Siftwren Product Filter
The problem
One set with every attribute shows a shopper looking at brake pads a filter for battery capacity. Values with nothing behind them clutter the list, and a long list of filters sends people away. The fix is not fewer attributes. It is showing the right ones in the right place.
With the free plugin
- Make a filter set for each family of parts. Sets are unlimited, and each takes up to thirty filters.
- Keep Hide values with no products ticked, which is the default. On a category page, a value no product there has simply does not show.
- Place each set where its family lives with the shortcode
[siftwren_filter id="…"], or with the block in the template for that category. - Use Show as: Dropdown for long lists such as sizes or makes, so a sidebar stays short.
Attributes for parts
Fit is the hard part. Make, model and year are best kept as global attributes so each has a list of values and a filter can offer them. A product that fits many cars carries many values, and an any of them filter then finds it under each. Counts are worked out per value, so the number beside a model is the number of parts that fit it.
When one set is enough
With Pro, a single set can hold all the filters and each filter can be limited to the categories where it makes sense, so the shortcode is placed once. That guide explains the setting, and the pricing page says what Pro costs.