Woocommerce How To Sort By Product Category

WooCommerce: How to Sort Products by Category Like a Pro (Even if You’re a Newbie)

So, you’ve got a WooCommerce store humming along, filled with amazing products. But your customers are getting lost trying to find what they need? One Check out this post: How To Create A Variable Product In Woocommerce of the easiest ways to improve their shopping experience is to make it dead simple to browse by product category. This guide will show you exactly how to sort your WooCommerce products by category, making your store more user-friendly and boosting those sales!

Why is this important? Imagine walking into a physical store where everything is just jumbled together. Frustrating, right? It’s the same online. Good categorization and sorting equals happy customers, and happy customers buy more! Think of a clothing store: you expect to find shirts, pants, and accessories in their respective sections, not randomly mixed together. This is what sorting by category achieves in your online store.

Understanding Product Categories in WooCommerce

Before diving into the how-to, let’s make sure we’re on the same page. In WooCommerce, product categories are a way to group similar items together. Think of them as digital shelves in your store. Examples include:

Clothing: Shirts, Pants, Dresses
Electronics: Laptops, Smartphones, Headphones
Books: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Cookbooks
Home Decor: Furniture, Lighting, Wall Art

Having clear and well-defined categories is the foundation for effective product sorting.

Method 1: Using WooCommerce’s Built-in Sorting Options (Simple but Limited)

WooCommerce already offers some basic sorting options right out of the box. These appear as a dropdown menu on your shop page and category archive pages. While not *directly* “sorting by category”, you can leverage the “Default sorting” option to influence the order.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Display.

2. Find the “Default product sorting” option.

This dropdown lets you choose how WooCommerce will *initially* sort your products on category pages. You have several options:

Default sorting (custom ordering + name): This is the most common. It uses the “Menu Order” you can set on individual products (more on that later) as the primary sorting method, and product name alphabetically as a secondary tie-breaker.
Popularity (sales): Sorts products based Check out this post: How To Add A Product Category In Woocommerce on the number of sales.
Average rating: Sorts products based on customer ratings.
Most recent: Sorts products based on the date they were published.
Price (low to high): Sorts products by price, ascending.
Price (high to low): Sorts products by price, descending.

Reasoning: This method is easy to implement, but it’s *not* a true “sort by category”. Instead, you’re sorting the products *within* each category. It’s a good starting point, but for more control, keep reading.

Method 2: Custom Menu Order (Best for Specific Category Arrangement)

If you want very precise control over how products appear within a *specific* category, the “Menu Order” field is your friend.

1. Go to Products > All Products.

2. Edit the product you want to re-order.

3. Look for the “Product data” metabox. If it’s not visible, make sure it’s enabled in “Screen Options” at the top right of the page.

4. Click on the “Advanced” tab.

5. Find the “Menu order” field. This is a number. The lower the number, the higher up the product will appear in the category listing.

6. Enter a number (e.g., 0, 1, 2, 3…). Use smaller numbers for products you want to appear at the top. You can use negative numbers as well.

7. Update the product.

Important: You need to set “Default product sorting” to “Default sorting (custom ordering + name)” (as described above) for this to work.

Example: Let’s say you sell t-shirts in a “Shirts” category. You have three t-shirts: “Red T-Shirt”, “Blue T-Shirt”, and “Green T-Shirt”. You want the “Red T-Shirt” to appear first.

1. Edit “Red T-Shirt” and set the “Menu Order” to `0`.

2. Edit “Blue T-Shirt” and set the “Menu Order” to `1`.

3. Edit “Green T-Shirt” and set the “Menu Order” to `2`.

Now, when someone visits the “Shirts” category, the “Red T-Shirt” will be at the top, followed by the “Blue T-Shirt”, and then the “Green T-Shirt”.

Reasoning: This is great for featuring specific products at the top of a category. Explore this article on How To Calc Shipping Cost In Woocommerce It’s ideal when you have a small number of products per category and need fine-grained control. However, it can be tedious for larger inventories.

Method 3: Custom Code Snippets (For Advanced Users – Use with Caution!)

If you’re comfortable with a little bit of PHP code (or have a developer on hand), you can completely customize the product sorting order based on category. This method offers the most flexibility but also requires technical knowledge.

Disclaimer: Incorrectly implemented code can break your website. Always back up your website before making any code changes! Use a child theme to avoid losing changes during theme updates.

Here’s an example of how to modify the WooCommerce query to sort products by category *name* (alphabetically) on archive pages:

 add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'custom_pre_get_posts_query' );

function custom_pre_get_posts_query( $query ) {

if ( ! is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() && is_archive() ) {

$query->set( ‘orderby’, ‘title’ ); // Order by product title (name)

$query->set( ‘order’, ‘ASC’ ); // Ascending order (A to Z)

}

Explanation:

`add_action( ‘pre_get_posts’, ‘custom_pre_get_posts_query’ );`: This line tells WordPress to run our `custom_pre_get_posts_query` function before it retrieves posts (in this case, products).
`if ( ! is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() && is_archive() )`: This conditional statement checks if we’re:
Not in the WordPress admin area.
The main query (the primary query for the page).
On an archive page (like a category page). This ensures the code only runs on the front-end product archive pages.
`$query->set( ‘orderby’, ‘title’ );`: This sets the “orderby” parameter to ‘title’, which means sort by the product’s title (its name).
`$query->set( ‘order’, ‘ASC’ );`: This sets the “order” parameter to ‘ASC’, which means ascending order (A to Z). You can change this to ‘DESC’ for descending order (Z to A).

How to use this code:

1. Create a child theme: This is essential to avoid losing your changes when your main theme updates.

2. Open your child theme’s `functions.php` file.

3. Paste the code snippet into the `functions.php` file.

4. Save the file.

Important Notes about Custom Code:

Modify `orderby` and `order`: You can change the `’orderby’` parameter to different values. Common options include:
`’date’`: Sort by date (newest first)
`’ID’`: Sort by product ID
`’menu_order’`: Sort by the “Menu order” (as discussed in Method 2)
`’rand’`: Sort randomly
Specificity: This code sorts *all* archive pages (including category pages) by title. To target specific categories, you’d need to add more complex logic within the `if` statement to check the current category being displayed using functions like `is_product_category( ‘category-slug’ )`. Replace `’category-slug’` with the actual slug of your category.
Testing: Always thoroughly test your code changes in a staging environment before applying them to your live site.

Reasoning: Custom code provides ultimate control. It allows you to create highly specific sorting rules based on various criteria, including category, custom fields, product attributes, and more. However, it requires coding skills and should be approached with caution.

Conclusion: Choosing the Right Method

Which method is right for you?

Built-in Sorting: Best for basic sorting options, like price, popularity, or date. Easy to implement but limited.
Menu Order: Best for manually arranging products within a specific category, useful for highlighting key items. Good for smaller product sets.
Custom Code: Best for advanced users who need highly customized sorting rules based on various criteria. Requires coding knowledge.

By implementing these strategies, you can make your WooCommerce store easier to navigate and improve your customers’ shopping experience. Happy selling!