How to Set Featured Product Order in WooCommerce: A Beginner’s Guide
So, you’ve got a WooCommerce store bustling with amazing products. Fantastic! But now you want to showcase your best sellers, new arrivals, or seasonal items front and center, right? That’s where featured products come in, and even better, you can control *how* they’re displayed. This guide will walk you through setting the order of your featured products in WooCommerce, even if you’re just starting out.
Think of it like this: you’re curating the perfect window display for your online store. You want to grab visitors’ attention immediately. Featured products are your attention-grabbers! Instead of a random jumble, we’ll make sure your *best* grabbers are right where people will see them first.
What are Featured Products, Anyway?
Featured products are items you mark as “special” in WooCommerce. This lets you highlight them on your homepage, in sidebar widgets, or other areas of your store. Think of them as your “staff picks” or “top recommendations.”
Example:
Let’s say you own a clothing store. You might feature:
* Your brand new line of summer dresses.
* A popular pair of jeans that are consistently flying off the virtual shelves.
* A cozy sweater during the winter holiday season.
Why Control Featured Product Order?
Simply marking products as “featured” is a great start, but controlling their order adds another layer of strategy. Why?
* Direct Attention: You can ensure your most profitable or strategically important products are seen first.
* Highlight New Arrivals: Showcase the newest additions to your inventory.
* Promote Sales & Specials: Learn more about How To Change Product Image Sizes Woocommerce Emphasize discounted items or limited-time offers.
* Improve User Experience: A well-ordered display is more visually appealing and helps customers find what they’re looking for.
Imagine a bookstore. They don’t just pile up all the bestsellers in a heap. They arrange them attractively, with eye-catching covers facing forward, to entice customers. We’re doing the same thing here!
Methods for Ordering Featured Products
WooCommerce doesn’t have a built-in “drag and drop” feature for ordering featured products. But, fear not! We have a couple of easy methods to get the job done.
Method 1: Using Product Sorting and Featured Products Together
This is the easiest approach for many stores and involves using the default WooCommerce product sorting options.
Steps:
1. Mark Products as Featured: First, you need to designate products as “featured.”
* Go to Products > All Products in your WordPress admin.
* Hover over the product you want to feature and click the “Quick Edit” link.
* Check the “Featured” box.
* Click “Update.”
2. Set Default Product Sorting: Now, tell WooCommerce how to sort products in general. This affects how featured products *among themselves* are sorted.
* Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Display.
* Find the “Default Product Sorting” dropdown. Choose an option that makes sense for your featured products. Common choices include:
* “Popularity (sales)”: Orders products by the number of sales.
* “Average rating”: Orders products by their average customer rating.
* Explore this article on Woocommerce How To Add Custom Field “Newness”: Orders products by the date they were published (newest first).
* “Price (asc)”: Orders products from lowest price to highest.
* “Price (desc)”: Orders products from highest price to lowest.
* Save changes.
Example:
If you choose “Newness,” your *newest* featured product will appear first. If you choose “Popularity (sales)”, the *best-selling* featured product will appear first. Simple!
Limitation: This method orders *all* products using the same criteria. If you want a *completely* custom order just for featured products, you’ll need method 2.
Method 2: Using a Custom Code Snippet
This method provides the most control but requires a little bit of PHP code. Don’t worry; I’ll walk you through it! This involves a filter.
What’s a filter? Think of a filter as a hook in the WooCommerce system. We can “hook” into the process of querying products and modify the way they’re retrieved.
Steps:
1. Access Your Theme’s `functions.php` File:
* Go to Appearance > Theme Editor in your WordPress admin. (Warning: Be careful editing this file. A mistake can break your site. Back it up first!)
* Find the `functions.php` file. It’s usually in the right-hand sidebar.
Alternatively (and recommended for safety):
* Install and activate a plugin like “Code Snippets.” This allows you to add PHP code without directly modifying your theme files.
2. Add the Following Code Snippet:
add_filter( 'woocommerce_product_query_tax_query', 'custom_featured_product_order' );
function custom_featured_product_order( $tax_query ) {
if ( ! is_admin() && is_front_page() ) { // Apply this only on the homepage
$featured_product_ids = wc_get_featured_product_ids(); // Get an array of featured product IDs
if ( ! empty( $featured_product_ids ) ) {
$tax_query[‘orderby’] = ‘post__in’; // Order by IDs specified in the array
$tax_query[‘order’] = ‘ASC’; // Ascending order (first product in array will be first)
$tax_query[‘post__in’] = $featured_product_ids;
}
}
return $tax_query;
}
Explanation of the Code:
* `add_filter( ‘woocommerce_product_query_tax_query’, ‘custom_featured_product_order’ );`: This line tells WordPress to use our custom function (`custom_featured_product_order`) whenever WooCommerce is querying products, specifically in relation to taxonomies (categories, tags, etc.).
