Creating product categories in Shopify is an excellent way to organize your products and make it easier for your customers to find what they’re looking for. Shopify refers to product categories as “collections.” Here is a step-by-step guide on how to create collections in your Shopify store:
Step 1: Log in to Your Shopify Admin
Go to the Shopify website and log in to your admin dashboard using your store’s credentials. This is where you manage your Shopify store.
Step 2: Navigate to Products Section
Once logged in, click on the “Products” link in the left-hand sidebar of your Shopify admin. This will expand some options. Look for the “Collections” link within this list and click it.
Step 3: Create a New Collection
In the Collections section, you will see a button for “Create collection” or something similar. Click this to begin setting up a new product category (collection).
Step 4: Complete the Collection Details
Input the details for your new collection in the provided fields:
- Title: Give your collection a name that customers will see.
- Description: Write a brief description of the collection. This will also be visible to customers and can be helpful for SEO.
- Type: Choose whether this collection will be manually managed or automated. Automated collections will automatically include products that meet certain criteria you set, whereas manual collections require you to add and remove products yourself.
For Automated Collections
If you choose an automated collection, you’ll need to set conditions that products must meet to be included in the collection. You can define conditions based on product details like tags, price, weight, inventory stock, and more. Choose whether products must meet ‘all conditions’ or ‘any condition’ to join the collection.
For Manual Collections
With manual collections, you’ll add products to your collection individually. This can be done when creating the collection or later on by editing the collection or the product.
Step 5: Save Your Collection
After you’ve added your title, description, and set your collection type and conditions, click the “Save” button at the top or bottom of the page. Your collection is now created, and if it’s automated, products matching your set conditions should appear in the collection automatically.
Step 6: Add Products to Your Collection (if manual)
If you’re working with a manual collection, you’ll need to add products to it:
- While within the collection you’ve created, click on ‘Add products’.
- Search for and select the products you want to include in your new category (collection).
- After you’ve selected all the products you want, click on ‘Add to collection’.
Step 7: Organize Your Collection
You can set the sort order for your collections by clicking on the ‘Sort’ option when viewing the collection. Choose if you want to sort products manually, by best-selling, alphabetically, etc. This will determine the order in which products are displayed to customers.
Step 8: Customize Your Collection Page (optional)
If you want to customize how your collection looks on your website, you can do so by modifying your theme settings or using your theme’s collection page options. This could involve choosing a different product grid, adding images or banners, and more.
Step 9: Make Your Collection Visible
Make sure your collection is accessible to customers by adding it to your navigation menus or featuring it on your store’s homepage. You can manage this under the “Online Store” section and then “Navigation” in your Shopify admin.
That’s it! Your product categories (collections) should now be set up and visible on your Shopify store, providing a more structured and user-friendly shopping experience. Each new collection you create can be added to your store’s navigation to make it easy for customers to browse through your products.