Do you display a lot of product categories on your WooCommerce store and are afraid that visitors will have difficulty finding the right products for them?
The ideal solution to facilitate visitors’ access to the products they are looking for is to create a product filter so that the visitor can filter all the products that appear inside the store so that only the products whose specifications he specified within the filter appear in front of him.
In this article, you will learn about the different ways to create a product filter for a WooCommerce store, whether by using the default settings provided by WooCommerce in WordPress or by using one of the plugins that creates a product filter and displays it to store visitors.
Why do you need to display a product filter within your store?
Imagine that you own an online store that specializes in grocery and household supplies. In this case, when you enter the (food) section, for example, you may find hundreds of products that appear in front of you. In this case, it will be difficult to browse all the products that appear in front of you!
But when the visitor is able to filter the (food) section so that only (baby food) products appear, the number of products that will appear in front of him will be less, and thus the chance of him staying inside the store will increase, as well as completing the purchase process easily.
The same idea applies to almost all types of electronic stores, even for example, if you have a clothing store, it is useful for the visitor to use a filter through which he can enter the colors, sizes, and materials he desires, and then only the products that suit his taste and need appear before him.
Therefore, the product filter in WordPress is considered one of the most important components that can be created within the online store to increase the ease of the customer’s browsing of the store, which reflects an increase in the number of sales transactions within it.
WordPress default settings for product filtering
By default, WordPress provides some settings for making customizations in dividing products from the menu control panel, but they do not perfectly meet the needs of your customers. This is done by going to: Appearance << Customize , to open before you the page for customizing the current template for your store, which you will find among the options in it. Option to control Woocommerce settings
As the picture shows you, you can control the way products are displayed inside the store, so you can choose to display products or classifications on the store page. Also, through the ( display category ) field, you can choose whether you want to display products or subcategories within the main classifications page in the store. .
Also among the default settings that can be used to create a simple filter for products is to create a list from within the WordPress control panel by going to: Appearance > Lists
You will find that using lists you can create a list that contains the main categories as well as subcategories within your store, which helps visitors easily browse the sections and classifications of the products they want more easily.
These simple default settings are from within the WordPress control panel without the need to install external plugins , but unfortunately they do not fully meet the requirements, as it is not possible to create a product filter, for example, that allows the visitor to choose the preferred colors of the clothes in the store or the sizes that he wants to buy.
Therefore, we will use one of the specialized add-ons that provides us with many advanced features to enable the filtering of products within the store in a way that allows visitors to easily access the products that are appropriate for them.
Create an advanced product filter using plugins
Let us show you some distinctive additions that help you create a filter for products with higher features:
1- Add Woof Filter
We will rely on the Woof filter add-on , through which you can create a product filter that facilitates the process of browsing products within the store and facilitates access to the product requested by the customer. You can use it to create a product filter within your store in easy steps.
You will first install and activate the add-on on your site , then you can go to the Woocommerce tab within the WordPress control panel, then go to the settings page, where you will notice that a new tab appears inside it entitled Product filter, and this tab will appear directly once the add-on is activated on the site:
When you enter the product filter tab, a page will open for you that contains some tools that help you choose the appropriate filter for your store and control it. You can choose the filter you want, whether it is a filter that displays products, classifications, or product tags:
Choose the appropriate filter for your store. For example, we chose the (product classifications) filter, which displays a filter that contains the main classifications as well as sub-classifications in the store, where the visitor can enter the main and sub-classifications.
Then, after choosing the filter type, save the changes on this page, and go to the ( Widgets ) tab within the control panel to choose the appropriate place to display the filter within your store.
As you noticed in the image, you can open the list of site widgets and search with the word “Woof” to display the widget for the addition. Drag it to the desired location.
Then the filter will appear like this inside the place you chose, such as the sidebar, the footer, or the top of the site, but we advise you to make the filter clear either in the sidebar or at the top of the store page to be easily accessible by visitors:
Now that the product filter appears within the store, the customer can navigate closely between the main sections, subsections, and different product classifications within the store.
You can change the format for displaying the filter from within the filter settings page, where you will find a multiple choice box that contains several methods for displaying the filter. For example, we will choose the DropDown view.
Now, after saving and heading to the store, you will notice that the filter appears in the form of a drop-down list of items:
As you have seen, with the add-on you can create a simple product filter for visitors to facilitate the process of browsing the store’s products and moving between the main and sub-store sections and categories easily. You can browse the add-on’s settings page where you will find more options for controlling the appearance and way the filter works.
2- Add WooBeWoo to create a multi-functional filter
The WooBeWoo add -on is considered one of the most popular WordPress add-ons that help you create a professional filter with higher features. After installing and activating the add-on , you will notice the appearance of a new tab for the add-on. When you enter it, the add-on settings page opens before you and the filters that you create in the future on this page.
Through the Add new filter button , you can create a new filter. You are first asked to write a title or identifying name for the filter you want to create, then write an appropriate title for the filter and press the Save button .
After that, the settings page opens in front of you, through which you can control the look, appearance, and method of the filter’s operation as desired. You are asked to choose the type of filter, whether it is the product ratings filter or the product ratings filter, or you can choose the filter for product prices:
As you noticed in the picture, we have chosen product categories , which is a special filter for product classifications. After choosing the appropriate filter, we click on the ADD button to appear, and the settings will appear to us as follows:
(1) In the Preview section, the appearance of the filter that will appear to visitors is displayed.
(2) In the Settings section, you can control the way the filter is displayed and its appearance within the site, and you can open the Settings tab by clicking on the indicated arrow.
After you configure the filter exactly as required using the options that appear in front of you on the settings page, you can click on the Save button from within the settings page to save the filter.
To display the filter within the site, you can go to the (Widgets) tab within the WordPress control panel and search for the word filter to display the add-on filter tool:
Drag the filter widget to the desired part of your site, let it be the sidebar of the site, then open the widget box and choose from it the title of the filter that you previously created from within the settings panel for the addition:
Now the filter appears in front of you as follows in the sidebar:
Now you can control the look and feel of the filter from within the settings page for the add-on, where you can add other elements inside the filter, such as the price of the product, so that the visitor can filter products based on their prices, by choosing the price filter.
After that, save and go to the store. You will notice that the price element appears inside the filter, where the visitor can choose a specific price range to search for products within it:
Thus, you can browse all the options within the add-on settings page to add many appearances and tools to the filter within your store with ease.
Conclusion
In the end, the product filter is one of the most important criteria that helps improve the user experience, as many visitors to large online stores that have several products of different types, types, and prices need a filter that helps them choose specific segments from the product search results to reach the products that suit their choice. .
Of course, you can use any other add-ons that serve the purpose, but we talked about easy add-ons that provide you with the basic features.