* `function custom_featured_product_order( $tax_query ) { … }`: This is our custom function that does the magic.
* `if ( ! is_admin() && is_front_page() ) { … }`: This makes sure the code only runs on the *front end* of your site (not in the admin area) and only on the *homepage* (you can adjust this condition as needed. For example, `is_shop()` for the shop page). This is crucial! You usually don’t want to alter *all* product queries.
* `$featured_product_ids = wc_get_featured_product_ids();`: This retrieves an array (a list) of the IDs of all your featured products.
* `if ( ! empty( $featured_product_ids ) ) { … }`: This checks if there are any featured products. If not, the code skips the sorting.
* `$tax_query[‘orderby’] = ‘post__in’;`: This tells WooCommerce to order the products based on the order they appear in the `$featured_product_ids` array.
* `$tax_query[‘order’] = ‘ASC’;`: This sets the order to Explore this article on How Do I Add Woocommerce To My WordPress Site *ascending*.
* `$tax_query[‘post__in’] = $featured_product_ids;`: This is the most important part. It tells WooCommerce *exactly* which posts (products) to include in the query and the *order* in which they should be displayed. The order of the product IDs in `$featured_product_ids` dictates the display order.
3. Manually Adjust the Order (The Crucial Step!)
Now, this is where the real control comes in. You need to manually re-order the `$featured_product_ids` array to reflect the desired display order.
To do this, we add a way to manually specify the product IDs in the order we want. Replace the code block in `functions.php` or Code Snippets with the following:
add_filter( 'woocommerce_product_query_tax_query', 'custom_featured_product_order' );
function custom_featured_product_order( $tax_query ) {
if ( ! is_admin() && is_front_page() ) { // Apply this only on the homepage
// *IMPORTANT: MANUALLY SPECIFY FEATURED PRODUCT IDs IN YOUR DESIRED ORDER*
$featured_product_ids = array(
123, // Replace 123 with the ID of your FIRST featured product
456, // Replace 456 with the ID of your SECOND featured product
789, // Replace 789 with the ID of your THIRD featured product
// Add more product IDs as needed, in the order you want them to appear
);
if ( ! empty( $featured_product_ids ) ) {
$tax_query[‘orderby’] = ‘post__in’; // Order by IDs specified in the array
$tax_query[‘order’] = ‘ASC’; // Ascending order (first product in array will be first)
$tax_query[‘post__in’] = $featured_product_ids;
}
}
return $tax_query;
}
Key points:
* Replace the placeholder IDs (123, 456, 789, etc.) with the actual IDs of your featured products.
* The order you list the IDs in the array is the order they will appear on your homepage.
* You can add or remove product IDs as needed.
* You can find the product ID on the All Products page by hovering over the product title. The ID will appear in the URL preview at the bottom of your browser window.
Example:
Let’s say you want to feature three products with IDs 25, 100, and 50 in that *specific* order. You’d modify the code like this:
// ***IMPORTANT: MANUALLY SPECIFY FEATURED PRODUCT IDs IN YOUR DESIRED ORDER*** $featured_product_ids = array( 25, // First product to show 100, // Second product to show 50 // Third product to show );
Important Considerations:
* Cache: If you’re using a caching plugin, clear your cache after making these changes to ensure the new order is displayed correctly.
* Theme Compatibility: In rare cases, your theme might override these settings. If you’re having trouble, consult your theme documentation or contact the theme developer.
* Widget Settings: If you’re displaying featured products in a widget, double-check the widget settings to ensure it’s set to display featured products correctly.
Which Method Should You Choose?
* Method 1 (Default Sorting): Ideal if you’re happy with a global sorting rule (e.g., newest first, best-selling first) applied to all your products. Simplest option.
* Method 2 (Custom Code Snippet): The *best* option when you need *absolute* control over the order of your featured products on a specific page (like your homepage). Requires a little more effort but offers the most flexibility.
By taking the time to arrange your featured products strategically, you can create a more engaging and profitable online shopping experience for your customers. Good luck!
