Product filtering: what to get right first

We end up explaining this on discovery calls often enough that it deserved writing down. If you only fix one thing about product filtering this quarter, make it the first item below.

Small percentage changes matter here because they apply to every order, every month. Anything you cannot measure here, you are deciding by taste, which is fine as long as everyone knows it.

Start here

Filters should reflect how customers choose, not how you catalogue. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.

Then this

Show result counts so nobody hits a dead end. There is a version of this that is over-engineered, and it is worth avoiding. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

Eventually

Keep filter state in the URL so results can be shared. Small and consistent beats large and occasional here. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

What this looks like day to day

In e-commerce every friction point has a price attached, and the arithmetic is unusually easy to check. Three things worth confirming about product filtering before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Show result counts so nobody hits a dead end — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.