What is faceted search?
Faceted search narrows a long list of results by attributes called facets: size, color, price, brand, material. Each facet shows its options, often with counts ("Black (14)"), and shoppers stack them to cut hundreds of products down to a handful that fit. Filters are the controls; facets are the attributes behind them.
How does faceted search work?
A shopper searches "boots" on a store with 400 results. She checks size 8: 57 left. Taps the black swatch: 14. Drags the price slider under $150: 6 boots, every one her size, her color, her budget. Four taps, from a wall of products to a short list she can choose from. Without facets, she pages through 400 boots or gives up around number 40.
On Shopify stores
On Shopify, facets come from data already on your products: variant options like size, plus tags, vendor, price, and metafields for anything custom, like material or heel height. The catch is hygiene. A facet is only as good as its data, so "Blue", "blue", and "Navy-ish" across your products become three options instead of one. Keep the data consistent and the facets stay clean.
Related terms
Faceted search with Sledge
Sledge's filters build facets from size, price, tags, vendor, and metafields, with color and image swatches for the attributes a word can't carry. Filtered results carry offers too: bundles and upsells appear inside the narrowed grid, in front of a shopper who just told you exactly what she wants.
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