Set Up Your Shopify Collections Before You Build a Single Page

Before you build a single page on your Shopify store, map out your collections.

I know that doesn’t sound exciting. But it’s one of the most important things you can do before you start building, and it’ll save you a ridiculous amount of work later.

What is a Shopify collection?

A collection is a group of products that live together on your store. Usually they share something in common:

• a product type or category (e.g. cake boxes)
• a brand you sell (e.g. Loyal Bakeware)
• a common feature (e.g. sale)

The order goes like this. First you create your products. Then you map your collections, based on what your products have in common and how your customers will search and shop. Then you build those collections in Shopify. Finally your navigation (a fancy word for your menu) connects your customers to them.

Why collections come first

When your marketing starts working and customers land on your store, you don’t want to be scrambling to reorganise your website in a rush. You want it already set up for scale.

That starts with understanding two things: what you’re selling, and how you want to sell it.

How I structure collections on every store

Use smart collections, not manual ones

Smart collections use conditions to fill themselves with products automatically. As your range grows, the collection grows with it, and you don’t have to add every new product by hand.

For most product categories I use product tags as the condition. Tags are easy to apply, easy to change in bulk, and they help with searchability too.

If you’re a reseller, create brand collections

Use the Vendor condition for this. When you set up your products, use the Vendor field for the brand (not your supplier, the brand). Shopify will then group those products into their own collection automatically.

Create a sale collection using a tag

Sale collections are so helpful. As a shopper I’m always looking for a good deal, and so are your customers.

When you create the collection, set the condition to “Product tag contains sale”. Now you’re in complete control. Add the tag and the product appears. Remove the tag and it disappears. No manual sorting and no mistakes.

Always create New Arrivals and Best Sellers

You can do both with the sort setting on the collection:

• New Arrivals: condition “Inventory stock is greater than 0”, sorted by newest.
• Best Sellers: the same condition, sorted by best selling.

Shopify handles the rest.

Already built manual collections?

Don’t stress. Shopify now lets you convert an existing manual collection into a smart collection without losing anything. It’s a well-overdue feature, and a game changer if you’re mid-build.

This is what setting Shopify up properly from the start actually means. Not just making it look good, but building it so it can grow with you.

Your action for this week

Before you customise your theme or build any pages, open Shopify and go to Products → Collections. Create the basics first (New Arrivals, Best Sellers and Sale), then build out the rest based on how your customers will shop. Once you know this, creating products is a breeze.

Then connect them to your store with a menu that makes sense to customers. I cover that in how to set up your Shopify navigation.

Want a hand?

Inside From Stuck to Selling I walk you through the full build in the right order. If your store is already live and the structure has got messy, an optimisation sprint is a quick way to tidy collections and navigation without a rebuild.