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Overview

The Merchandising Rules feature allows you to take control of how products are displayed on your collection pages. Unlike traditional sorting methods, merchandising rules give you the flexibility to:
  1. Manually pin specific products to the top of a collection page
  2. Create expressions that automatically group and prioritize products based on attributes
  3. Combine both approaches in a hybrid strategy for maximum control
  4. Use contextual conditions to target different audiences with different merchandising strategies
  5. Schedule rules to automatically enable and disable based on time windows

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Merchandising architecture

The platform hierarchy determines the order in which products are displayed on collection pages. Dynamic Linking takes the highest priority, followed by Merchandising Rules, and finally the base Sort Order. For a visual overview of the priority hierarchy, see Merchandising — Core Concepts. Priority hierarchy:
  1. Dynamic Linking (first page only) - Products specified via the Browse API’s dynamicLinking parameter appear first (automatically applied when using utm_products URL parameters with the Layers tracking pixel)
  2. Merchandising Rules - Manually pinned products and expression-based groups
  3. Base Sort Order - The underlying sort order for all remaining products
Dynamic Linking is applied via the Browse API and takes priority over all merchandising rules and sort orders. It only applies on the first page of results. Merchandising rules extend your Sort Orders rather than replace them. Products that aren’t dynamically linked, manually pinned, or matched by expressions will follow the base sort order you’ve selected.

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Why merchandising matters

Use merchandising to spotlight key products, reflect campaigns, and shape the shopping journey. Rules let you combine manual pins with automated groupings so your strategy shows up consistently on collection pages—without losing the benefits of your base sort order. For step-by-step instructions, see:

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Types of merchandising

Layers offers three approaches to merchandising your collection pages:

Manual Merchandising

Manually pin specific products to appear at the top of your collection page, giving you precise control over which items receive the most visibility.

Automated Merchandising

Use expressions to automatically group and prioritize products based on attributes like product type, vendor, tags, or other criteria.

Hybrid Approach

Combine manual pinning with expressions for a comprehensive merchandising strategy that balances precision with automation.

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Tips for effective merchandising

  • Align with marketing campaigns: Coordinate your merchandising efforts with ongoing marketing campaigns for a unified promotional strategy.
  • Seasonal adjustments: Update your merchandising to reflect seasonal trends, holidays, or shopping events.
  • Customer insights: Use customer behavior data to inform your merchandising decisions, ensuring that the most relevant products are highlighted.
  • Balance manual and automated approaches: Use manual pinning for your most important products, and expressions for broader category organization.
  • Test different strategies: Experiment with different expression combinations to find what works best for your store.
  • Publish when ready: Save your work as a draft, then use the Publish button when you’re ready to go live. Unpublish at any time to pause a rule without losing your configuration.
  • Preview before publishing: Use the Preview option in the overflow menu to verify your merchandising on the live storefront before saving or publishing changes.

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Example scenarios

  • Holiday season: During the holiday season, pin gift sets at the top, then use expressions to group products by price range (under 25,25, 25-50,over50, over 50).
  • New collection launch: Pin featured items at the top, then use expressions to group remaining products by collection theme or color.
  • Sales promotions: Pin highest-discount items at the top, then use expressions to group products by discount percentage ranges.
  • Category organization: Use expressions to group products by sub-category, brand, or material while maintaining your best-selling sort order within each group.

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See also