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Collections

Collections

Shopify has unified all Collection types into a single entity. A Collection gets its Products from one or more Sources, and each Source holds Conditions that decide which Products are included or excluded. One Collection can mix automated rules and manually selected Products.

This sheet replaces the Smart Collections and Custom Collections sheets, which are now deprecated. Those sheets can each represent only one kind of Collection and cannot read or write a Collection that has more than one Source.

Fields marked as “Export Only” cannot be imported/set in Shopify but can be exported with Matrixify export.

Excel Sheet Name

Collections

When importing a file, to tell the app that you are importing Collections, you can set the sheet/tab name to “Collection” or “Collections”.
Even if the sheet/tab name is not set correctly, you will be able to manually change and set the entity you are importing after uploading file in the app.

Need a quick start?

Download Collections Demo file
See Tutorials about Collections

Columns Available for Export & Import

Basic Columns

Column Description / Example Value
ID ID is an automatically generated number by Shopify to identify the item.

It is filled in by an Export.
When creating a new Collection, leave this value empty.

Allowed Values

Number

Example
102473039939
Handle This is what your store visitors will see in the Collection URL as unique collections Handle.

You can leave it empty when creating new Collections – in that case, the app will generate it for you from Title.
Whatever you will put in the Handle column, the app will convert it to the required Handle format, which is acceptable by Shopify.

When updating the Handle the app will by default also create a Redirect from old Handle to the new one. You can turn this off in the Import options with importing a file.

In Shopify, all Handles have a limitation of 255 characters, so any Handle longer than that will get truncated to 255 characters.

Example
cool-looking-tshirts
Command When importing a Collection, tell the app what to do with it:

  • NEW: will try to create a new Collection with the provided details. If such Collection will already exist (with the same ID or same Handle), then the result will be Failed.
  • MERGE: will try to find existing Collection, and update it with data from the row. If such Collection will not be found, then it will create new.
  • UPDATE: the app will search for an existing Collection and update it. If a Collection cannot be found then it will fail to import.
  • REPLACE: WARNING! Using this Command value, the app will delete the Collection from the store completely and create a new one only from data in the file, resulting in losing all data that is not included in the import file. The re-created Collection will get a new ID.
  • DELETE: the app will delete the existing Collection, which is found by ID or Handle. If such Collection will not be found, then the result will be Failed.
  • IGNORE: the app will ignore this Collection and will skip it.

If no Command is specified, then the app will assume the MERGE command.

Allowed Values
NEW
MERGE
UPDATE
REPLACE
DELETE
IGNORE
Example
MERGE
Title Title of the Collection.

Allowed Values

Text

Example
Cool Looking T-shirts
Body HTML This is a long description of the Collection.

You can write here just plain text or format that text using HTML code.

Allowed Values

Text, HTML

Example
Those all are nice T-shirts, and this is their <b>description</b>.
Sort Order Set how the Products will be sorted inside that Collection.

To set the Product order yourself with Linked Product columns, this must be set to “Manual”.
If you do not want to change the Sort Order of your Collections, remove this column from your import file.

Allowed Values
Alphabet
Alphabet Descending
Best Selling
Created
Created Descending
Manual
Most Relevant
Price
Price Descending
Example
Manual
Template Suffix Template Suffix allows you to specify which Template from your Theme to use for the specific Collection.

If the new Template file name is “collection.women.liquid”, then – to activate this Template for this Collection, write “women” as the Template Suffix.

Allowed Values

Text

Example
women
Updated At

Export Only

 It will be automatically updated, whenever you change the Collection data.

Example
2026-06-02 02:53:44 +0300
Image Src Link to the image.

This link must be publicly available.
A Collection can have only one image set as its featured image.

Once an image is imported, it doesn’t need to be hosted anymore with this link, because Shopify will download this image and store on their own servers.

Allowed Values

URL

Example
https://images.com/image.jpg
Image Width

Export Only

 The width of the image, in pixels.

Example
1062
Image Height

Export Only

 The height of the image, in pixels.

Example
527
Image Alt Text Alt Text for the Collections image. Great for SEO, because then search engines will know what is inside the image.

Allowed Values

Text

Example
Some descriptive name of the image
Products Count

Export Only

 Number of Products in the Collection, as calculated by Shopify from all of the Collection Sources.

