Managing Shopify Collection Sorting with Manual Settings and the API
Collection sort order is the setting that decides the order products appear in a collection on your online store. In Shopify, you change it by opening a collection under Products > Collections and choosing a default sort, such as best selling, alphabetical, price, date created or manual.
The order you choose shapes what shoppers see first, which can affect what they click and buy. Picking the right sort for each collection, and knowing when to arrange products by hand, helps you put your most important products in front of customers.
How to Change Collection Sort Order in Shopify
You can change a collection’s sort order from the Shopify admin on desktop or in the Shopify mobile app. Each collection has its own setting, so repeat these steps for every collection you want to change. Follow these steps on desktop:
- In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Collections.
- Click the collection you want to edit.
- In the Collection items section, open the Default sort drop-down and choose a sort order.
- Click Save.
In the mobile app, tap the Products icon, open Collections and tap the collection. Under Collection items, tap View all, choose an option from the Default sort order drop-down and save on both the items page and the collection page.
Collection sort options explained
Shopify offers six ways to sort products in a collection. Each one suits a different kind of collection:
| Sort option | How products are ordered | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Most relevant | By sales performance, and the default for new collections | General collections where you want strong sellers near the top |
| Best selling | By all-time order count, or newest to oldest if nothing has sold | Bestseller and popular product collections |
| Alphabetical | By product title, A to Z or Z to A | Large catalogs where shoppers look for a specific name |
| Price | Low to high or high to low | Sale, budget and gift collections |
| Date created | Oldest or newest first | New arrivals and seasonal launches |
| Manual | In the order you arrange yourself | Curated collections, featured products and lookbooks |
Sort products manually
Manual sorting gives you full control over which products appear first. After choosing Manually in the default sort drop-down on desktop, you can rearrange products in two ways:
- Drag and drop. Drag a product to its new position in the list.
- Move selected products. Select one or more products, then use the Move drop-down to send them to the beginning, the end or a specific position entered in the To position field.
The admin shows 60 products per page, so the move option is faster than dragging in large collections. On mobile, you can drag products or move selected items to the top or bottom, but you can’t enter a specific position.
How Collection Sort Order Affects Your Storefront
When a collection appears on your online store, its products display in the sort order you set. This applies wherever the collection is shown, such as its collection page or a featured collection section on your homepage.
Many themes also include a sort menu so shoppers can reorder products themselves, for example by price or by date. The default option in that menu, often labeled Featured, follows the sort order you chose in the admin, while a shopper’s own choice only changes their view.
Price sorting uses each product’s base price. Prices set for specific markets or B2B catalogs are ignored, so international or wholesale customers may not see products in strict price order.
Collection sort order only affects how products display in your store. It doesn’t change the order of items in orders, packing slips or picking lists in your admin, which need a separate tool if you want them sorted by collection.
Choose the Right Sort Order for Each Collection
The best sort order depends on what a collection is for and what shoppers expect to find there. You can mix sort orders across your store, and these pairings work well for common collection types:
- New arrivals. Use date created, newest first, so the latest products always appear at the top.
- Bestsellers. Use best selling to keep popular products updated automatically as sales change.
- Sale or clearance. Use price, low to high, for shoppers hunting for deals.
- Seasonal or campaign collections. Use manual sorting to lead with hero products and keep related items together.
- Large catalogs. Use alphabetical sorting when shoppers search for products by name, such as parts or refills.
Automatic sort orders save time because they update themselves as products sell or launch. Manual sorting takes more upkeep, so reserve it for collections where the order really matters, and review it whenever you add new products.
Change Collection Sort Order With the API
Developers and apps can set a collection’s sort order through Shopify’s GraphQL Admin API. This helps when you manage many collections at once, and the sortOrder field on a collection uses the CollectionSortOrder values below:
| Value | Sort order |
|---|---|
MOST_RELEVANT |
Most relevant products |
BEST_SELLING |
Best-selling products |
ALPHA_ASC, ALPHA_DESC |
Alphabetical, A to Z or Z to A |
PRICE_ASC, PRICE_DESC |
Price, lowest to highest or highest to lowest |
CREATED, CREATED_DESC |
Date created, oldest to newest or newest to oldest |
MANUAL |
The order set manually by the merchant |
To arrange products in a specific order, use the collectionReorderProducts mutation. The collection must be set to MANUAL, each call accepts up to 250 moves and the reorder runs as a background job, so you check the job to confirm when it’s finished.
Positions in this mutation start at zero and are applied in the order you list them. You only need to send the products whose positions changed, and a position beyond the end of the list places the product last.
Collection Sort Order on Other Platforms
Other platforms handle collection sorting in their own ways, though the core options are similar. Two examples show how the approach can differ.
Shopline’s API offers the familiar price, alphabetical, best-selling, date created and manual options, plus extra values such as sorting by conversion rate, add-to-cart actions, last update date or page views. It also has a value for a custom order set within an app, which can only be read from queries, not set as an input.
In Webflow, sorting applies to dynamic Collection lists, and you can stack several sort rules so later rules break ties from earlier ones. Webflow doesn’t offer drag-and-drop ordering, so a custom order means adding a number field to the Collection, giving each item a position and sorting the list by that field from smallest to largest.
Common Collection Sorting Problems
Many sorting issues come from the sort type you’ve chosen or from how prices and themes work. Most are quick to fix once you know the cause, so watch for these:
- Products can’t be dragged. The collection isn’t set to manual sorting.
- API reorder fails. The collection’s sort order isn’t
MANUAL, which the reorder mutation requires. - Price order looks wrong. Customers see market or B2B catalog prices, while sorting uses base prices.
- New products land in the wrong place. Manually sorted collections don’t update themselves, so check new additions and move them where you want them.
- Shoppers see a different order. They picked another option from the theme’s sort menu, which overrides the default for their view.
- Changes don’t appear. The new sort order wasn’t saved, or you’re viewing a different collection or section.
Conclusion
Collection sort order is a simple setting with a real impact on what shoppers see first in your store. Choosing an automatic sort for collections that change often and manual sorting for curated ones keeps your collections easy to browse and focused on the right products. We hope this guide helps you set the right collection sort order for your store.
