How to Reorder WooCommerce Products on Your Hestia Theme: A Beginner’s Guide
So, you’ve set up your online store using WordPress, WooCommerce, and the beautiful Hestia theme. Congratulations! You’re on your way to selling your amazing products. But now you’ve noticed something: your products are showing up on your shop page in a way that doesn’t make sense. Maybe your bestsellers are buried at the bottom, or your newest arrivals are hiding somewhere unexpected. Don’t worry! This guide will walk you through how to reorder WooCommerce products on your Hestia theme so you can put your best foot (or product) forward.
Think of your online store as a real-life shop. You wouldn’t just throw all your items on the shelves randomly, right? You’d strategically place your most appealing or profitable products at the front to grab customers’ attention. Reordering your WooCommerce products is the digital equivalent of that.
Why Reordering Matters: A Real-World Example
Imagine you’re selling handmade soaps. You have a new lavender soap that’s getting rave reviews, but it’s currently showing up on page 3 of your online store. Potential customers might never see it! By reordering, you can move that lavender soap to the top of the page, making it immediately visible and increasing your chances of a sale. This simple change can have a big impact on your revenue.
Default WooCommerce Sorting Options (and Why They Might Not Be Enough)
WooCommerce offers some built-in sorting options, such as:
- Default sorting (custom ordering + name): This is often what you’ll see initially, and it’s a combination of manual ordering (which we’ll discuss) and alphabetical order.
- Popularity (sales): Sorts products by the number of sales.
- Average rating: Sorts products by customer rating.
- Most recent: Sorts products by date published.
- Price: low to high and Price: high to low: These are self-explanatory.
- To make “Lavender Soap” appear first, give it a “Menu Order” of 1.
- To make “Rose Soap” appear second, give it a “Menu Order” of 2.
- And so on…
- If you’re having trouble: Deactivate any recently installed WooCommerce or shop-related plugins to see if they’re causing a conflict. Reactivate them one by one to identify the culprit.
- Clear your browser cache: Sometimes, your browser might be displaying an old version of the page. Clearing the cache can resolve this.
- Clear your WooCommerce product transients: WooCommerce uses transients to cache product data. Sometimes these transients can become outdated, causing issues. You can use a plugin like “WooCommerce Clear Cart and Transients” or manually clear them through your database (be careful with this!).
- Check your theme settings: Some themes have their own custom product sorting options. Make sure these aren’t overriding WooCommerce’s settings. While Hestia is generally straightforward, it’s always worth a quick look in the theme’s customizer settings.
- Plugin conflict: As mentioned earlier, plugin conflicts are a common cause of issues.
- Ensure your products are published: Only published products will appear on your shop page.
While these options are useful, they often don’t give you the complete control you need to highlight specific products or create a visually appealing layout. This is where manual reordering comes in.
Method 1: The Drag-and-Drop Method (The Easiest Approach)
This is the simplest and usually best method for reordering your WooCommerce products. It lets you visually rearrange them in the WordPress admin area.
1. Login to your WordPress dashboard. This is where all the magic happens!
2. Navigate to Products > All Products. You’ll see a list of all your products.
3. Look for the “Sorting” tab at the top of the product list. If you don’t see it, you may need to enable it in Screen Options (located at the top right of the screen). Click on “Screen Options” and check the “Sorting” box.
4. Click on the “Sorting” tab.
5. Drag and drop your products into the desired order. Simply click and hold the product, then drag it to its new position. Release the mouse button to place it. This is a visual process, so it’s very intuitive.
6. The changes are saved automatically! No need to click a “Save” button.
7. Visit your WooCommerce shop page to see the new order. Refresh the page to see your changes.
Example: You want your “Lavender Soap” to be the first product displayed. Simply find it in the product list, click and hold, and drag it to the top.
Method 2: Using the “Menu Order” Attribute (For More Precise Control)
This method gives you even finer control over product order by assigning a numerical value to each product. Products with lower numbers appear first.
1. Login to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Navigate to Products > All Products.
3. Quick Edit or Edit each product you want to reorder. You can either click the “Quick Edit” link below the product title for a faster method or click the product title to enter the full edit screen.
4. Find the “Menu Order” field. This field is located in the “Product data” meta box (often on the right side of the screen if you are in the edit screen, or directly when you used Quick Edit). If you don’t see the “Product data” meta box, make sure “Product” is selected as the post type.
5. Enter a number in the “Menu Order” field. Products with lower numbers appear first. For example:
6. Click “Update” (or “Update” from the Quick Edit).
7. Visit your WooCommerce shop page to see the new order. Refresh the page to see your changes.
Example: You want “Lavender Soap” to be first, “Rose Soap” second, and “Oatmeal Soap” third. Assign “Menu Order” values of 1, 2, and 3 respectively.
Important Note: If multiple products have the same “Menu Order” value, they will be sorted alphabetically within that group.
Hestia Theme Considerations
The Hestia theme generally plays nicely with WooCommerce’s default sorting and ordering functionalities. However, if you’ve installed custom plugins that affect the shop page layout, these might interfere with the reordering process.
Troubleshooting: What to Do If Reordering Isn’t Working
Advanced Options: Custom Coding (Use with Caution!)
For more advanced control, you can use custom code to alter the WooCommerce product query. However, this requires PHP knowledge and should only be attempted if you’re comfortable with code.
// Example: Custom sorting function (sort by price low to high) add_filter( 'woocommerce_get_catalog_ordering_args', 'my_custom_ordering_args' );
function my_custom_ordering_args( $args ) {
$args[‘orderby’] = ‘meta_value_num’;
$args[‘order’] = ‘ASC’; // Or ‘DESC’ for high to low
$args[‘meta_key’] = ‘_price’;
return $args;
}
Important: Add this code to your theme’s `functions.php` file (or better yet, a child theme’s `functions.php` file) or use a code snippets plugin. Back up your website before making any changes to your theme’s files.
Reasoning: This code snippet intercepts the WooCommerce query that retrieves products and modifies it to sort by the `_price` meta field (which stores the product price) in ascending order.
Conclusion
Reordering your WooCommerce products on your Hestia theme is a simple but powerful way to improve your online store’s user experience and boost sales. By strategically placing your products, you can highlight your bestsellers, promote new arrivals, and create a visually appealing layout that encourages customers to browse and buy. Start with the drag-and-drop method, and if you need more control, explore the “Menu Order” attribute. Happy selling!
