How to get product filtering right
The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. The short answer to product filtering is that it is mostly a sequence of small decisions, not one big one.
Trust does most of the selling online, and trust is built from unglamorous details. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.
What it costs to ignore
Filters should reflect how customers choose, not how you catalogue. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.
The steps
- Establish what you have today before changing anything
- Show result counts so nobody hits a dead end
- Keep filter state in the URL so results can be shared
- Write down the decision so the next person does not re-litigate it
Keep filter state in the URL so results can be shared. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. Most teams find the first pass takes an afternoon and the maintenance takes minutes a month.
Turning this into a decision
How to tell if yours is fine
Small percentage changes matter here because they apply to every order, every month. Three things worth confirming about product filtering before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- Filters should reflect how customers choose, not how you catalogue — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
Most of the value here comes from doing the first two things, not all of them.