How to Tailor Your Shopify Store's Collection Pages by Product Type

Hey there! Picture this: you're browsing through an online store, looking for just the right type of product but you find yourself swimming through a sea of irrelevant items. Annoying, right? Now, think about your own Shopify store. Wouldn't it be neat if your customers could skip the hassle and zero in on exactly what they need? That’s where filtering collections by product type comes into play.

Let's dive straight into how you can make shopping on your site as smooth as a buttered slide.

Why Bother with Filtering?

First off, let's get on the same page about why filtering matters. Ever walked into a cluttered shop? It’s overwhelming. Online shopping can feel that way too if customers can’t easily navigate to what they need. By setting up filters, particularly by product type, you're giving your customers a compass in the wilderness of your eCommerce store.

How Shopify Handles Collections

Shopify organizes products into collections to make managing your store simpler. Think of collections like categories on a menu in a restaurant; they help people find what they're looking for without scanning the entire menu. What if you could make things even more straightforward by allowing customers to filter these collections based on product types — like sorting desserts from appetizers?

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Filter by Product Type

Okay, let's get into the weeds a bit – but not too deep. I promise it'll be painless.

Step 1: Understand Your Product Types

Before diving into technical settings, it's crucial to understand how your products are categorized. Each product can be assigned a type during creation, something like ‘Shirts’, ‘Shoes’, or ‘Accessories’.

Step 2: Smart Collections Are Your Friend

Shopify allows you to create two kinds of collections: manual and smart. For filtering, smart collections are, well, smarter. They automatically add products based on conditions you set (like product types). Here’s how you set one up:

From your Shopify admin, head to Products > Collections.
Click Create collection.
Name your collection and, under Collection type, select Automated.
Add conditions such as Product type is followed by the types you want.

Now that you have your collections automated by product type, you want to make sure your customers can navigate these categories easily.

Go to Online Store > Navigation.
Click on the menu you want to edit or create a new one.
Add menu items linking to each of your smart collections.

Step 4: Using Product Tags Wisely

This is a neat trick. While setting up or editing products, you can add tags related to the product types. These tags can then be used to further refine the filtering process on your collection pages.

Step 5: Test the Flow

Once you've set up everything, impersonate a customer (or heck, ask a friend who loves free stuff to help you test). Navigate through your collections via the filter to experience firsthand if it feels intuitive. Collect feedback and tweak as needed.

Enhancing the Customer Experience

Filters are gold, but only if they make life easier. Keep your filters visible and easy to understand. No customer should need a map to find their way through your navigation. Also, remember to keep mobile users in mind; everything should work seamlessly across devices.

Spice Things Up with Custom Features

Got a handle on the basic setup and feeling adventurous? Shopify’s platform is flexible enough to let you customize further. Consider using apps from the Shopify App Store like ‘Product Filter & Search’ to add more powerful and visually appealing filters.

The Bottom Line

Setting up your Shopify store to filter collections by product type isn't just a neat trick—it's a powerful tool to improve user experience and boost your sales. Remember, the goal is to ease your customer's journey from homepage to checkout. Simple tweaks like these can turn browsers into happy buyers.

So there you go! You now have the roadmap and the tools to curate your Shopify store like a pro. Think of product type filtering as your storefront arrangement. The better the layout, the longer people stay and the more likely they are to buy. Happy filtering!