Size Filters Should Populate Size Dropdowns

Major Shopping Sites Fail

[incrediBILL]

Many carts today allow customers to filter products by size, color and other criteria.

However, where the shopping carts fail is that when on one of the products is selected that matched the defined filter criteria that the product options don't default to that criteria.

For instance, if filtering polo shirts by XL size and BLACK color and then click on a shirt showing in the filtered results, the default size setting should be XL and the default color shown should be BLACK.

Making the customer redundantly click on the size and color yet again is annoying, time consuming and a relatively simple patch to make to any cart. Probably wouldn't take more than a couple of hours to fix in most online stores.

If you guys implement this in your carts your customers will love you because it's a pet peeve that drives me and many others wild.

Don't think it's just the small vendors because many big box store websites have this flaw.

[lorax]

I think you're spot on. Filters used in a product search should be used for the default settings in the options for the product selected in the search results.

I think the value of details like this are highly underrated. Most eComm store owners are likely more focused on the slipping economy and have no real way to measure the value of implementing this feature.

[piatkow]

and have no real way to measure the value of implementing this feature.

Features like this are probably like advertising. Half of all expenditure is wasted but you can't tell which half.

[rogerd]

Any time you can shorten the path to conversion, you'll sell more. Why take a customer to the page he requested and then force him to make one or more unnecessary choices?

One-click to buy is really what you want.

Of course, the dropdown is still there, so if the customer reads a review that says, "shirt runs small, order a size larger than usual" he can still change his choice.

[jwolthuis]

... the default size setting should be XL and the default color shown should be BLACK.

Respectfully disagree. It may make sense in your limited scenario. But there are lots of instances *not* involving shirts where this makes little sense.

If I add an "Oval Beige mixing bowl" to my shopping cart, then go shopping for dinner plates, "Beige" may be the wrong color for my dinner table, and "Oval" might be invalid. The customer would need to clear the "Beige" filter to see the correct results... an extra step.

Even in the clothing genre, if I buy "black" slacks for church, should my selection of summer shorts default to "black"?

Until the spontaneous telepathic interface is perfected, I feel that your suggestion of "sticky filters" can lead to unintended results in all but a few specific scenarios.