Choose how a Shopify collection is sorted

A sorting strategy is a saved product order you hand to your collections. Pick one of the three templates, add collections, and those collections stay in that order.

The three templates

Template	What goes first	Good when
New arrivals first	The whole collection, newest first	New stock brings shoppers back
Low stock first	Products with 1 to 5 left, scarcest first	Almost-gone products should be seen
Sale first, then new arrivals	Sale items, deepest discount first, then the last 30 days of arrivals	A sale is running and new stock should still show

A template gives you a strategy of your own, and every part of it is yours to edit.

Create a strategy

1. Open the picker

   On Sorting, press New strategy, then Use a template.

2. Pick a template

   Press the template you want. The strategy opens as a draft, and nothing is saved until you press Save.

   

3. Add collections

   In the Collections section, press Add collections and pick which collections this strategy sorts. A collection carries one strategy, so a new one replaces what was there.

4. Save

   Press Save. Your collections sort that way from the next sort on.

Want sections and conditions of your own? See Build a custom strategy. A collection with no strategy keeps its order, and sold-out handling still reaches it.

Sort by best selling, newest or price

Open a collection and the Strategy dropdown holds a Built-in group with Shopify’s own orders: Best selling, Newest, Oldest, Product title A-Z, Product title Z-A, Lowest price and Highest price. Pick one and save. There is nothing to build, and your pinned products still stay on top.

Enabled or Manual only

Setting	What it does
Enabled	Sorts on your store schedule
Manual only	Sorts when you press Apply Sort

The choice sits in the strategy’s Sorting section. A template starts Enabled, a strategy built from scratch starts Manual only. The schedule itself is set on Sorting, beside your strategies.

Questions merchants ask

Do I need a strategy to push sold-out products down?

No. Sold-out handling is a store setting of its own, so it reaches a collection that has no strategy at all.

Can I change or delete a strategy later?

Yes. Open it from the Sorting page to rename it or change what it holds. Duplicate gives you a copy to experiment on, and Delete Strategy names the collections that stop being sorted before you confirm.

Does saving a strategy change my collections straight away?

No. The change lands at the next sort. Apply Sort shows you the proposed order before anything is written to Shopify.

Can two collections sort differently?

Yes. Give them different strategies. A strategy holds everything about the order, so a collection carries nothing of its own.

Next: see the proposed order before anything goes live, or pin the products that should always lead.