diff --git a/assets/views/shop/_search.html b/assets/views/shop/_search.html
index 2046bc5..ec8d86e 100644
--- a/assets/views/shop/_search.html
+++ b/assets/views/shop/_search.html
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@
         {{ t(key="sort-label", lang=L) }}
         <select name="sort"
           class="rounded-radius border border-outline bg-surface px-2 py-1.5 text-sm text-on-surface focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:outline-primary dark:border-outline-dark dark:bg-surface-dark dark:text-on-surface-dark">
-          {% for opt in ["relevance", "newest", "price_asc", "price_desc", "name_asc", "name_desc"] %}
+          {% for opt in ["newest", "relevance", "price_asc", "price_desc", "name_asc", "name_desc"] %}
           <option value="{{ opt }}"{% if sort == opt %} selected{% endif %}>{{ t(key="sort-" ~ opt, lang=L) }}</option>
           {% endfor %}
         </select>
diff --git a/src/controllers/shop.rs b/src/controllers/shop.rs
index b0932e6..518b494 100644
--- a/src/controllers/shop.rs
+++ b/src/controllers/shop.rs
@@ -164,13 +164,13 @@ async fn run_search(
     let filter = view::category_filter_ids(&all_categories, &selected_category);
     items.retain(|i| view::category_filter_keep(&filter, i.product.category_id));
 
-    // 6. Sort. Relevance is the default; with no text query it keeps the base
-    //    order (newest-first), and with a query it keeps the ranked search order.
+    // 6. Sort. Newest-first is the default; relevance (the ranked search order)
+    //    is available explicitly via the sort control.
     let sort = params
         .sort
         .clone()
         .filter(|s| !s.is_empty())
-        .unwrap_or_else(|| "relevance".to_string());
+        .unwrap_or_else(|| "newest".to_string());
     match sort.as_str() {
         "price_asc" => items.sort_by(|a, b| a.priced.price_cents.cmp(&b.priced.price_cents)),
         "price_desc" => items.sort_by(|a, b| b.priced.price_cents.cmp(&a.priced.price_cents)),