A product listing page (PLP) is the grid of products a shopper sees after choosing a category, collection or search, and its job is to get them to the right product page fast.
The changes that win most often in real A/B tests are the ones that get products on screen sooner, help shoppers narrow the grid, and put deciding information (price, ratings, a clear badge) on each card.
Adding more filters, links or decoration loses about as often as it wins.
This guide covers the PLP itself, then product filtering UX.
Every recommendation is backed by tests from the collection page tests in our database, including the ones that lost.
What a product listing page has to do
Shoppers on a PLP are comparing, not buying.
They scan the grid, rule products out, and click through to the ones that survive.
A good PLP makes that scan cheap: products visible right away, cards that answer the first questions, and a fast way to cut the list down.
Most stores don't manage this. In its 2025 product list benchmark of 170+ ecommerce sites, Baymard found that 58% of desktop sites and 78% of mobile sites have "mediocre" or worse product list UX.
The same benchmark found that 51% don't offer all five basic filter types (price, ratings, color, size, brand) and 68% of desktop and 69% of mobile sites don't offer all four basic sort types (price, rating, best-selling, newest).
"Product listing page", "category page" and "collection page" (Shopify's term) mean the same thing here.
Search results pages follow the same rules. For the search box itself, see our guide to site search.
PLP optimization: what to test first
Get products above the fold
The most reliable PLP win in our database is shrinking whatever sits above the grid.
Tall hero banners, long intros and big category overviews push the first row of products below the fold, and on mobile they can fill the whole first screen.
- Blend Commerce shortened the collection hero on Titan Casket and saw +35.5% conversion rate.
- Visually removed the hero banner from Supergut's mobile collection pages: +9.5% conversion.
- Oliver Kenyon shrank the top section so products show above the fold for +$45K/month.
- DRIP Agency's smaller category overview on Koro gave +2.9% revenue per user.
A banner isn't always the problem, though. Dave Diederen's test that added a collection banner with review count, trust signals and free shipping won +25.37% revenue per visitor.
The pattern is that a short banner that answers a real question works, and a tall decorative one doesn't. Our above-the-fold guide covers the general case.
Put deciding information on the card
The product card is where most PLP tests happen.
Adding information shoppers would otherwise click through to find tends to win:
- Unit pricing. Blend Commerce added price per serving on collection cards for a sports nutrition store: +8.25% revenue per visitor. Baymard found 67% of sites don't show price per unit where quantities vary.
- Subscription pricing. Showing one-time and subscription prices on cards at Stone Creek Coffee gave +5% RPV (Blend Commerce).
- Variant names. Adding variant names under color swatches at Azuna gave +4.87% CR (Blend Commerce).
- Extra images. Dave Diederen let shoppers swipe through image galleries on the collection page for +11.60% revenue per visitor.
Star ratings are the mixed case. Blend Commerce saw +73.5% order value from star ratings on Titan Casket's cards, but Gym King's star ratings on collection cards lost, at -10% revenue per visitor.
Ratings help when they're good and make shoppers compare more carefully.
They can hurt when they draw attention to weak scores or clutter a fashion grid. Test them, don't assume.
More examples: collection page product card tests and the product cards element hub.
Use badges sparingly
Badges work best when they're rare. Dave Diederen tested putting a "Bestseller" badge on only the single #1 product instead of 3-4 products and got +8.89% revenue per visitor.
DRIP Agency's 'Hot' and 'Bestseller' badges on Kickz gave +13.9% RPU.
Clean Commit's results are a useful check: a 'Selling fast' badge showed +5.9% conversion but was unproven, and a 'New' badge showed +11.7% that wasn't significant.
Badges that point to one clear choice beat badges sprinkled everywhere. See bestseller badge tests.
Quick add: depends on the catalog
Letting shoppers add to cart from the grid is one of the most-tested PLP ideas, and the results split.
| Test | Who ran it | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Quick Add buttons on collection cards | Oliver Kenyon | +$135,307/month |
| Add-to-cart button on listing tiles | DRIP Agency | +7.2% conversion, +7.7% RPU |
| CTA button on product listing tiles | VWO | +47% orders, +86% revenue |
| Quick shop on collection pages | GrowthRock | No change in conversion rate |
| Removing quick shop from collection pages | DRIP Agency | +2.5% revenue per user |
| Quick-add icon on mobile collection cards | Clean Commit | -4.9% conversion rate |
Quick add tends to work for simple, low-consideration products (supplements, consumables, single-size items) where the card already tells you enough.
