Automated collections with metafields

Automated collections use selection conditions to automatically include matching products. You can add up to 60 selection conditions in a single collection, and you can specify if products need to meet all conditions or any condition to be included in the collection.

Complete the following actions before you create an automated collection by metafields:

• add in your metafield definitions
• activate automated collections
• add the values to your products or variants

Benefits of automated collections by metafields

Automated collections by metafields help you create more accurate collections for your products and variants compared to product tags. For example, you can set up a collection using the tags that include red. However, red is used for product color, and urgency-red is used for fulfillment urgency. In this example, your collection would have products that are both the color red and have a fulfillment urgency of urgency-red, because they both include red. In this example, tags aren't going to work for your color red collection.

Because metafields are part of your data model, you can integrate this same data across Shopify, such as your online store. You can use metafields to be more specific in your collections. You can create metafield definitions for color, and then create a collection that only pulls in products that have the color value you want for the collection. You can create a metafield definition that is for fulfillment urgency, and then create a collection that only pulls in products that are marked with an urgent fulfillment value. Metafields provide more flexibility and structure than tags.

Limitations

Automated collections by metafield conditions have the following limitations:

• You can only use product or variant metafield definitions and values in your automated collections.

• If you add a metafield to a variant and create an automated collection for that metafield, then your automated collection will pull in the whole product with the other variants.

• The activate automated collections setting has a maximum of 128 definitions per product metafield definitions and variant metafield definitions.

• You can't delete a metafield defintion until the collection is updated to remove the metafield definition as a condition.

Metafield definitions and supported conditions

Only certain metafield product and variant definitions are supported with specific conditions.

Metafield definitions and supported conditions for automated collections

Metafield definition type	Supported conditions
True or false	equals
Integer	equals greater than less than
Decimal	equals greater than less than
Rating	equals greater than less than
Single line text (one value and list of values)	equals

Activating the automated collections setting

To use a metafield definition for automated collections, you need to activate the setting in your metafield definitions.

Desktop

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Custom data.
2. Depending on the metafield definition you want to use for automated collections, select either Products or Variants.
3. Click the metafield definition that you want to use for your collection.
4. Select Use in automated collections.
5. Click Save.

Learn more about creating custom metafield definitions.

Create automated collections with metafield definition conditions

You can add a condition to include products or variants with a particular metafield.

The first column of the drop-down list for your automated collection conditions is the name of your metafield definition. The second column is your supported conditions, such as equals. The third column is for your metafield values and is a drop-down list or text box. Only metafield definitions with the automated collections setting activated display.

For example, to set up a condition that selects products with the metafield definition Color and the value #FF0000:

Steps:

Desktop

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

2. Click Create collection.

3. Enter a title and description for the collection.

4. In the Collection type section, click Automated and then do the following:

   1. Select whether products need to match all conditions or any condition to be included in the collection.
   2. Select Color from the first column drop-down.
   3. Select is equal to from the second column.
   4. Type #FF0000.

5. Click Save. In the Products section that's displayed, the products that match the conditions are automatically added to the collection.

Learn more about automated collections.