How to Add Products to a Featured Collection on Shopify

To add products to a featured collection on Shopify, open Products > Collections, click the collection your homepage section uses, then search for products or click Browse in the Products section and click Save. You can also add a product from its own page, or add many at once from the Products list with the Add to collection bulk action.

That's the whole job for most stores. But there's a catch that most guides skip: the homepage section only shows the first few products of the collection, in the collection's sort order. So adding a product doesn't guarantee anyone sees it. This guide covers all three ways to add products, how the theme section picks what to show, and how to stop sold-out products from taking your best homepage slots.

Key takeaways

• A "featured collection" is just a normal collection that a theme section displays. You add products to it like any other collection.

• The section shows only the first products in the collection's sort order: up to 25 in Dawn and up to 16 in Horizon (both default to 4).

• Set the collection's sort to Manually if you want to control exactly which products appear first.

• Sold-out products keep their position unless you move them, filter them out with a smart collection, or use an app to push them down.

What a featured collection actually is

Shopify has no special "featured collection" product setting. A featured collection is an ordinary collection (for example "Bestsellers" or "New in") that you pick inside a Featured collection section in the theme editor. The section then shows a grid or carousel of that collection's products, usually on the homepage.

That means two separate things decide what shoppers see:

1. Which products are in the collection. You control this in the Shopify admin.
2. Which of those products the section shows. The theme takes the first N products in the collection's sort order, where N is the section's product count setting.

Most "my product isn't showing" problems come from the second point, not the first.

One requirement before you start: collections aren't available on the Starter plan. You need Basic, Grow, Advanced or Shopify Plus (Shopify Help Center).

Step 1: Create the collection you want to feature

If you already have a collection showing on your homepage, skip to Step 2.

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Collections.
2. Click Add collection.
3. Enter a title, such as "Bestsellers" or "Summer picks".
4. Under Collection type, choose Manual or Smart.
5. Click Save.

Manual or smart? Pick Manual when you want to hand-pick a short list of products for the homepage. Pick Smart when the list should update itself based on conditions such as a tag, vendor, price or inventory stock. Smart collections can have up to 60 conditions, and you can't convert one type into the other later, so choose carefully (Shopify Help Center).

For a homepage section that shows only 4 to 8 products, a manual collection usually gives you the most control.

Step 2: Add products to the collection (3 ways)

Option A: From the collection page (best for a few products)

1. Go to Products > Collections and click the collection.
2. In the Products section, type a product name in the search field, or click Browse to see your catalog.
3. Tick the products you want and confirm.
4. Click Save.

This is the fastest way to build a featured collection from scratch, because you see the whole collection while you add to it.

Option B: From the product page (best for one new product)

1. Go to Products and click the product.
2. In the Collections field, start typing the collection name and select it. A product can belong to several collections.
3. Click Save.

Use this when you've just created a new product and want it featured right away. If you're still setting up products, our guide on how to add products to Shopify covers titles, images, variants and pricing.

Note: in the Shopify mobile app, you can only pick manual collections here. Smart collections fill themselves based on their conditions (Shopify Help Center).

Option C: Bulk add from the Products list (best for many products)

1. Go to Products.
2. Filter the list if it helps (for example by tag or vendor), then tick the products you want.
3. Click Add to collection (it may be under More actions), choose the collection and confirm.

On desktop you can select every product on the page, or use Select all to include more than one page of results. In the mobile app you can select up to 25 items at a time (Shopify Help Center). The same menu has Remove from collection for cleaning up later.

If the collection is smart

You can't add products to a smart collection by hand. Edit its conditions instead. For example, to feature everything tagged featured, add the condition Tag is equal to featured, then add that tag to the products you want.

Step 3: Show the collection on your homepage

1. Go to Online Store > Themes and click Customize on your live theme. (A common mistake is editing a theme that isn't published.)
2. Open the Home page template.
3. Click Add section and choose Featured collection. In Horizon, Shopify's newer free theme, you'll see two versions: Featured collection: Grid and Featured collection: Carousel.
4. In the section settings, click Select under Collection and pick your collection.
5. Set how many products to show and how many columns to use.
6. Click Save.

