Creating and Managing Collections on Shopify

Aim: To create and manage collections on Shopify so your products are grouped logically, easy to browse, and easy to merchandise.

Optimal Outcome: A well-organized store where products are sorted into clear collections — by category, theme, sale, or season — making it simple for customers to find what they want and for you to feature the right products at the right time.

What do you need to start:

• A Shopify store with products already added

• Admin access to your Shopify dashboard

• An idea of how you want to group your products (by type, season, price, brand, "best sellers," etc.)

Why is this SOP Important: Collections are how customers navigate your store. Good collections shorten the path from landing to "Add to cart," power your navigation menus, and let you merchandise — for example, spotlighting a "Summer Sale" or "New Arrivals" group. Done well, they directly lift conversion rate and average order value.

When and Where to execute: Inside your Shopify admin, any time you add products, run a promotion, or restructure your catalog. Set up your core collections early, then maintain them as your catalog grows.

Who Should Be Doing This: The store owner or the person responsible for merchandising and managing the product catalog.

What is a Shopify Collection?

A collection is a group of products you bring together so customers can browse them on a single page. A product can belong to more than one collection at the same time — for example, a blue T-shirt could appear in "T-shirts," "Blue," and "Summer Sale" all at once. Shopify supports two types:

• Manual collections — you hand-pick each product. Best for small, curated groups that don't change often, like a "Staff Picks" or a limited "Holiday Gift Guide."

• Automated collections — you set conditions (such as product type, tag, price, or inventory level) and Shopify automatically adds any product that matches. Best for large or frequently changing groups, like "Under $50" or "On Sale."

Execution

Resources/Tools & Set up

• A Shopify store with products added

• Admin access to your Shopify dashboard

Create a collection

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products → Collections.

2. Click Create collection.

3. Enter a Title and a Description. The title is what customers see, so make it clear and benefit-driven; the description can include keywords that help the collection page rank in search.

Choose the collection type

4. Under Collection type, choose how products are added:

• Manual — you'll add products yourself, one by one.

• Automated — you'll set conditions and Shopify fills the collection for you.

5. If you chose Automated, set your conditions. Decide whether products must match all conditions or any of them, then build rules such as Product tag is equal to "sale" or Price is less than 50. Any product that meets the rules is added automatically, now and in the future.

6. If you chose Manual, save the collection first, then use the Browse / Add products button to hand-pick the items you want included.

Set the collection image and SEO

7. Add a Collection image. This is the thumbnail shown wherever the collection is featured (such as on your homepage or in menus), so use a clean, on-brand image.

8. Scroll to Search engine listing and edit the page title and meta description so the collection page is optimized for search.

9. Set the Sales channels and publishing status so the collection appears on your online store.

Organize products within a collection

10. Open the collection and find the Sort option. You can order products manually (drag and drop) or automatically — by best selling, price, newest, alphabetically, and more. Lead with your strongest products to maximize conversions.

Add the collection to your navigation

11. To make the collection easy to find, add it to a menu. Go to Online Store → Navigation, open the menu you want to edit (such as your main menu), click Add menu item, name it, and link it to your new collection.

Manage and edit collections

12. To update a collection later, return to Products → Collections, open the one you want, and edit its title, description, image, conditions, or product list. For automated collections, adjusting the conditions instantly re-filters which products appear. To remove a collection you no longer need, open it and click Delete collection (this does not delete the products inside it).

Conclusion

You're done! Your store is now organized into clear collections that make browsing easy for customers and merchandising easy for you.

• Use manual collections for small, curated groups and automated collections for large or frequently changing ones.

• Give every collection a clear title, a keyword-rich description, and a clean image.

• Sort products inside each collection to lead with your best sellers.

• Add your key collections to your navigation so customers can find them.

Execution Checklist:

• Create your core collections

• Choose manual or automated for each

• Set conditions (automated) or hand-pick products (manual)

• Add a collection image and optimize the SEO listing

• Sort the products within each collection

• Add collections to your store navigation

• Review and maintain collections as your catalog grows