Shopify collections: add products & create in 2024

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Shopify collections help you group and display products effectively in your store to increase sales and improve your customers’ shopping experience.

Collections let you organize items by type, price, tags, or custom criteria to make it easier for shoppers to find what they want. This streamlined navigation can lead to more purchases and a smoother shopping experience through your store.

You could use Shopify collections to promote sales, group popular products together to encourage additional purchases, and push your most profitable items. 

In this article, we reveal how to add collections on Shopify and make the most of them to enhance your store. 

What are Shopify collections?

Shopify collections are curated groups of products that help organize and showcase items in your online store. They function by grouping products based on shared characteristics such as type, price, or custom tags like colors. 

The benefit to collections is they allow your customers to browse related items efficiently, potentially increasing average order value and conversion rates. 

Collections are also crucial for promoting specific product sets. You could create collections for sales promotions, new arrivals, bestsellers, seasonal items, etc.

For instance, the following collection showcases popular bags:

How to create a collection on Shopify

Before jumping into the steps below, note that the Shopify Starter plan does not include grouping products into collections. 

You’ll need to upgrade to a higher-tier plan to create and use collections to organize your products by category. Available options include Basic Shopify, Advanced Shopify, or Shopify Plus.

Once you have a suitable Shopify plan, there are two ways to add collections: automated and manual. 

Automated collections

With automated collections, you create selection conditions that will automatically pick the right products for your collections. This saves the hassle of manually creating a collection and categorizing products.

Here’s how to create an automated collection on Shopify:

1. Go to Products > Collections in your Shopify admin
2. Click Create collection
3. Enter a title and description for the collection
4. In the Collection type section, select Automated
5. Choose whether products need to match all conditions or any condition
6. Use the drop-down lists to set the collection conditions (up to 60 conditions)
7. Click Save, matching products will be automatically added to the collection
8. Set the sort order for how products will be displayed
9. In the Sales Channels section, select where you want the collection to be available
10. Add a collection image if desired
11. Optional: Edit the SEO details for the collection
12. Click Save
13. Add a link to your collection in your online store navigation

Manual collections

Manual collections offer complete flexibility to include products that don’t share common attributes, which might be difficult to achieve with automated rules. You can handpick exactly which products appear in the collection.

Here’s how to create a manual collection on Shopify:

1. Go to Products > Collections in your Shopify admin
2. Click Create collection
3. Enter a title and description for the collection
4. In the Collection type section, select Manual
5. Click Save
6. In the Products section, search for or browse products to add to the collection
7. Set the sort order for how products will be displayed
8. Optional: Edit the SEO details for the collection
9. In the Sales Channels section, select where you want the collection to be available
10. Add a collection image if desired
11. Click Save
12. Add a link to your collection in your online store navigation

Which type should you use?

Automated Shopify collections are easier to create. Plus, they work great when items are easily sorted according to their types, so we recommend using this method over the manual one. 

You also don’t need to worry about your future products — they will automatically be added to the relevant collections. However, if you want to choose specific items for a collection, go for manual Shopify collections.

How to automatically add products to Shopify collections

Here’s a quick guide on how to create an automated Shopify collection using a desktop device:

1. In your dashboard, go to Products > Collections
2. Click Create collection
3. Name and describe your collection
4. In the Collection type section, click Automated:
   • Choose whether items need to match all conditions or any condition to be added to your collection
   • Use the drop-down lists to set the collection conditions
5. Click Save
6. Set how you want the products sorted in your store (e.g., by price, title, popularity, etc.)
7. In the Sales channels section, choose where you want your collection to be available
8. In the Collection image section, click Upload image to add a visual for the collection
9. Optional: Check the Search engine listing preview section to see how your collection will be displayed in search results. You can edit your listing preview under Edit website SEO
10. Click Save
11. Finally, link to your collection in your Shopify store navigation so that customers can find it

That’s it! If you want to change what appears in your automated Shopify collections, you can either 1) edit the conditions or 2) edit a particular product so that it doesn’t meet the requirements for a specific collection.

How to group Shopify collections for the biggest impact

Before setting up your collections, it’s essential to think carefully about how you want to group your products together. Below are some ideas that can help you increase sales.

