How to use Sort by options

Introduction

Sort by options is used by your customers to re-arrange the search results order or product list of a collection order to view them in their preferred order. There are 9 defaults sort by options settings including relevance, best-selling, manual, product title (A to Z), product title (Z to A), price (Low to high), price (High to low), created (Oldest to newest), created (Newest to oldest). 

This tool helps you create Custom sort by options and use one of the sort by options as the default sorting order of the collection pages and/or search result page.

Default Sorting options definitions

• Relevance: Products are sorted based on how closely they match the search query or specific criteria. Items most relevant to the search terms appear at the top.
• Best-selling: Products are arranged in descending order based on their sales popularity. Best-selling items are displayed first.
• Manual: This option allows you to manually arrange and prioritize products in the order you prefer. It's a customizable sorting method where you have full control.
• Product Title (A-Z): Products are sorted alphabetically by their titles in ascending order, from A to Z.
• Product Title (Z-A): Products are sorted alphabetically by their titles in descending order, from Z to A.
• Price (Low to High): Products are arranged from the lowest price to the highest price.
• Price (High to Low): Products are arranged from the highest price to the lowest price.
• Created (Oldest to Newest): Products are sorted based on their creation date, with the oldest products appearing first.
• Created (Newest to Oldest): Products are sorted based on their creation date, with the newest products appearing first.

Custom sort by option

If you need to create a new sort by options based on your product attributes such as: sorting by vendors, tags, product types, metafield values names alphabetically ascending/ descending, or sorting by reviews ratings, sorting by publishing dates, etc. You can edit their labels or add new sort by options in the feature Sort by options.

Review rating sort by option is based on the average ratings on products. Not the total ratings that were given to products.

How to add a new sort by option

1
Go to Menu Tool, select Sort by options. Select the +Add new sort by option



2
Select the + Add sort by button. Select the  sorting type, enter the  label for the sort by option, select  its order as and click  Save > Save settings.



When user select Sort by  Tag or Metafield, in the drop-down of  Sort value format, select:
+  Numeric value to arrange in numeric order.
+  Text value to arrange in alphabetical order.  

Products that are not included in the specified conditions of Tag or Metafield will be sorted at the bottom by ascending created date order.
Products that do not satisfy the specified conditions of Tag or Metafield will be sorted at the bottom by ascending created date
3
The new sort by option is now available on the frontend store. It might take a short while for the product to finish mapping before it gets the results in the correct order.





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How to rename (change the label of) a sort by option

1
Click the edit icon of the sort by option you would like to change the name.




2
Enter a new label for the selected option.




3
The label of the sort by option on your store frontend will be changed accordingly.

Before	After

For the 9 default options: relevance, best-selling, manual, title (A to Z, Z to A), price (Low to High, High to Low), created (Oldest to newest, newest to oldest), if you leave their labels blank, the frontend store will show whatever default labels set by your theme.

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How to remove a sort by option

1
Select the delete icon of the sort by options you'd like to delete.




2
Confirm your action by clicking Got it.


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How to re-arrange the position of display for a sort by option

To re-order the position of a sort by option, you can grab the sort by options by the dots and place it in your preferred order. Then click Save settings.





Default sorting options

This function allows you to use one of the sort by options order as the default sorting order of the collection pages and/or search result page.

How to set a default sorting option for the search result page/collection pages

1
Go to Menu Tool > select Sort by options. In the Default sorting options tab >  Enable default sorting options



2
Ticked the check box and choose a sorting option to apply for collection pages/ search result page

There is a list of sorting orders for Search result page (excluding the  Manual sorting option) & Collection pages. Tick the respective checkbox & choose an order to set a sorting order as a default option.



You can use both All Collections & Specific collections. When setting a default sorting option for All collection s, all collections in your store apart from those that have been chosen in the  Specific Collections setting will be applied with this sorting order. (In case this option is disabled/ deleted in the Sort by option tab, please refer to the Relationship between two tabs).





If you set a sorting option for Specific collections, all chosen collections will have this sorting option as default. In case the option is disabled/ deleted (in Sort by option tab), these collections will follow the default sorting option in the All collections setting.




3
Click Save settings button to save all changes.


Note: Relevance sorting in collection pages only works with the in-collection search. There are 2 scenarios:

1. When customers input a keyword in the in-collection search and the default sort is relevance, the results will return the products, which are the closest to the keyword.

2. When customers do not input any keywords in the in-collection search and the default sort is relevance, the products will display based on the second sort in our backend, which is created (Newest to oldest).

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How to edit a sorting option

1

Select the edit icon of the sorting option you would like to edit.



2

Change the sorting option, add new or remove collection pages to the setting & click Save settings button.



3
The default sorting option on your frontend store will be changed accordingly.

Before	After

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The relationship between Sort by options & Default sorting options settings

Because all of the Sort by options orders are the input data for Default sorting options settings, there is a strong relationship between them.

In case you delete/ disable a sort by option being used in  Default sorting options tab, there is a warning popup shown:





This is to notify you of the action in the case:

• Deleting/ disabling a sort by option order that is set to be default in the Search result page setting: the Relevance sorting order will be applied instead.
• Deleting/ disabling a sort by option order that is set to be default in the  All collections setting: the respective sorting order in Shopify collections will be applied instead. If the Shopify Collection sorting order is the same as the disabled/ deleted value, there will be no default sorting option on the respective frontend collection page.
• Deleting/ disabling a sort by option order that is set to be default in the Specific collections setting: the sorting option in All collections setting will be applied instead.

After confirming by clicking  Got it button, you also need to click Save settings to save all changes.

If you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to our dedicated support team via support@boostcommerce.net.