What is a Facet?
A facet is a structured filter derived from product attributes (e.g., size, color, brand, price, rating, availability) that lets shoppers refine a result set without rewriting the query. A page with facets is often called faceted navigation.
How It Works (quick)
- Attribute → facet: Select attributes, normalize values, and expose them as filterable buckets.
- Counts & state: Show result counts, selected chips, and easy “clear” controls.
- Logic: AND/OR behavior per facet (e.g., colors = OR; materials = OR; must be configurable).
- Ordering: Prioritize popular facets; pin “In stock,” size, price, rating near the top.
- Performance: Precompute facet counts, cache, and paginate large sets (e.g., brands A–Z).
Why It Matters in E-commerce
- Faster decisions: Shoppers jump straight to items that fit.
- Higher conversion: Less pogo-sticking and fewer dead ends.
- Better SEO: Stable, canonical collections built from high-value facet combos.
Best Practices
- Facet hygiene: Only expose facets with real variety and value; hide empty buckets.
- In-stock first: Filter by availability/size-in-stock before others.
- Price UX: Sliders or presets; localize currency and ranges.
- Value grouping: Collapse long lists; add search-within-facet; alias synonyms (“tee shirt” → “T-shirt”).
- Canonical control: Whitelist SEO-worthy combos; canonicalize everything else.
- Analytics: Track facet engagement, zero-results after filtering, and “facet → add-to-cart.”
Challenges
- Crawl bloat from infinite parameter combos.
- Over-faceting overwhelms; under-faceting hinders.
- Dirty data yields duplicate/near-duplicate values.
Examples
- Shoes: Size, In stock in your size, Color, Terrain, Waterproof, Brand, Price, Rating.
- Apparel: Fit, Material, Care, Occasion; hide Color
Summary
Facets turn raw attributes into a smooth narrowing experience. Keep them clean, fast, in-stock aware, and SEO-safe, and they’ll lift findability and conversion.
