16 Filtering UI/UX Changes That Can Drive Sales

Imagine a customer landing on your website and searching for, let’s say, a dress. After entering the search query or going to a collection page, they may end up with hundreds or even thousands of results. That is why filters are number one in search results best practices.

They help to quickly refine the search and display only products that meet customers’ specific criteria. The customer applies size, color, and style filters, and the overwhelming amount of product results narrows down to 10 medium black cocktail dresses. And a few minutes after landing on your website, the customer proceeds to the checkout with the desired product.

Even though product filters primarily affect user experience and conversion rate, many e-store owners overlook the significance of filters. According to a study by the Baymard Institute, a considerable number of ecommerce websites offer poor filter UI and UX. This means that customers may struggle to find what they are looking for, leading to a frustrating shopping experience and a lower likelihood of making a purchase.

Investing time and effort into fine-tuning filters on an online store could significantly improve the overall user experience and boost the conversion rate, ultimately providing a competitive advantage for your e-store.

Now let’s explore 16 helpful tips to improve the filtering UX on your website. Our expertise in delivering advanced search and filter UX and UI has been gained over 10 years of experience. Additionally, we will provide practical tips on how to set up the features we mention using the Smart Search Bar & Filters by Searchanise, a powerful search app designed to improve the search and filter functionality of ecommerce stores.

The app enhances the user experience by providing fast and accurate search results, making it easier for customers to find what they are looking for. Whether customers are searching for products by keywords or product attributes, Searchanise makes the process seamless and hassle-free!

With Searchanise, customers can easily sort search results by category, price range, brand, color, and more. Additionally, the app offers advanced analytics tools that allow merchants to track search queries and monitor user behavior to build even more advanced search and filter UX.

Interactive filters are the ones that update in real-time as customers make selections, providing them instant feedback on the impact of their selections on the search results.

With the Smart Search Bar & Filters app, you don’t have to set up anything extra to make filters interactive, as they are so by default. On gifs and screenshots below you can see filter UI design examples powered by our app.

Hack value: If a customer picks a specific filter, the search results update instantly to show only the products corresponding to it.

With multi-select filters, customers can select multiple values simultaneously, such as color, size, brand, price range, and many more.

Filters powered by the Smart Search Bar & Filters app are multi-select by default. Check out the gif below.

Hack value: Allowing customers to apply multiple filters is essential for providing a seamless user experience, as it is hardly possible to find the right product with only one refinement.

Different products have different attributes and, therefore, require different filters. For example, a cosmetics store may have filters with skin type, age, and product benefits for facial creams and a completely different set of filters for lipsticks, like color, item form, and finish type.

Therefore, when setting up filters, think about what specific ones your products require. If you are unsure what types to add, refer to the product description and create filters based on product attributes. Alternatively, you can seek inspiration from larger ecommerce websites like Amazon or eBay.

Hack value: Product-specific filters help customers to narrow their search according to the criteria that matter in this particular case.

Improve your store’s usability by adding filters tailored to individual product collections. By presenting only the most relevant options, you streamline the shopping experience and guide customers to their desired products with precision.

Hack value: A seamless journey for customers, translating to improved satisfaction and higher conversion rates.

Pro tip: Use Searchanise’s filtering tools to match attributes to specific collections. For example, display filters like size and material for clothing collections or scent and ingredient filters for cosmetics.

When it comes to filters, less is more. Providing too many filter values can overwhelm customers and discourage them from using filters altogether. Therefore, it's important to keep the filter values list short and relevant to the products you sell. Ideally, you should have at most 5-7 values.

Hack value: A shorter list allows customers to faster pick the filters they need and creates a cleaner filtering UI.

You can hide certain filters using Searchanise, just go to the app control panel, tab Filters, select the ones you want to hide, and change their status from active to hidden.

When setting up filters, think about what logic will fit your store better. There are two options: "OR" and "AND" logic. "OR" logic retrieves results that meet at least one of the specified criteria, while "AND" logic only returns results that meet all specified criteria.

Choosing which logic to use largely depends on the nature of the e-commerce store and the preferences of its customers. For example, a clothing store may choose "OR" logic for its color filter, allowing customers to select multiple colors to see all available items in those colors. On the other hand, a furniture store may use "AND" logic for its material filter, allowing customers to select both "wood" and "metal" to see only furniture items made from wood and metal materials. To determine which filter logic best suits customers’ needs, consider your product offerings and the search behavior of your customers.

Hack value: Setting up suitable logic makes the filtering process more intuitive, as customers get what they expect.

By default, filters in the Searchanise app work by the “OR” logic. But you can turn on “AND” logic by following these steps.

Having over ten filtering options can be overwhelming for users, potentially causing them to overlook other available filters to avoid it, consider using collapsing ones. Check out the gif below for collapsible filters UX created by Searchanise.

Hack value: Collapsible filters help to keep the website design cleaner and save space on the search results page.

To show filters as closed, go to the Smart Search Bar & Filters control panel, tab Filters, and set the Closed value in the Default desktop view setting.

