Smart Product Sort changes the order of the products on your shop page and on your category and tag pages, so the products that earn you the most per day come first. It’s off until you switch it on, and a shopper who picks another order from the sort menu always gets that order instead.
You will learn #
- How to check what would change before you switch it on
- How to switch it on and keep some categories in your own order
- How Tendlio decides the order
- Why a product sits where it does
Before you begin #
- Run an analysis first. The order comes from your last analysis. Tendlio runs an analysis every week on its own, and you can start one with Re-scan store at the top of the Dashboard. If you switch the sort on before your first analysis, your listings show the newest products first, with sold-out products last, and the page says it’s waiting for scores.
- Give Tendlio your costs. The order is by profit, so Tendlio needs to know what each product costs you, from cost prices you’ve entered or from an average margin. If most of your costs come from your average margin, most products get the same margin, and the order comes out much the same as an order by revenue. The page tells you when that’s the case. Cost tracking and the average margin explains how to enter costs. In Settings, under Costs & profit, Set a different margin for some categories gives a category its own margin.
- Turn on Seasonal detection if you sell seasonal products (optional). A seasonal product moves up the list in its season and down outside it. Tendlio treats a product as seasonal when Seasonal detection flags it, or when you’ve set its season on the product itself.
Open Smart Product Sort #
- In your WordPress admin, open Tendlio → Storefront.
- Click the Smart Product Sort tab.
See what would change #
Before you switch it on, scroll down to What Smart Product Sort would change.
- Under Category:, pick a category. The list holds up to 50 of your categories, the ones with the most revenue first, and you can type a few letters to jump to one.
- Compare the two columns. WooCommerce popularity ranks the products by units sold, the way WooCommerce’s popularity sort does. The Smart Product Sort column lists the ones Tendlio would put first. Each row shows the product’s monthly sales in money.
- Read the line under the columns. It says how many of the top 10 moved and how many appear in only one of the two lists.
When the new order would earn more in that category, a green box above the columns compares what the top 10 of each order earn you in profit per month. The comparison covers products that have been in your store for more than a month and aren’t out of season. The figures come from each product’s past sales, so the box is an estimate, not a live test on your store.
Under New arrivals getting discovered, the page lists new products that already sell at least as fast as your typical product.
Switch it on #
- Next to Enable Smart Product Sort, turn on Sort your product listings by profit per day.
- If some categories should keep the order you’ve given them, tick them under Excluded categories (see below).
- Click Save Smart Product Sort settings.
The page then says “Smart Product Sort is on ✓”. Once an analysis has run, shoppers see the new order on the next page they open. If your site uses a page cache, they see it once the cache refreshes. To go back, turn the switch off, and your listings return to WooCommerce’s default sorting.
Keep some categories in your own order #
Tick a category under Excluded categories, and its own page keeps WooCommerce’s default sorting, including any order you’ve set by hand. This helps with categories you’ve arranged yourself, or an outlet category. Ticking a category includes everything under it. As long as everything under it stays ticked, subcategories you add later are covered too. Your shop page still uses the new order for every product, because it isn’t the page of any one category.
How Tendlio decides the order #
Once Smart Product Sort is on, each listing puts products in this order:
- Products in stock before sold-out ones. Tendlio reads each product’s stock as the page loads, so a product that sells out drops to the end right away, without waiting for an analysis.
- Products whose cost Tendlio knows before products without a cost. A product has a known cost when you’ve entered its cost price, or when your average margin gives it one. Tendlio can’t work out a profit without a cost, so it lists those products after the ones it compares by profit, ordered among themselves by how fast they sell.
- Profit per day. Tendlio multiplies how fast a product sells by the profit it makes on each sale: its price at your last analysis (a sale price counts) minus its cost. A product that sells slowly but earns a lot each time can come before a cheap fast seller.
Two things change a product’s place on top of that:
- New products. A new product doesn’t start at the bottom. From the first analysis that sees it, Tendlio gives it a head start, as if it already sold at part of your store’s usual pace. Over its first months, its own sales take over and move it up or down.
- Seasons. A seasonal product moves up the list while it’s in season and down outside it, so shoppers find it when they’re looking for it.
A product you’ve added since your last analysis gets its first place at the next one. Until then, Tendlio has no cost or sales figures for it, so it’s listed after all the products whose cost Tendlio knows. If you’ve set an average margin, those are almost all the products in your catalog.
Where the order applies #
- Your shop page, and your category and tag pages: the new order sets the whole list.
- Search results: the order stays WooCommerce’s, by how well each product matches the search, except that sold-out products go to the end. Tendlio also lets a search typed without the accents č, ć, š, ž or đ find the accented spelling, so “cokolada” finds “čokolada”.
- A sort the shopper picks: when a shopper chooses an order from the sort menu, they get that order, and Tendlio steps aside.
A product you boost moves up on your shop and category pages for two weeks, whether this order is on or off. On the page of a category you’ve excluded, boosts don’t move anything either: your own order stays. Boost and Hide explains boosting.
Fine-tune new products and seasons (Advanced mode) #
In Advanced mode, three more settings appear:
- New-product placement (1.3 to start with): the size of a new product’s head start. A higher number starts a new product higher.
- Trial length (30 days to start with): roughly how long a new product keeps its starting place before its own sales decide where it goes.
- Season boost: In-season × (1.3 to start with) and Off-season × (0.5 to start with) set how far a seasonal product moves up in its season and down outside it. At 1.0 there’s no change.
The order is worked out during each analysis, so after you change one of these, run an analysis to see the new order. The note after you save offers Re-scan now.
Why the order works this way #
Profit, not units #
WooCommerce’s own popularity sort counts units sold. A cheap product on sale can sell many units and sit above a product that earns you far more every day. Ordering by profit per day puts the products that make you the most money where shoppers look first.
New products get a head start #
If a new product started with no sales, it would sit at the bottom of the list and might never get the sales that would move it up. A head start gives it a fair chance.
A discount changes the order only after the next analysis #
Tendlio orders products by the prices and costs from your last analysis. A price you change today, a new discount included, changes the order after the next analysis, which Tendlio runs every week on its own.
Nothing about your products changes #
Smart Product Sort only changes the order of your listings. It doesn’t edit your products, their prices or your data, and turning it off gives you WooCommerce’s default sorting again.
See how it’s working #
On the Growth engine page, the Smart Product Sort card says how many products it’s ordering: every product that’s in stock and in a category.
Additional resources #
- How to give Tendlio your product costs: the costs the order is built on.
- How to set up seasonal detection: how Tendlio finds seasonal products.
- How to boost a product, or hide it from recommendations: move a product up for two weeks.
- How to switch between Simple and Advanced mode
Frequently asked questions #
Can shoppers still sort by price? #
Yes. When a shopper picks an order from the sort menu, they get that order.
Why is my new product near the end of the list? #
It gets its place at the next analysis after you add it. Until then, Tendlio has no figures for it and lists it after the products whose cost it knows.
Why is a best-seller lower than I expected? #
The order is by profit per day, not units sold. A product with a small margin can sell a lot and still earn you less than a slower product with a bigger one. A product with no cost price is also listed after the products that have one.
Does it change my products? #
No. It only changes the order of your listings.