Example
5
Row #

Export Only

 Will have row number from 1 till the end for each row. So that if you change the sorting in your exported file to easier update your data, you can sort it back by “Row #” and return it to the original sorting.
Top Row

Export Only

 It will have value “TRUE” for each “top row” of the item. That can help you filter in Excel to get only the base rows, in case you need to get rid of repeated rows for each item.

Sales Channels

Each Collection can be published to the Sales Channels that your store has installed. These columns tell you where the Collection is published, and let you publish or unpublish it.

These are dynamic columns – there is one pair of columns for each Sales Channel, and you write the name of the Sales Channel after the colon. For example, Published: Online Store and Published At: Online Store.

The Sales Channels available to you depend on which ones are installed in your store. Some of the possible ones are “Online Store”, “Point of Sale”, “Shop”, “Facebook & Instagram”, “Google & YouTube”, “Snapchat Ads” and “TikTok”. Do the Export first to see the exact column names for your store.

 

Column Description / Example Value
Published: … Tells whether this Collection is published to the given Sales Channel.
If you leave this cell empty, or set it to FALSE, then it will unpublish that Collection from that Sales Channel and clear its “Published At” date.

Allowed Values
TRUE
FALSE
Example
TRUE
Published At: … The date and time when the Collection becomes available on the given Sales Channel.
You can set it in the past, and on some Sales Channels you can set it in the future to schedule the publication. Can also be left empty when publishing a collection, which means it will be marked as published at the time of the Import.

Scheduled publishing

In Shopify, scheduled publications are only supported by a few Sales Channels such as “Online Store” and “Google & YouTube”. For those Sales Channels, you can set this field to a future date to schedule automatic future publication. If importing future publish date for a Sales Channel that does not support it, the app will return a warning, and the Collection will not be published at all to ensure that it is not published immediately by mistake – so use an empty “Published At” for those, or a date in the past.

Allowed Values

Date & Time

Example
2026-12-25 10:00:00 +0200

Sources & Conditions

Each Collection gets its Products from one or more Sources. A Source has a Type, and it holds Conditions which are grouped into an “Include” and  “Exclude” conditions.

A Collection can have up to 10 Sources.

The best way to understand how to fill those in, is to build one Collection through the Shopify Admin manually, and then do the Export. In the exported spreadsheet file, you will see the overall structure and will be able to repeat that same principle when creating many Collections to import in bulk.

When you update an existing Collection, the app identifies each of its Sources by:

    • By the numeric Source: ID, as it comes from an Export. This is the reliable way to point at one specific Source.
    • If there is no numeric Source: ID, then by the Source: Title and Source: Description. So you can update a Source by its name, without knowing its ID – which is what you need when moving Collections between stores.
    • If you write your own text in the Source: ID – like “s1” or “my-source” – then that text is used only to group the rows within your file. It is not stored in Shopify, so it cannot point at an existing Source.
    • If no other identification is specified, the app will update the first matching source with the same Source: Type before creating a new Source.

 

Column Description / Example Value
Source: ID The ID of the Source, filled in by an Export.
When creating new Sources, you can leave this empty, or you can write any number of your own to group the rows of multiple conditions into specific set of Sources.

Allowed Values

Number

Example
22918103107
Source: Command Tell the app, what to do with this Source:

  • MERGE: update the Source with the data from the file, keeping everything that is not in the file.
  • DELETE: delete the whole Source with all its Conditions from the Collection.
  • REPLACE: delete the Source and re-create it only from the data and Conditions as in the Import file.

If no Source: Command is specified, then the app will assume the MERGE command.

Allowed Values
MERGE
DELETE
REPLACE
Example
MERGE
Source: Type Defines what the Source draws its Products from:

  • Products: Conditions are applied to Product-level fields, and Products can be selected manually.
  • Variants: Conditions are applied to Variant-level fields, and Variants can be selected manually.
  • Collections: Products come from other Collections, which you select manually.
  • App <app-id> | <Type>: a Source provided by an app, for example, App 2315872 | Products. An Export gives you this full form, with the ID of the app and the type of Source the app provides.

An App Source is identified by the app ID in this column together with the Source: Title, so it is not mandatory to fill in the Source: ID for it.
App Sources and their Conditions are managed by the app that provides them, so you cannot change them by importing this sheet. If Matriixfy cannot find the App source in the store to link, regular source will be created with the same conditions as in the Import file.

The Source: Type of an existing Source cannot be changed. Delete the Source and create a new one to change it.