It tends to fail for apparel and other products where shoppers need sizing, more photos or reviews before deciding, because it pulls them away from the product page that would have convinced them.
Grid density and pagination
On mobile, two products per row usually beats one.
Blend Commerce moved Jacksons to two products per row on mobile for +55.9% revenue, and Oliver Kenyon's 2x2 mobile grid with quick add gave $56,285/month.
Clean Commit's one product per row showed +63.1% RPV but was inconclusive, so large single-column images can still work for small, visual catalogs.
Showing fewer products can also help. DRIP Agency cut Newshades' collection to 75% fewer products and saw +14% revenue.
Pagination has no single answer. Dave Diederen replaced pagination with infinite scroll for +3.01% revenue per visitor, while DRIP Agency found numbered pagination instead of 'Load more' gave +10.3% RPU on Kickz.
Baymard's earlier usability research, published in Smashing Magazine in 2016, found people browsed far more products with infinite scrolling and far fewer with pagination, and suggested a hybrid: auto-load a first batch, then switch to a "Load more" button.
Large catalogs where shoppers browse deep (like Kickz) may still do better with page numbers they can return to.
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DRIP AgencyProduct filtering UX
Filters are the PLP element with the biggest wins and the biggest losses in our database.
Making filters easier to reach wins far more often than adding more of them.
Make filters easy to reach, especially on mobile
Sticky filter and sort bars on mobile have some of the strongest results in the database:
- Blend Commerce's sticky filter and sort bar on BBQ Land: +95% revenue per visitor.
- VWO's case study for Panduro: a sticky Sort and Filter bar raised filter use 53%.
- ConvertPolo's sticky filter and sort bar: +7.53% add-to-cart.
The same idea doesn't always carry over. Blend Commerce's sticky filter and sort bar on Little Bible Stories was inconclusive on sales, and Clean Commit's sticky mobile filter button lost 16.0% conversion.
A labeled bar with both Filter and Sort visible did better than a single floating button.
Higher filter use also isn't a sale, so measure revenue, not clicks.
Quick filters and pills beat a full filter panel
One row of the filters that matter most, shown above the grid as tappable pills, wins repeatedly:
- Oliver Kenyon's filter tags like Best Sellers and New Drops: +$82,542/month.
- Convertibles' dog-size filter pills: +$39,779/month revenue.
- Blend Commerce's category pills on USA Containers: +51% conversion rate.
- Visually's quick filters on mobile for Odd Muse: +5.5% conversion rate.
- ConvertPolo's 'Shop by Price' options: +11.09% conversion rate.
These filters match how shoppers already think about the catalog (dog size, price band, best sellers) rather than how the product database is structured.
That's the same point Baymard makes about category-specific filters: the attributes that matter for a dog treat aren't the ones that matter for a jacket.
Put the most-used filter first
Order matters more than count. Blend Commerce moved Aeromotive's 'In-Stock Only' filter to the top for +2.33% conversion rate.
Optimizely's case study on a footwear retailer that put one size filter above the fold found +2% revenue per visitor.
Blend Commerce collapsed filters on Pertronix to tidy a long panel: +6.06% conversion rate.
When adding filters hurts
More filters can make a page worse. Clean Commit's test adding attribute filters to collection pages lost 6.4% conversion and 33.2% revenue per visitor.
Their dynamic filtering system showed +10.1% CR but -10.3% RPV, and more collection page filters were inconclusive at -1.0%.
Small catalogs are where this shows up most.
UK Tool Centre removed the filter menu from a small category page and got +27% engagement.
If a category has 20 products, a full filter panel is noise.
If it has 2,000, it's essential: Buyakilt.com's product filter on category pages produced +76.1% revenue.
Removing filters shoppers already use is risky too.
Greyson Clothiers saw -10.5% revenue after removing visual collection filters.
Check your analytics for filter use before cutting anything.
All filter tests are in collection page filter tests, and across page types in the filters and search hub.
A PLP testing order that works
- Check where the first product row lands on a phone. If it's below the fold, shrink the header first.
- Look at filter and sort use in analytics. Low use on a big catalog points to hard-to-reach filters. Make them sticky or turn the top ones into pills.
- Audit the card. Add the one piece of information shoppers click through for most: unit price, subscription price, variants or a rating.
- Test quick add only if your products are simple. For apparel or considered purchases, test a cleaner card instead.
- Measure revenue per visitor, not clicks. Several tests above raised filter use or add-to-cart but not sales.
Shoppers who click through land on the product page next.
See product page design for that step, the mobile CRO guide for small-screen layouts, or browse all A/B tests and the wider CRO guides.