Product Assignment

Learn how to add products to collections and remove them, both from the Collection Manager and directly from the product grid.

Adding Products to Collections

From Collection Manager

  1. Open Collection Manager
  2. Select a manual collection
  3. Click Add Products
  4. Product Picker opens:
    • Search for products
    • Filter by status/type/vendor
    • Check products to add
  5. Click Add to Collection

From Product Grid

  1. Select products in the main grid
  2. Click + Collection button in toolbar
  3. Collection Picker opens:
    • Shows all manual collections
    • Search by name
  4. Select target collection
  5. Click Add

Bulk Add Multiple Products

  1. Select many products (Ctrl+A for all)
  2. Click + Collection
  3. Choose collection
  4. All selected products are added

Removing Products from Collections

From Collection Manager

  1. Open Collection Manager
  2. Select a manual collection
  3. View products in the collection
  4. Select products to remove
  5. Click Remove from Collection
  6. Confirm removal

From Product Grid

  1. Filter products by collection (optional)
  2. Select products to remove
  3. Click - Collection button in toolbar
  4. Select the collection to remove from
  5. Confirm removal

Bulk Remove

  1. Select multiple products
  2. Click - Collection
  3. Choose collection
  4. All selected are removed from that collection

Product Picker

The Product Picker helps you find products to add:

Type to search by:

  • Product title
  • SKU
  • Vendor

Filters

Filter the product list:

  • Status - Active, Draft, Archived
  • Type - Product type
  • Vendor - Brand/vendor
  • In Collection - Already in a collection

Selection

  • Click - Select single product
  • Ctrl+Click - Add to selection
  • Shift+Click - Select range
  • Select All - All visible products

Already in Collection

Products already in the target collection show:

  • Grayed out
  • "Already in collection" label
  • Cannot be selected again

Collection Picker

When adding from the grid, the Collection Picker shows:

  • All manual collections
  • Collection product count
  • Search by name
  • Recently used collections first

Note: Smart collections don't appear - they're managed by rules.

Understanding Manual vs Smart

Manual Collections

✓ Can add/remove products directly ✓ Products stay until removed ✓ Full control over membership

Smart Collections

✗ Cannot add/remove directly ✗ Products auto-managed by rules ✓ To include a product: Make it match the rules ✓ To exclude: Make it not match rules

Example: To add a product to a "On Sale" smart collection:

  1. Set a Compare At Price on the product
  2. Product automatically appears in collection

Workflow Examples

  1. Create manual collection "Featured Products"
  2. Select your best 10 products
  3. Click + Collection
  4. Add to "Featured Products"

Seasonal Curation

  1. Create "Spring Collection" manual collection
  2. Use search to find spring-related products
  3. Add products in batches
  4. Remove winter products from display

Managing Sale Items

For manual control:

  1. Create "Sale Items" manual collection
  2. Add products going on sale
  3. Remove when sale ends

For automatic:

  1. Create "Sale Items" smart collection
  2. Rule: Compare At Price > 0
  3. Products auto-add when sale-priced

Collection Membership View

From Product Grid

See which collections a product belongs to:

  1. Enable "Collections" column in grid
  2. Shows comma-separated collection names
  3. Click to see full list

From Product Details

  1. Select a product
  2. View product details
  3. Collections section shows membership

Best Practices

  1. Use meaningful names - "Summer 2024" not "Collection 1"
  2. Don't over-assign - Not every product needs many collections
  3. Plan structure - Decide collection hierarchy first
  4. Use smart for scale - Manual works for small sets
  5. Regular cleanup - Remove old seasonal collections

Bulk Assignment Strategies

By Vendor

  1. Filter grid by vendor
  2. Select all
  3. Add to vendor collection

By Type

  1. Filter by product type
  2. Select all
  3. Add to type-based collection

By Tag

  1. Search for tag
  2. Select matching products
  3. Add to thematic collection

Troubleshooting

"Cannot add to collection"

  • Verify it's a manual collection (not smart)
  • Check you have edit permissions
  • Ensure products are saved

"Product doesn't appear after adding"

  • Collection may need to sync
  • Check product status (Active?)
  • Verify collection is published

"Cannot remove from collection"

  • Smart collection: Change product data instead
  • Manual: Ensure product is actually in collection
  • Check for sync errors

"Collection full"

Shopify has no hard limit, but:

  • Very large collections can be slow
  • Consider using smart collections for scale
  • Split into sub-collections if needed

Keyboard Shortcuts

In Product Picker

Shortcut Action
Ctrl+A Select all visible
Escape Cancel and close
Enter Confirm selection

In Product Grid

Shortcut Action
Ctrl+Shift+A Add to collection
Ctrl+Shift+R Remove from collection

See Also