Navigation & speed
Keep the address bar in step with the products, bring shoppers back to the same spot, and show the next page instantly.
URL & History Sync
While shoppers scroll, the address follows the page they are viewing (for example /shop/page/3/), so Back and shared links return to the same place.
The address is updated in place, so Back still leaves the shop rather than stepping through pages. Numbered and Previous / Next pages always keep Back and Forward working, whatever this setting is.
Return to the same spot
When a shopper opens a product and comes back with Back (within 30 minutes), the products they had loaded are loaded again (up to 10 pages), with fresh prices and stock, and the page scrolls back to the same product. This works in the scrolling and Load More styles and needs no setting. It's remembered per browser tab, and nothing leaves the browser. With Numbered and Previous / Next pages, Back returns to the page the shopper was on.
Earlier pages load as shoppers scroll up
A shopper who lands on page 2 or later (from a shared link or search engine) sees that page first. When they scroll up to the top of the list, the earlier page loads automatically above it, without moving the products they're looking at, page by page until page 1. There's no button and no setting. It's not used with Numbered or Previous / Next pages, which have their own page links.
Prefetching
Fetches the next page while the browser is idle, at most one page ahead, so it shows instantly. Always skipped when Data Saver is on or the connection is very slow.
With Numbered AJAX Pages, pages aren't fetched ahead in the background; instead, hovering or focusing a page number preloads it. With Previous / Next, the next page is fetched ahead and hovering a button preloads its page. Prefetched pages are reused for up to a minute, so prices and stock stay current. Turning this setting off also turns off the hover preloading.