Sorting Strategies

Every collection in your store tells a story. The order your products appear in shapes what customers see first, what they click on, and ultimately what they buy. SortLab gives you seven purpose-built sorting strategies that use your store's real data to find the optimal product order.

How Sorting Works

When you apply a strategy to a collection, SortLab analyzes your store's sales, traffic, inventory, and product data to score each product. Products are then reordered from highest to lowest score based on the strategy's criteria.

The data SortLab uses comes directly from your Shopify store:

• Sales data — order history, revenue per product, units sold
• Traffic data — product page views, click-through rates
• Inventory levels — current stock quantities, sell-through rates
• Product metadata — creation dates, ratings, review counts, tags, images
• Margin data — product cost vs. price (when available)

Each strategy weighs these signals differently to optimize for a specific goal.

The 7 Strategies

Revenue Maximizer

Prioritize best-selling products with high margins.

Revenue Maximizer puts your highest-earning products front and center. It combines sales volume with profit margin data so that you are not just promoting popular items, but the ones that contribute most to your bottom line.

Best for:

• General-purpose collections (e.g., "All Products", "Shop All")
• Collections where you want to maximize revenue per visitor
• Stores with clear margin data in their product costs

How it works: Products are scored based on total revenue generated and profit margin percentage. A product that sells often at high margin outranks a product that sells more units but at a slim margin.

---

New Arrivals Boost

Push new products up while keeping bestsellers visible.

New Arrivals Boost gives recently added products a temporary ranking boost so they get early visibility. At the same time, it keeps your proven bestsellers in the mix so you do not sacrifice sales while testing new inventory.

Best for:

• Fashion, apparel, and seasonal stores with frequent product drops
• Collections like "New In" or "Just Arrived"
• Stores that need to test new products quickly

How it works: Products created within your configured new product window receive a score boost. As they age past the window, they settle into their natural performance-based position.

---

Inventory Clearance

Move slow inventory and reduce carrying costs.

Inventory Clearance surfaces products with high stock levels that are selling slowly. This is especially useful for seasonal transitions, warehouse clearouts, or anytime you need to reduce carrying costs.

Best for:

• End-of-season sale collections
• Overstock or clearance sections
• Stores managing warehouse space constraints

How it works: Products are scored based on how much inventory they have relative to their sell-through rate. Items with high stock and low recent sales appear first, giving them more visibility to help move the inventory.

---

Balanced Smart Sort

Equal weight on sales, views, profit, and freshness.

Balanced Smart Sort takes a holistic approach. Instead of optimizing for a single metric, it weighs sales, page views, profit margin, and product freshness equally. This gives you a well-rounded product order that does not over-index on any one factor.

Best for:

• Stores that are just getting started and are unsure which metric to optimize
• Mixed-purpose collections with diverse products
• A solid default strategy before you run A/B tests

How it works: Each product is scored across four dimensions (sales performance, traffic, profitability, and recency) with equal weighting. The result is a balanced ranking that surfaces healthy, well-performing products.

---

Trending Now

Surface products with recent momentum.

Trending Now identifies products that are gaining traction right now. Rather than looking at all-time performance, it focuses on recent velocity, making it perfect for catching rising stars before they peak.

Best for:

• "Trending" or "Popular Right Now" collections
• Stores in fast-moving categories (electronics, beauty, pop culture)
• Capitalizing on social media buzz or press mentions

How it works: SortLab compares each product's recent performance (within your lookback window) against its historical baseline. Products showing upward momentum in sales or views get a higher score.

---

Customer Favorites

Sort by ratings and review count.

Customer Favorites uses social proof to determine product order. Products with high ratings and many reviews rise to the top, helping new visitors trust what they see first.

Best for:

• "Top Rated" or "Customer Picks" collections
• Stores where reviews are a major conversion driver
• Gifting collections where shoppers rely on others' opinions

How it works: Products are scored based on their average rating and total review count. A product with a 4.8 rating and 200 reviews will outrank one with a 5.0 rating and only 2 reviews, because review volume adds confidence.

---

Best Sellers

Rank by total sales volume and order frequency.

Best Sellers is the straightforward choice when you simply want to show what sells most. It ranks products by total units sold and order frequency, putting your proven performers at the top.

Best for:

• "Best Sellers" or "Most Popular" collections
• High-traffic collections where you want to maximize conversions
• Stores with a clear set of hero products

How it works: Products are ranked by total units sold and how frequently they appear in orders. Products that sell consistently over time outrank products with occasional spikes.

---

Choosing the Right Strategy

Not sure which strategy to pick? Here is a quick guide based on common collection types:

Strategies and Your Data

All strategies rely on your Shopify store data. The more sales history, traffic, and product data SortLab has to work with, the better the sorting results. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• New stores — If your store is brand new with very few orders, strategies like Best Sellers or Revenue Maximizer may not have enough data to produce meaningful rankings. Start with Balanced Smart Sort or New Arrivals Boost and switch as you accumulate more sales history.
• Seasonal patterns — Use the lookback window setting to control how far back SortLab looks at your data. A shorter window (7 days) reacts faster to trends, while a longer window (90 days) provides more stable rankings.
• Product costs — Revenue Maximizer works best when your products have cost data set in Shopify, so it can factor in profit margins. Without cost data, it falls back to revenue only.

What's Next?

• Simple Mode — Apply a strategy to your collection in one click
• Advanced Mode — Build a custom sorting strategy with weighted parameters
• A/B Testing — Test strategies against each other to find the winner