To retain the selected value in the dropdown on refresh, sessionStorage is used to store the value within the user's browser. First, the values have to be set using sessionStorage.setItem("SelItem", selVal); SelItem is a variable in which we are setting the value of selVal . Now, we can get the value using sessionStorage.getItem("SelItem") after page refresh.

Example:

index.html

<select id="sort-item">
             <option value="Alphabetical" data-sort="1">Alphabetical</option>
             <option value="low to high" data-sort="2">Low to High Price</option>
             <option value="high to low" data-sort="3">High to Low Price</option>

 </select>

abc.js

window.onload = function() {
    var selItem = sessionStorage.getItem("SelItem");  
    $('#sort-item').val(selItem);
    }

    $('#sort-item').change(function() { 
        var selVal = $(this).val();
        sessionStorage.setItem("SelItem", selVal);
    });