Sort attribute in Akeneoon – manage the order of products precisely

The integration of AI Commerce and Akeneo now supports a new Sort attribute, which provides online retailers with precise control over the order in which products are displayed on category pages, search results, and recommended products.

This feature is particularly useful when you want to, for example, push the best-selling products to the top of the list. You can easily import sorting information from your ERP or create them manually in Excel and import them into Akeneo. The lower the Sort number, the higher the product ranks.

Default sorting options in AI Commerce:

• Recommendation: The algorithm calculates a score for the product based on views, order quantities, stock balance, and the age of the product.

• Sort: A new manual sorting number. Perfect for situations where you want complete control over the product listing order.

SKU, Name, Price, Date: Traditional alphabetical, price, or date-based orders.

How does Sort work?

• The value “1” is displayed first, “2” second, and so on.

• It is recommended for use in Excel editing when dealing with large quantities of products.

• Works together with other sorting logics – for example, you can use Sort values to highlight special campaigns or seasonal products without affecting the scoring of other products.

Usage tips:

• Sales data imported from ERP can be converted into Sort values (e.g., the best-selling product gets the value 1).

• You can influence the visibility of products directly without the intervention of an algorithm.

• Works well together with Recommendation sorting when you want to combine automation with manual fine-tuning.

Important – use of reserved attributes:

The Sort attribute is part of AI Commerce's internally reserved attributes, and should not be used for any other purpose. A list of all reserved attributes includes, among others, sku, vat_rate, price_purchase, weight, pdf_1–10, comment_instructions, and now also sort.

If you have previously used Sort for other purposes, reset the value in Akeneo and enable another free-form attribute (e.g., custom_sort_1) to ensure AI Commerce’s logic works as expected.

Summary:

The Sort attribute provides a clear and controlled way to direct the order of product listings – without needing to change the SKU, price, or product description. It is an effective tool especially in large product catalogs and online stores leveraging sales data. When used correctly, you can offer customers better recommendations and faster product discoverability – and increase sales.