Shopify Collection Grouping Tools: Product Organization Guide

Collection grouping tools help you organize products into logical collections that improve customer navigation and product discoverability. This guide covers grouping strategies and available tools.

What Collection Grouping Involves

• Organizing products by category, type, or purpose
• Creating logical navigation paths for customers
• Setting rules for automated product assignment
• Maintaining consistent organization as inventory changes

Native Shopify Grouping Features

Manual Collections

• Hand-select products for curated groupings
• Full control over what's included
• Best for featured or promotional collections

Automated Collections

• Use conditions to automatically include products
• Products match based on attributes like tags, type, vendor
• Collections update automatically with inventory changes

Grouping Strategies

By Product Category

• Group by product type (clothing, accessories, etc.)
• Create subcategories for detailed navigation
• Most intuitive for customer browsing

By Customer Segment

• Men's, Women's, Kids' collections
• Professional vs. casual use
• Beginner vs. advanced products

By Purpose or Occasion

• Gift guides and seasonal collections
• Use-case based groupings
• Event-specific collections

Implementation Steps

1. Audit your current product catalog
2. Define your grouping strategy
3. Standardize product attributes (tags, types)
4. Create collections with appropriate rules
5. Test navigation and discoverability
6. Refine based on analytics

Best Practices

• Name collections the way customers search — "Running Shoes" beats "Athletic Footwear Category" for both navigation and SEO
• Use Shopify's product type field for main categories and tags for cross-cutting groupings (e.g., "sale", "gift-guide", "eco-friendly")
• A product can belong to multiple collections, but keep navigation menu collections distinct — overlap in featured/seasonal collections is fine
• When a collection has more than 100 products, consider splitting into subcollections for better browsability
• Document which tags map to which automated collections — new team members need to tag products correctly from day one

Common Grouping Mistakes

• 50+ collections in the nav menu: Shopify mega-menus help, but most themes display poorly with more than 8-10 top-level items
• Vague collection names: "Essentials" or "Favorites" tells customers nothing — use specific names like "Summer Basics" or "Staff Picks Under $50"
• Mixing tag formats: Using "color-red" and "color_blue" and "Red" means automated collections catch some products but miss others
• Only using manual collections: For stores adding products regularly, manual collections fall out of date within days

Conclusion

Effective collection grouping improves product discoverability and customer experience. Choose a grouping strategy that matches your catalog and customer needs, then maintain it consistently for best results.

Related Resources

• Shopify Help: Collections
• What is a Shopify Collection?
• Using Tags Effectively