The “Default sorting” dropdown sorts products by menu_order and then title on the WooCommerce Shop, Category and Tag pages.
But what if you want to place the featured products first in the list (I mean, why would anyone set products as featured if you can’t really “promote” them on the Shop page)?
In today’s case study, we will replace the “Default sorting” option with a workaround, create a new one with the same label (so that customers won’t notice it), set it as the default sorting option, and make sure it sorts by featured products first, and then by menu_order and title. Enjoy!
PHP Snippet: Featured Products First on the WooCommerce Shop / Cat / Tag Pages
/**
* @snippet Move Featured Products To Top @ Woo Shop Page
* @how-to Get CustomizeWoo.com FREE
* @author Rodolfo Melogli
* @compatible WooCommerce 8
* @donate $9 https://businessbloomer.com/bloomer-armada/
*/
// Replace "default sorting" option with a custom one
add_filter( 'woocommerce_catalog_orderby', 'bbloomer_woocommerce_catalog_orderby_custom' );
function bbloomer_woocommerce_catalog_orderby_custom( $sortby ) {
$sortby['featured'] = __( 'Default sorting', 'woocommerce' );
unset( $sortby['menu_order'] );
return $sortby;
}
// Make the custom one the default one
add_filter( 'woocommerce_default_catalog_orderby', 'bbloomer_woocommerce_catalog_orderby_custom_default' );
function bbloomer_woocommerce_catalog_orderby_custom_default() {
return 'featured';
}
// Set sorting for new option
add_filter( 'woocommerce_get_catalog_ordering_args', 'bbloomer_woocommerce_catalog_orderby_custom_args' );
function bbloomer_woocommerce_catalog_orderby_custom_args( $args ) {
$orderby_value = isset( $_GET['orderby'] ) ? wc_clean( $_GET['orderby'] ) : apply_filters( 'woocommerce_default_catalog_orderby', get_option( 'woocommerce_default_catalog_orderby' ) );
if ( 'featured' == $orderby_value ) {
$args['orderby'] = 'menu_order title';
$args['order'] = '';
$args['meta_key'] = '';
}
return $args;
}
// Adjust order to allow for featured posts
add_filter( 'posts_orderby', 'bbloomer_woocommerce_catalog_orderby_custom_featured_first', 10, 2 );
function bbloomer_woocommerce_catalog_orderby_custom_featured_first( $order_by, $query ) {
global $wpdb;
if ( ! is_admin() ) {
$orderby_value = ( isset( $_GET['orderby'] ) ? wc_clean( (string) $_GET['orderby'] ) : apply_filters( 'woocommerce_default_catalog_orderby', get_option( 'woocommerce_default_catalog_orderby' ) ) );
$orderby_value_array = explode( '-', $orderby_value );
$orderby = esc_attr( $orderby_value_array[0] );
$order = ( ! empty( $orderby_value_array[1] ) ? $orderby_value_array[1] : 'ASC' );
$featured_product_ids = wc_get_featured_product_ids();
if ( $orderby == "featured" && is_array( $featured_product_ids ) && ! empty( $featured_product_ids ) ) {
if ( empty( $order_by ) ) {
$order_by = "FIELD(" . $wpdb->posts . ".ID,'" . implode( "','", $featured_product_ids ) . "') DESC ";
} else {
$order_by = "FIELD(" . $wpdb->posts . ".ID,'" . implode( "','", $featured_product_ids ) . "') DESC, " . $order_by;
}
}
}
return $order_by;
}