Manage products, categories, and collections on Shop

Using the Shop channel, you can manage the products, categories, and collections that are available through the Shop app.

Manage product availability

To be listed in Shop, products need to have an image, price, and product category. The products that you sell through Shop need to follow the Shop merchant guidelines, and can't be prohibited products.

If you're using the Shop channel and have activated Sell with Shop, then all of your eligible products that are published on your online store also display on the Shop app. If you sell fixed product bundles, then they display in Shop as product listings.

If you want to manually adjust a product's availability on Shop, then you can use the bulk editor.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Apps and sales channels.

  2. From the Apps and sales channels page, click Shop.

  3. Click Open sales channel.

  4. Click Catalog, and then click Manage products in bulk.

  5. Click Columns, and then select Published in Shop.

  6. In the Published in Shop column, select the products that you want to display in Shop, or deselect the products that you want to hide from Shop.

  7. Click Save.

After you update product availability, it can take a few minutes for the changes to display in Shop.

View the status of your products

In the Listing status column of your Shop Catalog page, you can review whether a product is listed in the Shop app:

  • Not Listed: Your product isn't visible to customers in the Shop app. Click the listing status to find out why the product isn't listed, and how to resolve the issue.
  • Listed: Your product is visible to customers in the Shop app.

Common errors for unlisted products

Common errors for unlisted products in Shop and how to fix them.
Error messageDescription
Prohibited product categoryIf a product is prohibited, such as age-restricted products or hazardous materials, then the product won't be approved. Learn more about prohibited product types.
Missing imageThe product image needs to exist on one of the product variants to be available in search.
Missing product categoryThe product needs to have a standardized product category selected to be available in search. Learn more about product categories.
Invalid product priceThe product price needs to be listed as more than 0 in your Shopify admin to be available in search.
Product SEO hiddenIf a product has a metafield set to SEO hidden, then it won't be available in search through any channel.
Non-compliant productIf an ineligible search query is made and it matches a product, then the product isn't approved.

Manage collections

To help customers navigate your products, you can add collections to your Categories or Collections on Shop. Categories display as icons at the top of your Shop Store, whereas collections display in the Collections section. For categories, you can't change the image that's used, whereas for collections you can edit or customize the image displayed.

You can add up to 12 categories and 5 collection lists, where each collection list can include up to 10 collections which will each list up to 250 products. After you add a collection to a collection list, that collection can't be added to another collection list.

To be listed on Shop, collections need to have at least one approved product, an image, and be available on the Shop channel. You can use the Shop channel to manage the collections that you want to display in Shop.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Apps and sales channels.

  2. From the Apps and sales channels page, click Shop.

  3. Click Open sales channel.

  4. In the Store section, click Customize.

  5. Do either of the following:

    • Click Categories.
      • To add a collection to your Shop categories, click Add a category, and then select the collection that you want to display in Shop.
      • To remove a category from your Shop categories, click the trash can icon next to the category that you want to remove from Shop.
    • Click Collections.
      • To add a collection to your Shop collections, click Add a collection, and then select the collection that you want to display in Shop.
      • To remove a collection from your Shop collections, click the trash can icon next to the collection that you want to remove from Shop.
  6. Click Save.

Change the order in which categories and collections display in your Shop Store

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Apps and sales channels.

  2. From the Apps and sales channels page, click Shop.

  3. Click Open sales channel.

  4. In the Store section, click Customize.

  5. Click Categories or Collections.

  6. Drag and drop a category or collection to the spot where you want it to display.

  7. Click Save.

Display the cover images of your collections on Shop

Categories automatically display an image of a best-selling product from the collection chosen as the category. You can choose whether to display or hide cover images for Collections.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Apps and sales channels.

  2. From the Apps and sales channels page, click Shop.

  3. Click Open sales channel.

  4. In the Store section, click Customize.

  5. Click Collections.

  6. For the Display images option, click Yes or No. If Yes is chosen, then the selected collections must have a cover image included.

  7. Click Save.

View the status of your collections

In the Categories and Collections sections, you can view the approval status of the collections that you want to make available in the Shop app. If a collection isn't approved, then you can click the link next to the error message to make changes to the collection so that it can be reevaluated.

Error messages

If your collection isn't approved, then the collection doesn't display in the Shop app. Review the table below to learn more about what an error message means.

Why collections aren't displaying in Shop app and how to fix.
Error messageDescription
Collection must have an imageThe collection needs to have a featured image to be visible on the Shop app. Learn how to add an image to a collection.
Collection has no approved productsThe collection must contain at least one approved product to be displayed in the Shop app.
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