Another way to handle a long list of filter values is to set up the number of visible values. If the actual number of these values exceeds the number you set up, the Show more button will be displayed. Use these instructions to do it.

The arrangement is also important. Filters should be arranged in order of importance or popularity. As we all know, the most crucial decision-making factor for most customers is the price of the products, that’s why the price filter should always be higher at the top. Consider what other product parameters matter to your customers. For instance, for clothing stores size and color could be more important than material and care instructions. If you're uncertain about how to position other filters, try referring to the ecommerce giants such as Amazon for inspiration.

Hack value: When more important filters are higher, customers can find them easier and faster, resulting in smoother filtering UX.

To change the order, go to the app control panel, tab Filters, click the Edit filters button in the top-right corner, and set the order in the Pos. column.

Consider setting up a slider with numeric values such as price.

Hack value: The slider filter provides a great visual representation of the available range and allows customers to set a minimum and maximum value faster.

In our app, a slider filter for the price is created by default. If you want to use a slider for other numeric filters, for instance, length, use these setup steps.

According to a survey by PowerReviews, 95% of consumers consult ratings and reviews while making a purchase, and 86% say reviews are essential when making a buying decision. Given these figures, it's crucial for online stores selling products that require a high level of trust, such as electronics or skincare products, to provide filtering by rating and prominently display customer reviews.

Hack value: Filtering by rating helps customers to choose high-rated products and make a buying decision faster.

To enable the option, turn on integration with the reviews app of your choice (Yopto, Product Reviews, Growave, Judge.me, Loox, Stamped.io and more) in the Searchanise control panel.

Option swatches are a feature that allows customers to filter down products by clicking on the swatch with desired color or size.

Hack value: Option swatches offer a great way of visually displaying filter values. Instead of reading through the list of colors or sizes, customers instantly gasp available options and pick the one they need.

To set up option swatches, follow the instructions on our help portal.

Consider displaying numbers opposite to filter values to show the amount of products that match certain values. Take a look at the screenshot below to see the filter UX design with the number of search results.

Hack value: Showing the number of results helps customers better understand each filter value's impact on the search results. For example, if a customer selects a discount filter, they can see how many products will be left after applying the filter.

It is also vital to eliminate no results on filters, as it is frustrating for customers. So, if there are no products in a particular value, consider removing it from the list. In our app, the zero results filters are hidden by default, and the number of results is also displayed.

Make sure to add a visual confirmation of applied filters. The visual confirmation can be a colored badge, a checkmark, or a different color on the selected option.

Hack value: This helps customers to understand which filters are currently applied and makes it easier for them to adjust their selections.

The Smart Search Bar & Filters app provides visual confirmation of applied filters by default.

Customers should be able to remove selected options with a single click, and the product list should update instantly to show the new results.

Hack value: The feature helps customers quickly refine their search.

With our app, your customers can instantly remove selected options.

Customers should be able to pick the sorting option of their choice after applying filters. In fact, some users prefer sorting over filtering, as sorting provides soft boundaries. For instance, sorting by price from lowest to highest does not leave out items that are slightly more expensive than the desired price. On the contrary, filters provide hard boundaries excluding products if they don't strictly meet selected criteria. That is why both of these options should be available to customers at the same time.

Hack value: Empower customers with both filtering and sorting options, to allow them to choose the one they prefer more.

With our app, you don’t have to worry about that, as it allows both filtering and sorting at the same time.

Optimizing filters for mobile is absolutely crucial, as at least half of all ecommerce traffic comes from mobile devices. Make sure that your filters are mobile-friendly by ensuring that their size and spacing are large enough to make it easy to select the right option. Filters should also be optimized for different screen sizes and orientations.

Hack value: Smooth experience for customers using mobile devices.

The Smart Search Bar & Filters is designed with the needs of mobile users in mind, so you don’t have to worry about improving mobile filter UI and UX. We already took care of it.

Filters are an essential feature for online stores as they massively affect many ecommerce metrics:

✔️ Improved User Experience. They allow customers to quickly narrow down their search to find the exact product they want.
✔️ More Conversions. When customers can easily find the products they are looking for, they are more likely to make a purchase.
✔️ Increased Customer Satisfaction. The more streamlined shopping experience the website provides, the higher customer satisfaction.
✔️ Higher Customer Loyalty. When customers have a positive shopping experience, they are more likely to return to the same e-commerce store in the future, leading to increased customer loyalty.

With the Smart Search Bar & Filters app, you can effortlessly incorporate all the hacks mentioned in the article and create better ecommerce filters UX and UI for your online store.

You don’t need to follow complex tutorial on filter design to achieve the best results, as many of the hacks are already implemented by default:

• Our app is mobile-optimized.
• It provides interactive and multi-select filters.
• It allows filtering and sorting simultaneously.
• Searchanise has a confirmation of applied options.
• The app shows the number of results.
• And it hides filters with zero results.

Install the Smart Search Bar & Filters app for free now and take the user experience in your store to the next level!