Change the order of products in categories

You decide the order in which products are displayed when a customer lands on a category page. Choose between manual drag-and-drop or one of the six automatic sorting options in Shoporama.

Manual drag-and-drop sorting

1. Go to Categories in your admin panel.
2. Click on the category you want to sort.
3. Set Sorting to Normal if it isn’t already selected.
4. Drag the products up and down to change the order.
5. Click Save.

Manual sorting works when you’ve selected Normal. If you want to combine automatic and manual control, you can, for example, place in-stock items at the top and let Shoporama move sold-out items down, while your manual priorities are preserved for the items that are in stock.

The Six Sorting Options

For each category, you can choose one of these six standard sorting options in the admin panel:

Sorting in the theme (customer-facing)

On most themes, customers can change the sort order themselves using a dropdown on the category page, such as Price (low to high), Price (high to low), Alphabetical, or Random. Your default sorting is what appears initially, until the customer selects something else.

Sort products using AI

You can also let an AI assistant rearrange products in your categories. The AI can move bestsellers to the top, push out-of-stock items to the bottom, or sort according to rules you define yourself. This saves time when you have many categories or many products per category.

The AI works based on the information already available for the products (inventory, price, sales history, etc.), so the better your product data is, the better the order will be.

Examples of prompts you can copy:

Sort the products in the “Shoes” category so that the best-selling ones appear at the top.

Place all out-of-stock products at the bottom of the “Spring 2026” category.

Move the products with the highest contribution margin to the top of the “Accessories” category.

Read more about how you can manage your store with an AI assistant in the blog post “Now You Can Manage Your Entire Online Store via Chat.”

Which sorting option should I choose?

• Do you want to control the order yourself? Select " Normal " and use drag-and-drop.
• Do you regularly have out-of-stock items? Select “In-Stock Items” at the top to highlight what’s available for purchase.
• Do you want less maintenance? Select “Product Score” and let Shoporama do the work.
• Do you have a “New Arrivals” category? Select “Newest.”
• Do you want to give all products equal exposure? Select “Random.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can’t I select “Price (low to high)” as the default sort order?

Price sorting is intentionally available only as a customer-facing option in the shop. The default sorting in the admin panel controls the store’s display, and price is rarely the right focus there. If you want to highlight inexpensive items, you can manually place them at the top using “Normal.”

Can I lock the order so it never changes on its own?

Yes. Select “Normal” and drag the products into the desired order. It will remain fixed until you move a product yourself or change the sorting method. “Product Score,” “Newest, ” and “Random” change automatically over time and should be avoided if you want the order to be predictable.

Will my manual order be preserved if I switch to a different sorting method and then back again?

Yes. The manual order is saved for the category. If you switch to Alphabetical and then back to Normal, your custom order will return unchanged.

How often is the Product Score recalculated?

The Product Score is saved per product and updated every time the product is modified or re-indexed (e.g., upon editing, inventory changes, sales, or import). You don’t need to do anything yourself. As a result, products that sell well or have just been added to inventory naturally move up in the rankings.

What factors does Product Score take into account?

It uses several signals simultaneously: the product’s age, number of units sold, whether it’s in stock, customer reviews, profit, and sales patterns from the same period last year. The result is a single composite number, where a higher score leads to a higher ranking.

How exactly does “Random” work?

The order is shuffled with every page view, so two customers almost never see the same order. This gives the entire product range exposure, but also makes the experience less predictable. Choose this option for product ranges where all products are roughly equally relevant.

Does “In-Stock Items First” push down products that have 0 in stock?

Yes. Out-of-stock products are grouped at the bottom of the category, while in-stock items retain their manual order at the top. When a product becomes available again, it automatically slides back to its original position.

Does the sorting affect my product feeds?

Standard feeds like Google Shopping have their own logic and do not use the category’s sorting. The sorting primarily affects how customers view the products on your online store.

Can I set different sorting options for different languages or stores?

Sorting is set per category. If your categories are separate across languages or online stores, you can choose different sorting options. If you reuse the same category across them, the sorting will be the same.

Where can I find sorting options on landing pages?

Landing pages have their own sorting settings, which are configured directly on the page itself. Read Sorting Products on a Landing Page.

If you need help, please email support@shoporama.dk.