Allowed Values
Products
Variants
Collections
App app-id | Type
Example
App 2315872 | Products
Source: Title Your own name for the Source, so that you can tell your Sources apart. It is one of the columns used to group the rows into Sources.

Shopify stores a maximum of 255 characters in this field. If you write a longer value, the app will cut it to 255 characters and give you a warning about it.

Allowed Values

Text

Example
Products on sale
Source: Description Your own description for the Source. It is one of the columns used to group the rows into Sources.

Allowed Values

Text

Example
All the E90 body panels
Inclusion: Type Tells, whether the Conditions on this row add Products to the Source, or take them away:

  • Include: Products matching the Conditions are added.
  • Exclude: Products matching the Conditions are removed.

Exclude cannot be used in a Source with the “Source: Type” of “Collections” as you can only select to include specific Collections, not exclude.

Allowed Values
Include
Exclude
Example
Include
Inclusion: Match Here you define how the Conditions of the Exclude or Include inclusion are joined together:

  • all conditions: Product is added to the Source, if all the Conditions are TRUE.
  • any condition: Product is added to the Source, if at least one Condition is TRUE.

Leave this empty for rows where you manually select Products, Variants or Collections by using Condition: Field with value Manual Selection.

Allowed Values
all conditions
any condition
Example
all conditions
Condition: Command Tell the app, what to do with Condition in this row:

  • MERGE: add the Condition, or keep it if it already exists.
  • DELETE: remove this Condition from the Source.

If no Condition: Command is specified, then the app will assume the MERGE value.

Allowed Values
MERGE
DELETE
Example
MERGE
Condition: Field The attribute field that the Condition is checking to validate Products for the Collection.

Use Manual Selection to select individual Products, Variants or Collections.

Allowed Values
Tag
Title
Type
Vendor
Status
Category
Category with Subcategories
Price
Compare at price
Inventory stock
Weight
Variant title
Collection
Manual Selection
Metafield: namespace.key
Example
Title
Condition: Relation Here you define what relation should be applied for that field and the value.

Leave this empty when the “Condition: Field” is “Manual Selection”.

Allowed Values

Which Relations are available depends on the Condition: Field and on the Inclusion: Type (note that this list might change and not be 100% up to date, check Shopify Admin for exact supported relation values):

  • Tag:
    • Include values:
      • Includes
      • Does not include
    • Exclude values:
      • Includes
  • Title:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
      • Does not equal
      • Contains
      • Does not contain
      • Starts with
      • Ends with
  • Type:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
      • Does not equal
      • Contains
      • Does not contain
      • Starts with
      • Ends with
    • Exclude values:
      • Equals
      • Contains
  • Vendor:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
      • Does not equal
      • Contains
      • Does not contain
      • Starts with
      • Ends with
    • Exclude values:
      • Equals
      • Contains
  • Status:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
      • Does not equal
  • Category:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
      • Does not equal
    • Exclude values:
      • Equals
  • Category with Subcategories:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
      • Does not equal
    • Exclude values:
      • Equals
  • Price:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
      • Does not equal
      • Greater than
      • Less than
  • Compare at price:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
      • Does not equal
      • Greater than
      • Less than
      • Is not empty
      • Is empty
  • Inventory stock:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
      • Greater than
      • Less than
  • Weight:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
      • Does not equal
      • Greater than
      • Less than
  • Variant title:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
      • Does not equal
      • Contains
      • Does not contain
      • Starts with
      • Ends with
  • Collection:
    • Include values:
      • Equals
    • Exclude values:
      • Equals
  • Metafield: namespace.key:
    • Include values:
      • Includes
Example
Equals
Condition: Value Here you write the condition value you want to set.

To write several values in one Condition, separate them with a comma. If you need a comma as part of the value itself, escape it with a backslash as “\,”.

Allowed Values

The value and format of this column’s value depend on the Condition: Field for this condition.

  • Tag, Title, Type, Vendor, Variant title – text.
  • Status – values Active, Draft, Archived or Unlisted.
  • Category and Category with Subcategories – the Shopify Product Taxonomy ID, for example, aa-1, or the Breadcrumb to the Category for example, Apparel & Accessories > Clothing. Find correct values in the Shopify Product Taxonomy page.
  • Price and Compare at price – a two-decimal number.
  • Inventory stock – a whole number.
  • Weight – a number with a Weight unit. Acceptable units are g, kg, oz, and lb.
  • Collection – the Handle or the ID of the other Collection.
  • Metafield: namespace.key – the Metafields value to match.
  • Manual Selection in a “Products” Source – the Product Handle or Product ID.
  • Manual Selection in a “Variants” Source – the Product Handle and the Variant Title separated by a pipe, as product-handle | Variant Title. If you write only the Product Handle, then all Variants of that Product are used.
  • Manual Selection in a “Collections” Source – the Handle or ID of the Collection, one Collection per row.
Example
E90
Condition: Match Define how multiple values within one Condition are joined together:

  • AND: the Product must match all of the values.
  • OR: the Product must match at least one of the values.

