Visual Merchandiser

To check or change it, in your BigCommerce control panel:

1. Go to Products → Product Categories and edit the category.
2. Find Default Product Sort.
3. Set it to Featured Items, or leave it on Use store settings if your store default is already Featured Items.
4. Save.

Your store-wide default lives under Settings → Display. A new BigCommerce store sets every category to “Use store settings”, so this is worth checking once before you start.

You will also need:

• A BigCommerce store, with permission to install apps.
• At least one category containing products.

1. Open Visual Merchandiser in the BigCommerce App Marketplace.
2. Click Install.
3. Review the permissions. Visual Merchandiser asks only to read and modify products, which is what lets it change the order products appear in. It cannot see your orders, customers, or payment information.
4. Click Confirm.

The app appears under Apps → My Apps in your control panel, and opens automatically once installed.

The first time you open Visual Merchandiser you’ll see a subscription screen with a 7-day free trial. Click Start Free Trial and you’ll be taken to Stripe to enter payment details.

You are not charged during the trial. If you cancel before it ends, you pay nothing. After the trial the subscription renews monthly until you cancel.

Stripe opens in the full browser window rather than inside the BigCommerce panel. That’s expected — payment pages cannot be displayed inside another site’s frame. When you finish, use the link Stripe shows to return to your control panel.

Open Apps → My Apps → Visual Merchandiser. At the top is a Search Categories box.

1. Click the box to see your categories, or start typing to filter them.
2. Click a category to load its products.

Categories nested inside another are shown as Parent > Child, so you can tell similarly named categories apart. Selecting a category shows its name as a link — click it to open that category on your storefront in a new tab.

After choosing a category you’ll see two lists.

Sorted Products are the products you have given an explicit position. They appear on your category page in exactly this order, numbered from 1.

Unsorted Products are everything else in the category. They have no assigned position and appear after the sorted ones, in whatever order BigCommerce chooses.

A new category usually starts with everything unsorted. You do not have to sort every product — a common approach is to pin your best sellers to the top few positions and leave the rest alone.

1. Find the product in Unsorted Products. Use the search box above that list if the category is large.
2. Click Add To Sort Order.

The product moves to the top of Sorted Products at position 1, and everything already sorted shifts down one. Changes save immediately — there is no separate save button.

Drag any row in Sorted Products by its handle and drop it where you want it. The numbers renumber themselves from 1 and the change saves immediately.

Click the delete icon in the Remove column. The product loses its position, rejoins Unsorted Products, and the remaining products close the gap so the numbering stays 1, 2, 3 with no holes.

This does not delete the product or remove it from the category. It only clears its assigned position.

Products that are hidden on your storefront still appear in Sorted Products with a Hidden badge, because they still occupy a position in the order.

They are shown so the numbering makes sense — if position 3 were invisible here, the sequence would appear to skip. Hidden products are not offered in the Unsorted list, since giving a position to a product shoppers cannot see has no effect.

1. Click the category name at the top of the app to open it on your storefront.
2. Confirm the sort control is set to Featured Items.
3. Your sorted products appear first, in the order you set, followed by the unsorted ones.

If the order looks unchanged, re-read Before you start — a category sorted any other way ignores these positions. Storefront caching can also delay the change by a few minutes.

While you are on a trial the header shows how many days remain. Click Manage Subscription to open the Stripe customer portal, where you can update your card, view invoices, or cancel.

Cancelling takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for — you keep access until then, and the header changes to show when it ends. You can resubscribe at any time.

Prices shown are exclusive of sales tax, which is calculated at checkout based on your billing location.

1. In your control panel go to Apps → My Apps.
2. Find Visual Merchandiser and choose Uninstall.

Uninstalling removes the app’s access to your store and deletes the data it held about you. The sort orders you set remain on your products — they are stored by BigCommerce, not by this app, so your category pages keep the arrangement you built.

Uninstalling does not cancel your subscription. Cancel it from Manage Subscription before you uninstall, or contact us and we’ll take care of it.

My order isn’t showing on the storefront

Almost always the category’s sort setting. It must be Featured Items — see Before you start. If that is already correct, wait a few minutes for storefront caching and reload.

“Your session has expired”

Sessions last 24 hours. Reopen the app from Apps → My Apps — refreshing the page will not work, because the expired session is part of the page address.

“This app can only be used within the context of a BigCommerce store”

The app was opened outside your control panel, usually from a bookmarked address. Open it from Apps → My Apps instead.

A category shows no products

The category is empty, or its products are all hidden. Products must be assigned to the category in BigCommerce before they can be ordered here.

A product is missing from both lists

It is probably not assigned to this category. Check the product’s Categories field in BigCommerce.

Nothing happens when I click

Try a different browser. Visual Merchandiser supports current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If it persists, email us with your store address and what you clicked.

Email support@arcticleaf.com. Including your store address and the category you were working in helps us answer faster.