My cake preferences happen to be chocolate, vegan, gluten free, low carb and round. If you sell cakes, some of which meet all my preferences, your ecommerce store can provide such a high level of functionality to allow me to simultaneously filter through as many variables as I need (like flavour, shape, etc) to find the 5 out of your catalog's 1,000 that meet my preference precisely. You can achieve this with a sidebar (as shown below) from which your customers can filter with your backend 'group tags' in Shopify's cost-free 'Supply' theme. This is such a simple but powerful feature that can hasten the conversion of leads to paying customers in your sales funnel.
--
--
Before attempting to set this up in Shopify, spend some offline time listing your variables (flavour, dairy tolerance, etc) and their attributes / values, ie your customer's preferences (like chocolate, vegan, etc). These groups will be created by tagging each product accordingly. In the demo below, the variables were 'brand', 'capacity', 'model' and 'speed'. The groups are 'BRAND_Arbitron', 'BRAND_Golden Delicious', 'CAPACITY_1TB', etc. Ultimately, each variable value appears in indented lists that customers can tick and un-tick mutually exclusive options. As in the demo screen below, your customers can simultaneously choose to make preference selections from as few or as many variables as they like.
For our cake example, your list may look like this.
- FLAVOR
- _vanilla
- _chocolate
- _strawberry
- DAIRY TOLERANCE
- _regular creamy
- _vegetarian
- _vegan
- GLUTEN TOLERANCE
- _gluten free
- _gluten
- SWEETENER
- _low carb
- _sweet tooth
- SHAPE
- _round
- _square
- _custom
Another noteworthy benefit of this task is minimizing the potential for returns of products that do not meet your customer's requirements. Needless to say, accurate group tags are a must.
Install the 'Supply' theme.
The 'Supply' Shopify theme is most suitable for ecommerce stores with more than 50 products and 5 collections. If you have fewer products but like this theme's navigation, filtering and layout, consider alternate themes like 'Minimal', 'New Standard' or 'Classic.
- Log in to Shopify
- In the left column menu, click on 'Online Store' (shaped like the globe)
- Select 'Themes'
- Click the 'Visit Theme Store' button in the upper right of the screen. A new page with thumbnails of each theme will appear.
- Select the 'Supply' theme
- Select the 'Install theme' button
Set up a sidebar to filter by group
This multiple filter feature can be turned on and off. This step will allow you to turn it on.
This multiple filter feature can be turned on and off. This step will allow you to turn it on.
- Log in to Shopify
- In the left column menu, click on 'Online Store' (shaped like the globe)
- Select 'Themes'
- Click the 'Customize Theme' button in the upper right of the screen
- In the far right column, select 'collection page'
- In the section 'Sidebar Product Filters', select the radial button 'by group'
--
--
Create group tags
See above. The Digital Store example pictured above shows several filters like brand, capacity, model and speed from which customers can customize their search. You can create as many filters as you wish with the use of group tags in any 'Supply' Shopify theme. This involves applying group tags to each individual product item that identify that item's attributes / values. Here is how to install group tags in Shopify. Group tags must appear on each product that must be filtered.
1. Note the filtering criteria (brand, size, color and so on) that your customers will find most useful when searching for products. If necessary, consider looking at competing and supplier websites for ideas.
2. Prepare the group tags in a basic text edit computer program like Notepad for MS Windows and TextEdit for Apple Mac computers as follows. Beware, Shopify tags are case sensitive. In that case, type the classification names in uppercase (which is how Shopify will convert them even if you wrote them in lower case letters). Create codes for ALL of the possible attributes / values. Enter the values directly after an underscore (_) as shown below. Establish rules about how values should appear. For instance, I prefer to capitalize the first letter of every word in the value part of the code. Separate each code by a comma. Do not create spaces otherwise.
CLASSIFICATION NAME A_Value 1, CLASSIFICATION NAME A_Value 2, CLASSIFICATION NAME A_Value 3,
CLASSIFICATION NAME B_Value 1, CLASSIFICATION NAME B_Value 2, CLASSIFICATION NAME B_Value 3
1. Note the filtering criteria (brand, size, color and so on) that your customers will find most useful when searching for products. If necessary, consider looking at competing and supplier websites for ideas.
2. Prepare the group tags in a basic text edit computer program like Notepad for MS Windows and TextEdit for Apple Mac computers as follows. Beware, Shopify tags are case sensitive. In that case, type the classification names in uppercase (which is how Shopify will convert them even if you wrote them in lower case letters). Create codes for ALL of the possible attributes / values. Enter the values directly after an underscore (_) as shown below. Establish rules about how values should appear. For instance, I prefer to capitalize the first letter of every word in the value part of the code. Separate each code by a comma. Do not create spaces otherwise.
CLASSIFICATION NAME A_Value 1, CLASSIFICATION NAME A_Value 2, CLASSIFICATION NAME A_Value 3,
CLASSIFICATION NAME B_Value 1, CLASSIFICATION NAME B_Value 2, CLASSIFICATION NAME B_Value 3
3. In the left column, click on 'Products'. A menu will slide out in the direction of the arrow.
2. Select the link to the backend page of the specific product to which you will apply group tags
3. As shown immediately below, highlight ALL of tags you created.
4. Paste ALL of the tags into the 'tags' field within the product page. As shown below, Shopify detects that you are pasting multiple tags at one and gives you a prompt. Simply click 'enter' to confirm the mass entry of group tags.
5. Now that you have ALL attributes / values, delete individual group tags whose attributes do not apply to the specific product item on which you are currently working. Then save the changes.
3. As shown immediately below, highlight ALL of tags you created.
4. Paste ALL of the tags into the 'tags' field within the product page. As shown below, Shopify detects that you are pasting multiple tags at one and gives you a prompt. Simply click 'enter' to confirm the mass entry of group tags.
5. Now that you have ALL attributes / values, delete individual group tags whose attributes do not apply to the specific product item on which you are currently working. Then save the changes.
--
--
RELATED
This write up is very good. As a Shopify Experts i can say that it is well researched article.
ReplyDelete