makes deselecting filters difficult or tricky. Offer a ‘Clear All Filter’ option that allows customers to deselect all filters with a single click. You could also use a checkbox Interface to allow users to simply uncheck certain filters. A simple cross mark next to each applied filter can also assist in quickly removing filter choices.
8. Ensure Live Updates of the Products
The filter-based product selection may be updated either per batch or in real-time. When customers press the “apply” button after choosing each of the pertinent filters, a batch update takes place. A live update, or interactive filtering, on the other hand, provides customers with immediate visual confirmation each time they choose a product tag. This option is more smooth since it doesn’t require a page reload. The problem with live-updating products is that you need to ensure quick updates to guarantee a positive user experience.
9. Optimize Filters for Mobile
You could discover that you require separate filtering tactics for desktop and mobile. A one-size-fits-all strategy could seem like a good idea. However, with such a solution, the mobile app experience may turn out to be poor, and you’ll be losing out on money.
You may approach mobile filtering in two prominent ways: fullscreen and slide-over. As clear from the name, full-screen mobile filtering fills the whole screen. The major drawback is that it removes customers from the context of browsing. You can see how it looks on the example of Bodum.
Slide-over filters are often displayed from the side of the panel on the results screen. Consequently, it overlays the filters over the search results. This strategy is applied to Jacquemus online store, for example.
Final Word
Customers can rapidly discover what they are looking for by employing filters, which leads to higher customer satisfaction and repeat purchase. Good eCommerce filters should be simple to use, straightforward, and provide customers with a variety of alternatives to pick from. According to Statista, 85% of buyers feel having a range of filtering options is crucial when shopping online.
To enhance eCommerce product filters, companies should regularly study consumer behavior and preferences, test and constantly modify filter options, and ensure that filters are accessible and simple to use across all devices.
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