Here's how the product count setting works in Shopify's two free reference themes, taken from their theme code (Dawn, Horizon):

Paid themes use their own names, but nearly all of them work the same way: pick a collection, then pick how many products to show.

Step 4: Control which products show first

Both Dawn and Horizon loop through the collection's products in its sort order and stop at the product count. If your collection has 20 products and the section shows 4, only the first 4 in the sort order reach the homepage. A product you just added can land in position 20 and never be seen there.

To control the order:

1. Go to Products > Collections and click the collection.
2. In Collection items, open the Default sort menu.
3. Choose Manually.
4. Drag products into the order you want, or select products and use Move to send them to the beginning, the end, or a specific position.
5. Click Save.

The other sort options are most relevant, best selling, alphabetical, price, and newest or oldest (Shopify Help Center). Best selling is a good hands-off choice for a "Bestsellers" section. Newest suits a "New arrivals" section. One caveat: price sorting uses base prices, so it may not match what shoppers in other markets see.

Keep sold-out products out of your featured section

Sorting doesn't look at stock. A bestseller that sells out keeps its slot at the top, so your homepage ends up showcasing something nobody can buy. Shoppers click, see "Sold out" and leave. Every homepage slot taken by a sold-out product is a slot that could have shown something in stock.

You have three ways to fix this:

1. Move sold-out products by hand. With manual sorting, drag sold-out items to the end of the collection. This works for small collections, but you have to remember to do it every time stock changes, and move items back after a restock.

2. Filter them out with a smart collection. Create a smart collection with the condition Inventory stock is greater than 0 plus whatever else defines the collection (for example Tag is equal to featured), set it to match all conditions, and use it in the homepage section. Shopify treats the inventory condition as true if any variant matches (Shopify Help Center), so a product with one size left still counts as in stock. The downside is that you lose manual ordering.

3. Push them down automatically. An app such as Out of Stock Manager by Redsun moves sold-out products to the bottom of a collection whenever stock changes, then sorts the in-stock products by the sort type you choose. Your featured section keeps showing products customers can actually buy, without manual work.

If you'd rather hide sold-out items across the whole store, see our guide on hiding sold-out products and variants on Shopify.

Why a product isn't showing in the featured collection

If you added a product and it doesn't appear on the homepage, check these in order:

1. It's past the product count. The section shows only the first N products. Move it up with manual sorting, or raise the product count.
2. The product is a draft. Only products with Active status show on your storefront. Merchants often hit this with new products that are still drafts.
3. The product isn't on the Online Store sales channel. Open the product and check Publishing (or Sales channels).
4. The section points at a different collection. Open the theme editor and check which collection the section uses. Collections with similar names are easy to mix up.
5. You edited an unpublished theme. Make sure the theme you changed is the live one.
6. The collection is smart. The product must meet its conditions. Check its tags, vendor, type or stock against the collection rules.

Tips for a featured collection that sells

• Match the order to the goal. "Bestsellers" should use best selling or a hand-picked order. "New arrivals" should use newest.
• Keep it short. The homepage section is a preview. Keep the "View all" button turned on, so shoppers can open the full collection.
• Rotate it. Refresh seasonal collections before each campaign. Our BFCM preparation guide covers what to update before the holiday rush.
• Measure it. Compare sessions and conversion for featured products before and after a change. If the homepage converts poorly, our post on why your conversion rate is low lists the usual causes.

FAQ

How many products can a featured collection show on Shopify?

The collection itself can hold your whole catalog, but the homepage section shows only a set number. In Dawn the range is 2 to 25 products. In Horizon it's 1 to 16. Both default to 4.

Can I add the same product to more than one collection?

Yes. A product can belong to any number of manual and smart collections. Adding it to a featured collection doesn't remove it from other collections.

Can I feature specific variants instead of whole products?

Not with legacy collections, which accept only whole products. Shopify is rolling out a new collections model that supports variants (Shopify Help Center). Until it reaches your admin, feature the whole product.

Does removing a product from a collection delete it?

No. Removing a product from a collection only takes it out of that collection. The product stays in your store.

Can I show more than one featured collection on the homepage?

Yes. Add another Featured collection section in the theme editor and point it at a different collection, for example one section for "Bestsellers" and one for "New arrivals".