Looking for an e-commerce CMS that can deal properly with facets and filters

[mihaiaperghis]

Hi!

One of my clients has an online shop built on a custom platform. Following my on-page audit, I found multiple issues with the faceted & filtered navigation.

After doing some research, I've developed a good site architecture based both on keyword targeting and on user experience. Since the client's platform is custom and he is no longer in contact with the original webmaster, I'm looking to recommend an e-commerce CMS that would fix the issues he has and allow for proper navigation using facets + filters.

I'll give you an idea of how I've envisioned the new site architecture (with a random example):

The website has 3 main categories:

• Jackets
• Shoes
• Pants

These categories are completely separated, no products exist in more than one category.

Let's take the Shoes category. It has the following facets (these are like subcategories, in the form of links, indexable by the search engines):

• By Brand:

• Brand 1

• Brand 2

• Brand 3

• By Genre

• Men

• Women

• Unisex

• By Type

• Running

• Flip-Flops

• Boots

Each product of the Shoes category will belong to one of each facets (so you can have a product that belongs to Brand 1, for Women, of the "boots" type).

Now, each of these facets also display filters depending on the facet itself. These are non-indexable, and preferably done through AJAX. For example, if I select Shoes -> Men I get a list of filters that can also include options from the other facets (so I'll have filters for "Size", but also for "Brand" and "Type"). When I select Shoes -> Boots I won't have the "Type" filter anymore (or I can have it pre-selected I guess), but I will have the "Size" and "Brand" filters.

So, what I am looking for is for a CMS that can allow product attributes (like "Type", "Genre" or "Brand") to be used both as facet categories as well as filters.

The closest live example I could find is ASOS, where you can search products by Brand (facet) and have the refined afterwards by Type (filter) or you can search products by Type (facet) and refine them by Brand (filter).

So, any idea of an e-commerce CMS that would allow me to do the above (bonus points if it also allows entering descriptions for facets, similar to what ASOS does)?

Thanks!

[Dubs]

Hey @Mihai, 

I've only worked with a few eCommerce systems and found that the two most SEO friendly are:

• Fission system eCommerce  -   http://www.360psg.com/fission-commerce
• WordPress eCommerce Plugin  -  http://getshopped.org/wordpress-commerce

Both systems are very customizable but neither are FREE solutions.  When it comes to an eCommerce system, I feel your better off using a paid service with tech support.  I hope these systems meet your needs!

[mihaiaperghis]

Thanks Dubs! Would any of these be able to do what I mentioned in my post?

[Dubs]

If I understand correctly,  by adding multiple categories to each product, you should get the search functionality your looking for.  Both systems allow the products to be tagged with multiple categories.   I'm sorry that I'm not terribly familiar with the technical side of either system, but both are easy to use and all the products (and variations) seem to be indexed by search spiders.

Definitely check them out!