Group products with collections

You can automate the process of creating and maintaining product groups using Shopify collections. The app monitors collections whose title starts with a specific prefix and automatically creates groups from them.

For example, if your prefix is Group:   and you have a Shopify collection called "Group: Backpacks", the app will create a group named "Backpacks" containing all products from that collection. The prefix is stripped from the collection name to create the group title.

The automation runs every 60 minutes, keeping your groups in sync with your Shopify collections. You can also trigger a sync manually at any time.

Automation setup

Step 1 - Create an automation

Go to Product groups → Automations and click Create automation.

Fill in the form:

1. Automatically group products using - select Collections.
2. Collection name prefix - enter the prefix you'll use in your collection titles (e.g. Group:  ). The app will look for all collections starting with this text.

Next, configure Group attributes. These settings are applied to every group the automation creates:

• Option name - the label shown in the swatches widget on your storefront (e.g. "Color", "Style", "Design"). This tells customers what the swatches represent.
• Group position - the order of the group in the widget when a product belongs to multiple groups. Set to 1   for the first position.
• Group displayed on - where the swatches widget appears: on product pages only, collection pages only, or both.

Finally, configure Swatch attributes:

• Swatch type - how swatches are displayed:
  • Auto - attempts to match an existing swatch by name. If no match is found, the product image is displayed.
  • Product image - always uses the product's featured image as the swatch.
  • Image with text - displays a text label from a metafield. Requires a Metafield for swatch name (see "Metafield setup" section below).
  • Pill - displays a text label as a pill/button. Also requires a Metafield for swatch name.

Click Create to save the automation. It will be created in an Inactive state.

Step 2 - Create Shopify collections

If you haven't already, create Shopify collections for the products you want to group. Make sure each collection title starts with your chosen prefix.

For example, with the prefix Group: :

• ✅ Group: Backpacks → creates a group called "Backpacks"
• ✅ Group: Summer Shirts → creates a group called "Summer Shirts"
• ❌ Sale Items → ignored (no prefix match)

You can use either manual or automated Shopify collections - the app works with both.

Step 3 - Activate the automation

Open your automation and click Activate. The automation will immediately begin processing your collections.

You can check the progress in the Overview sidebar on the automation page, which shows:

• Last run - when the automation last synced
• Groups - how many groups are being managed

Step 4 - Verify your groups

Once processing completes, go to Product groups to see the groups created by the automation. Each one will be marked with an Automated badge.

Ongoing sync

The automation runs automatically every 60 minutes. On each run it:

• Creates groups for any new collections matching your prefix
• Adds products that were added to matching collections
• Removes products that were removed from matching collections
• Deletes groups for collections that no longer match the prefix (e.g. if a collection was renamed or deleted)

If you don't want to wait, click Run now from the automation page to trigger an immediate sync.

Pausing or deleting an automation

• Deactivate - pauses the automation. Existing groups are kept but no longer updated. You can reactivate at any time.
• Delete - permanently removes the automation and all groups it created. This cannot be undone.

Metafield for swatch name (optional)

You can use a Shopify metafield to provide custom swatch names for your products. This is optional for Auto and Product image swatch types, but required for Image with text and Pill types.

Step 1 - Create a metafield definition

In your Shopify Admin, go to Settings → Metafields and metaobjects → Products and create a new metafield definition:

• Name: Swatch Name (or any name you prefer)
• Type: Single line text

Step 2 - Fill in metafield values

On each product page in Shopify Admin, enter the swatch name in the metafield you just created (e.g. "Red", "Ocean Blue", "Charcoal").

Step 3 - Connect the metafield to the automation

In the automation form, under Swatch attributes, select your metafield definition in the Metafield for swatch name dropdown. If you don't see it, click the reload button next to the dropdown.

Step 4 - Run the automation

Click Run now or wait for the next automatic run. The app will use the metafield values as swatch names and attempt to match them with existing swatches in your library.

To verify this you can open group linked to automation. It should have filled Swatch name field now.

Also, if you already used swatches with the same name in the app - automation will find them by swatch name automatically and assign correct swatch type and color/image.

Metafield for swatch position (optional)

By default, swatches in a group are ordered by how products appear in the Shopify collection. If you want to control the order yourself, you can use a metafield to set a custom position for each swatch.

Step 1 - Create a metafield definition

In your Shopify Admin, go to Settings → Metafields and metaobjects → Products and create a new metafield definition:

• Name: Swatch Position (or any name you prefer)
• Type: Integer

Step 2 - Set position values on products

On each product page in Shopify Admin, enter a number in the metafield. Lower numbers appear first.

Products without a position value will be placed after positioned products, in the order they appear in the collection.

Step 3 - Connect the metafield to the automation

In the automation form, under Swatch attributes, select your metafield definition in the Metafield for swatch position dropdown. If you don't see it, click the reload button next to the dropdown.

Step 4 - Run the automation

Click Run now or wait for the next automatic run. Swatches will be reordered according to your metafield values.