Optimizing your Shopify collections with automation is a surefire way to boost efficiency and make the most of your time. It's a strategy we wholeheartedly embrace!
Each product in our inventory is thoughtfully tagged, spanning key categories like Tops, Bottoms, Dresses, Denim, and Accessories, along with details like release dates.
Release dates are neatly formatted as follows: 3-27-2024.
In our announcements, we cover various tags such as sales and preorders. For example, preorder tags are identified by "P" preceding every date tag, such as "P3-27-2024" or "RTS Preorder" for ready-to-ship items. Flash Deal tags are distinguished by "FD" preceding every date tag, such as "FD3-22-2024". Additionally, all available sizes and vendors are tagged, along with distinctions for model names and settings, including studio vs. lifestyle and indoor vs. outdoor.
Here are some quick and easy steps to building automated collections by tag.
Step 1: Login to your Shopify admin and go to your Products menu
Under the drop-down, click on 'Collections'
Step 2: On the far right at the top, click on 'Create Collection'
Step 3: Click on the circle to make the collection type 'Automated'
There will be a 'Conditions' section where you can select the automation for this collection. This will be how Shopify determines which products to bring into this collection based on certain characteristics.
For Ave's purposes and our recommendation, we select 'Product tag' 'is equal to'.
Step 4: Determine which product tag you want to use for the collection. You can use a category, release date, preorder date, sale tag, etc.
Let's say we wanted to create a collection for New Arrivals. If we had one specific release date we wanted to showcase, we would set it up this way. 👇🏻
Note: Products must match 'All conditions' is selected because we have only one tag entered. If we have multiple tags (or other conditions entered) we want to showcase in this collection, we are going to to change this to 'Any condition' in order to pull in all of those products since all of those products would not have all of those tags on their product pages in Shopify. See an example below!
Want to have a collection specifically for a category like Tops? You can do that too! We have tags for Tops, Bottoms, Dresses, Denim, and Accessories. These are our five main categories. Here is what it would look like for a Tops category!
Step 5: Once you feel good about your selection, head to the very top and click 'Save'
After saving, you'll see products from those tags that you've selected load up to your collection like the example below.
Note: You can manage publishing to your sales channels for this collection at the same time.
You can create sub categories by tagging the products yourself on a weekly basis when they sync in (Or any older products) and then create more automated collections.
Note: Be thoughtful about the tags you add so you don't have any random tags out there that you don't use!
Now that you have a collection built, publish your products and ensure your collection is published and those products will appear on your site in the desired location. :)
Here's a helpful article about publishing. You can also find a full recommended Shopify process from Ave in a recorded Loom here.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to our Customer Happiness team through chat or email hello@theavenueshops.com.