Retain Filter Selections on Find and Filter Results Pages
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Chris K
Currently, when a customer applies filters (e.g., size, colour) in the Find and Filter results pages and then clicks on a product to view its details, returning to the results page clears the selected filters. This forces customers to reselect the same filters, which can be frustrating and time-consuming.
Requested Change:
We would like the Find and Filter functionality to remember the active filters whenever a customer navigates back from a product page. For instance, if a customer selects a specific size or colour on the results page, views a product, and then goes back to the results page, the previously chosen filters should remain in place. This will enable customers to quickly continue browsing the filtered results without having to reset their preferences.
Why This Matters:
Improved User Experience: Retaining filter selections reduces friction, allowing customers to seamlessly continue their product search without reapplying the same filters.
Reduced Abandonment: When shoppers are forced to redo filters, they may lose patience and leave the site, especially if they’re browsing multiple items.
Consistency: Many modern eCommerce platforms preserve filter choices when users navigate back, which customers have come to expect as a standard feature.
Better Conversion Rate: Easier navigation and uninterrupted filtering can lead to more effective product discovery and potentially higher sales.
Conclusion:
Preserving filter selections between page visits is a relatively straightforward but impactful improvement. We believe this enhancement will greatly improve the browsing experience and encourage customers to continue exploring products without unnecessary repetition.
We appreciate your consideration and look forward to any questions or further discussions regarding this request.
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Steven Sproat
It's kind of worse than described - if you go to /bikes/mountain-bikes and then select a brand (say, Cannondale), the actual page URL changes to /bikes/mountain-bikes/cannondale
If you click into a product and then press back, you're taken to /bikes/mountain-bikes/cannondale
Because this page is now pre-filtered to the Cannondale brand, that's the only brand shown and all products are Cannondales so you can't select another brand that you were previously shown on the /bikes/mountain-bikes page
Pressing 'back' again takes you to /bikes/mountain-bikes, but the page URL changes without an actual page refresh (uses the window.history JS API) but the cannondale filter is still applied
This URL implies "show me all mountain bikes" but is pre-filtered to the previously selected brand, and then an actual page refresh is needed to now show all brands
This is confusing for users because, with the page updating dynamically, but having the page URL update & without a page refresh (e.g. following a 'standard' link)
I think a fix to this would require a re-work of this catalogue page - and that applying filters would trigger new page requests instead of dynamically filtering via Javascript.
This way, when clicking into a product and then pressing 'back', the previous URL would apply all previous filters because they are controlled from URL parameters
For example, selecting 2 colours as a multi-filter has a single colour in the URL so the system would need to support 2 colours in URLs.
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Steven Sproat
It's kinda hard to describe....but basically, when applying filters at a category level and pressing back, all the "root level" options available
without
the current filter applied need to be visibleEasy way to see this working correctly is with Tredz.
Go to https://www.tredz.co.uk/road-bikes
Apply a brand filters - URL updates to https://www.tredz.co.uk/road-bikes?brand=bianchi,cinelli
Click into a product, and press back
URL is still https://www.tredz.co.uk/road-bikes?brand=bianchi,cinelli but the filters shows these 2 brands as 'active' filters, while showing all the previous brands for /road-bikes
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Steven Sproat
and as a workaround to this issue, I just always open products into a new tab, which leaves the F&F page "untouched" so I can then re-filter as needed without having to lose all previously selected filters
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Kieran Thomas
Agreed. Also, if a filter was selected, when you go back, the filter section is collapsed. Therefore, if you retain the filter option, please also retain the expanded view of that particular filter option so that users can easily see what is already being applied without having to re-expand each filter group. Thx
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Richard Twinn
this affects our staff too, when showing customers items or searching for something in stock, going back forth, they have to reset the filters every time