For example, if you set the “Condition: Field” to “Tag” and the “Condition: Value” to “sale,clearance”, then:

  • with OR the Product is taken into the Collection if it has either the “sale” tag or the “clearance” tag;
  • with AND the Product is taken only if it has both the “sale” and the “clearance” tags.
Allowed Values
AND
OR
Example
OR

Linked Products

These columns set the order of the Products inside the Collection. In Import they are used only when the Sort Order is set to Manual.

The Products you sort must already be in the Collection. To add a Product to the Collection, add a “Manual Selection” Condition for it.

Column Description / Example Value
Sort: Position The position of the Product in that Collection.

The positions are used as a sort key, not as absolute slots. Matrixify app sorts the Products by the numbers you give and then renumbers them from 1 to the count of Products. So you can use gaps such as 10, 20, 30, and you can use a decimal such as 1.5 to place a Product between two others without renumbering everything.

If several Products have the same number, they keep the order in which they appear in the file.

When updating an existing Collection, an empty Sort: Position means that the position of that Product is not changed. So you can send only the rows for the Products you want to move.

Allowed Values

Number

Example
5
Sort: Product ID Shopify Product ID. It is used to identify the product whose position you want to set.

Allowed Values

Number

Example
6760502034499
Sort: Product Handle The Handle of the Product. It functions as an alternative way to identify the Product if it cannot be found by the Product ID. Especially useful when sorting Products among different shops where you don’t know the ID of the Product.

Allowed Values

Text

Example
bmw-wheel-style-18

Metafields

Read the description on the Metafields page.

Collection Metafields can be exported and imported as “Metafield: namespace.key” columns on this sheet, or separately through the Metafields sheet with the “Owner” of “Collection”.

SEO Fields

SEO fields are actually Metafields with the following names:

  • SEO Title Metafield name is “Metafield: title_tag”
  • SEO Description Metafield name is “Metafield: description_tag”

Export Filters

In the Matrixify app, you can apply filters to Export only specific items from your Shopify Store. When creating new export, select what you wish to export, and under that entity click on the “Filters” button.

Note: total displayed item count and estimated time won’t be affected by the filters applied.

Filter Description
ID Filters Collections that have specific Shopify IDs.

Possible Conditions
  • equals to any of
  • not equal to any of
Example
102473039939,102473072707
Handle Allows you to export specific Collections by their Handles, separated by a comma.

Possible Conditions
  • equals to any of
  • contains any of
  • contains none of
Example
my-collection-handle, other-collection-handle
Title Allows you to export Collections whose Title contains specific text.

Possible Conditions
  • contains any of
  • equals to any of
  • matches pattern
  • contains none of
Example
Part of Title, other title
Updated At Allows exporting Collections which were last updated in the Shopify within a specific date range. “Relative date” condition allows you to export Collections that have been updated in the last full amount of time. For example – “Last 1 Days”, would export Collections from last full day, so yesterday.

Possible Conditions
  • on or after
  • on or before
  • date range
  • relative date
Published At Allows exporting Collections that were published in Shopify within a specific date range.

Possible Conditions
  • on or after
  • on or before
  • date range
  • relative date
Products Count With the “Products Count” filter you can export Collections that have a specific amount of Products in it based on your set condition.

Possible Conditions
  • equals
  • less than
  • less than or equal to
  • greater than
  • greater than or equal to
  • between
Example
5
Metafield Filters the Collections export by Collection Metafields. Specify Metafield by Namespace, Key and Value.

Possible Conditions for Text value
  • equals to any of
  • not equal to any of
  • contains any of
  • contains all of
  • contains none of
  • matches pattern
  • contains
  • does not contain
  • is empty
  • is not empty
Possible Conditions for Number value
  • equals
  • less than
  • less than or equal to
  • greater than
  • greater than or equal to
  • between
  • is empty
  • is not empty

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