You can organize your Shopify collections according to:

• Important occasions: Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, etc. — see our holiday calendar for more special events
• Seasonality: Spring essentials, back to school/autumn, etc. — see our guide for the biggest sales for each month
• Demographic segmentation: Special products for men, women, children, etc. — see our guide for more information on how to segment your customers
• Items on sale: Make your discounted products more visible — learn more about discount pricing
• Products in a certain color or size: E.g., “everything pink,” “clothing for petite women”
• ​​Items serving the same function: E.g., running shoes, camping dishes and utensils

For example, here’s how you could group sneakers on your online store for women’s flats and bestsellers:

How to add a collection to a page on Shopify

You can add a collection to a page on Shopify in eight steps:

1. Create or select an existing collection from Products > Collections
2. Navigate to Online Store > Themes and click Customize on your active theme
3. In the theme editor, select the page where you want to add the collection
4. Click Add section and choose either Collection list or Featured collection
   • For a collection list: Select the collections you want to display
   • For a featured collection: Choose the specific collection to showcase
5. Adjust settings as needed (e.g., number of products, layout options)
6. Click Save to apply the changes
7. Preview your page to ensure the collection appears correctly
8. Publish the updates to make them live on your store

How to increase sales using Shopify collections 

Here are the 11 best practices to boost your sales with Shopify collections:

1. Add reviews

Shopify may have discontinued its product review feature, but Omnisend offers a powerful alternative for collecting and displaying customer feedback on your store.

Omnisend’s Product Reviews tool helps you easily collect and showcase customer reviews. It automates review requests, displays reviews in marketing emails and websites, and allows for customer segmentation based on ratings. 

It also integrates seamlessly with Omnisend’s other marketing features, streamlining review management for your online store.

Trustworthy reviews help boost confidence in your brand. Here are some ideas on how to encourage your customers to leave reviews of your products.

2. Promote collections in your newsletters

Newsletters can work wonders! For example, you can create seasonal newsletters for the biggest holidays to provide valuable gift ideas and smoothly incorporate your themed collections. 

3. Promote collections in your automated workflows

Ever heard of email drip campaigns? They’re a series of relevant messages automatically sent to your customers according to their behavior on your online store. 

One of the ways you can use automated workflows is to promote your collections. For example, you can target people who abandoned their carts or create an automated welcome message for your new subscribers. 

And the best thing? These campaigns can drive sales on autopilot with pre-built automation workflows. Start for free here.

4. Make your collections easy to find

Your collections should be easily accessible right from your homepage. Make sure to double-check if your most important collections have the biggest visibility.

5. Work on your store’s navigation

Your online store’s structure should have a logical flow so potential customers can quickly find what they need. This is especially relevant if you have a lot of collections. One way to ensure easy navigation is to create dropdown menus that are further divided into more narrow categories.

6. Add filters inside your collections

Imagine having to scroll through five pages of sneakers, just to find that the only pair you like is not your size! It’d be a huge disappointment. So, to help your customers find what they’re looking for more quickly, enable product filtering for every collection on your online store. You can filter your products according to their type, price, size, color, material, etc.

7. Offer special deals (product bundles, etc.)

Product bundling can help you boost sales by promoting related items. For example, you can match an iPhone case with an earphone case. You can also offer a bundle at a discounted price to encourage your customers even more. They will feel like they’re getting a good deal even after spending more than they intended.

8. Optimize your collections for search engines

Shopify collections can be highly useful outside your store, too. Optimizing your collections for SEO can bring potential customers actively looking for your products.

Make sure you check out all of these items off your SEO list:

• Do keyword research: The first thing to do is to get a list of your target keywords and group them according to your user intent into four categories: informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional
• Include your main keywords in your collections:
  • Choose whether items need to match all conditions or any condition to be added to your collection
  • Use the drop-down lists to set the collection conditions
• Link your collections to other pages: For example, if you have a collection of Christmas-themed gifts, link them to your blog post about the best Christmas ideas

9. Pay extra attention to your images

High-quality images are everything for an ecommerce site. If you haven’t yet, invest in a professional photoshoot of your products. Display them from multiple angles and let your customers zoom in on your visuals. Most importantly, have a consistent theme for items in your collection.

10. Update your collections according to the seasons

This is especially important if you’re selling clothing and accessories. Keep your Shopify collections relevant by updating them with items for the current season. For example, you can create a collection named “Winter essentials” or “Autumn evening.”

11. Promote your collections with a unique promotional message

You can offer unique coupon codes to fulfill them on your built collections.

A Shopify app such as Adoric can help you create these personalized coupon codes in various ways and from one place. Email registrations, Promotional Bars, Sliders, and Popups can also generate the coupon code from Adoric without any additional work on your store account.

FAQs

What is the difference between tags and collections on Shopify? 

Shopify tags act as specific product descriptors to enable detailed filtering. You can assign multiple tags, such as size and color, to a single item.

In contrast, collections contain products with shared characteristics, organizing items into groups to promote different ranges.

What is the difference between pages and collections in Shopify? 

Shopify pages host static, informational content such as “About Us” sections, policies, and FAQs. These pages provide customers with essential store details and resources separate from product listings.

Collections display groups of products for sale, organizing items into customizable, thematic sets for customers to browse.

What is the difference between product category and collection in Shopify?

Product categories are broad, singular classifications for individual items. Each product is assigned to a category, such as “T-shirts” or “Books,” helping to organize your store’s inventory.

Collections showcase products with shared characteristics, themes, or marketing strategies, allowing for dynamic product presentation and organization beyond simple categorization.