If your wholesale buyers have to hunt through a long order form to find what they need, you can control the order products appear in. Wholesale Order Form lets you set the sort order per form, with seven sort fields and an ascending or descending toggle. This article walks you through each option, plus the legacy 1.21.1 and earlier sorting flow if you’re still on the older form.
Requirements
- Wholesale Order Form installed
- An active/created ordering form. If you have yet to set this up, read this article: Wholesale Order Form getting started guide
To sort the products on your Wholesale Order Form, follow these steps:
- Go to Wholesale → Order Forms.
- Open the order form you want to edit.
- Open the Settings tab.
- Find the Product Sorting By setting.
The Product Sorting setting controls whether the chosen field is sorted ascending or descending.
Sort options
Choose from the seven sort options below:
WooCommerce Default
Sorts products based on the order set in Products → All Products. Use the Sorting controls there to manually drag products into your preferred order. This is ideal for stores with fewer products already arranged via Products → All Products → Sorting.
Menu Order
The go-to option for more customized ordering. Set the menu order number in the Advanced tab of each product’s edit screen. The order form uses these numbers to sort your products.
Name
Sorts products alphabetically by product name.
Sort by Date
Sorts products by the date they were created (publish date).
SKU
Sorts products by their stock-keeping unit. Useful when your team references products by SKU. Products without a SKU assigned may appear at the top or bottom of the list — assign SKUs to all products for predictable results.
Price
Sorts by the wholesale price for the current user’s role, falling back to the regular price if no wholesale price exists. This reflects what the wholesale buyer actually pays, not the retail price.
Popularity (default)
Sorts products by total sales (using WooCommerce’s analytics data). This is the default sort for new order forms.
Extra settings
Popularity Period
This option is only available when you use the Popularity product sorting order. At the moment, you can set it to:
- Default — uses the total historical sales of the product to sort by popularity
- Last 7 days — uses the total sales of the product within the last 7 days
- Last 30 days — uses the total sales of the product within the last 30 days
- Last 365 days — uses the total sales of the product within the last 365 days
Legacy order form (version 1.21.1 and below)
If you’re on Wholesale Order Form 1.21.1 or earlier, the sorting controls live in a different place:
To arrange your products on the Wholesale Order Form for a certain order, we have a setting on WooCommerce → Settings → Wholesale Ordering → General, where you can find the Product Sorting and Product Sort Order options.
Let’s explain the Product Sort Order first. In this setting, you can choose whether you want the order to be ascending or descending. Ascending order arranges the products from lowest to highest; descending order sorts them from highest to lowest. Please keep in mind that the Product Sort Order setting is dependent on what Product Sorting option you have chosen.
Frequently asked questions
Does the sorting setting apply to all order forms or just one?
Each order form has its own individual sorting setting. Changing the sort order on one form does not affect other order forms you’ve created.
What is the default sorting method for a new order form?
New order forms default to Popularity, which sorts by total historical sales.
What happens if some products don’t have a SKU assigned and I sort by SKU?
Products without a SKU will typically appear at the top or bottom of the list. It’s recommended to ensure all products have a SKU before using this sort method to get predictable results.
Can I sort products differently for different wholesale roles?
No — product sorting is configured per order form, not per wholesale role. All roles viewing the same order form will see the same sort order.
Why aren’t my products re-ordering after I change the sort setting?
Try clearing your browser cache and any server-side or page caching plugins. If using a caching plugin, purge the cache after saving your sorting settings.
Can I manually set a custom order for individual products without using the Menu Order field?
In the current Wholesale Order Form drag-and-drop builder, you can use WooCommerce Default sorting and then manually drag products into your preferred order via Products → All Products → Sorting. For per-product fine-grained control, Menu Order (set in each product’s Advanced tab) is the most flexible option.
Does “Sort by Date” sort by product publish date or last modified date?
It sorts by the product’s publish/creation date, not the last modified date.
How does the Price sorting handle variable products with multiple price points?
For variable products, the lowest available wholesale price (or regular price if no wholesale price is set) for the current user’s role is used to determine sort position.
Why is my Popularity sort not reflecting recent sales spikes?
If you’re using the Default popularity period (all-time total sales), recent spikes are diluted by historical data. Switch to Last 7 days or Last 30 days under the Popularity Period option to reflect more recent sales trends.
Is there a way to sort products by category within the order form?
Sorting by category is not currently a built-in sort option. As a workaround, you can use Menu Order and assign sequential numbers that group products by category.
Need help?
We have a dedicated support team for Wholesale Suite who knows our products, WooCommerce, and the industry very well. You’re welcome to make use of their expertise at any time, worldwide.
If you are an existing customer please go to the support ticket request form and send us a message.
If you are a free plugin user, please send us a support request on the forum. We actively monitor the WordPress.org support forums for the free plugin and help our users there as best as we can.
