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Facets help shoppers narrow down results quickly by what matters most—like size, color, brand, or price. With Layers, you decide which attributes become filters and how those filters appear to customers. Group values into friendly buckets, control the order so the most helpful options show up first, and hide specific values from customers when needed.
Facet grouping, sorting, and hiding are new features. Please contact support if you encounter any issues.

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What do you want to do?

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Where filters come from

Layers is the source of truth for filters on any surface it powers. Which storefront filter UI you use depends on how your theme is wired up:
  • Themes rendered through Layers (SDK, Liquid, or App Embed) — filters are driven by the Facets API and reflect facets configured in the Layers dashboard. Values, counts, and numeric ranges come from Layers, not from Shopify. See Rendering facets with the SDK or Rendering facets in Liquid.
  • Themes that use Shopify’s native storefront filtering — Layers syncs each filterable attribute to Shopify as a facet metaobject when you turn on Enable as Storefront Facet on the attribute. That makes Layers-managed facets selectable in the theme editor’s native filter picker. See Enable as storefront facet and Facet metaobjects.

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Shopify’s Search & Discovery app

Shopify’s Search & Discovery app configures filters, synonyms, and boosts against Shopify’s native search index. Layers ships its own search and merchandising engine and does not read from the Search & Discovery app’s configuration:
  • Filters — configure filterable attributes in Layers, not in Search & Discovery. On any page powered by Layers (SDK, Liquid, or App Embed), only the Layers facet configuration is applied. Pages that Layers doesn’t power can still use Shopify’s native filtering, and Layers-managed facets appear there via the synced facet metaobjects.
  • Synonyms and typo tolerance — use Layers’ built-in query expansion and typo tolerance instead. Synonyms configured in Search & Discovery are not read by Layers.
  • Product boosts and pins — use Layers merchandising rules and soft boost expressions.
Running the Search & Discovery app alongside Layers is supported — the two do not conflict — but any filter, synonym, or boost you want reflected on Layers-powered surfaces must be configured in Layers.

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Designing great filters

  • Show your most‑used filters near the top (Size, Color, Price).
  • Use groups to reduce long lists (Reds/Blues/Neutrals).
  • Keep value labels human‑friendly (e.g., “Navy” instead of codes).
  • Limit group size so menus stay easy to scan.
  • Periodically prune rarely used values based on customer behavior.

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Best practices for facet management

  • Prioritize popular filters: Place frequently used filter values at the top of the list
  • Use logical grouping: Group related values together to create a more intuitive browsing experience
  • Limit group size: Keep groups to a reasonable size to avoid overwhelming customers
  • Use clear group names: Select descriptive names that help customers understand what’s in each group
  • Regular maintenance: Periodically review and update your facet organization based on changing inventory and customer behavior

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Example scenarios

  • Color attribute: Group colors by shade families (Reds, Blues, Neutrals) for easier navigation
  • Brand attribute: Create groups for “Featured Brands”, “Local Brands”, and “International Brands”
  • Size attribute: For clothing, group by size categories (XS-S-M, L-XL-XXL, etc.)

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See also