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Overview

Merchandising rules control how products are displayed on your collection pages. With merchandising rules, you can:
  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
  4. Use contextual conditions to target different audiences with different merchandising strategies
  5. Schedule rules to automatically publish and unpublish 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 to balance precision with automation.

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Performance details

Click any row’s performance summary on the Merchandising rules list to open the Performance sheet for that rule. The Performance sheet shows how the rule shapes shopper behavior on the collections it targets. The Performance sheet contains four sections:
  • KPI cards — Impressions, click-through rate (CTR), add-to-cart rate, purchase rate, revenue, and revenue per impression (RPI). Each card shows the absolute value alongside the percent change versus the prior period of the same length.
  • Trend — A combined line/bar chart showing impressions, clicks, add-to-carts, and purchases over the selected timeframe.
  • Position — A breakdown of how products in pinned and expression-driven positions perform compared to the rest of the collection. Use it to confirm whether your top pins are earning their spot.
  • Top products — The products that received the most impressions, clicks, and revenue while the rule was active. Each row shows the product title alongside its individual performance metrics.
Switch the timeframe between 7 days, 14 days, and 30 days using the toggle at the top of the sheet. Results are cached briefly per rule and timeframe and refreshed in the background. Fresh data streams in automatically without requiring a reload.
Performance counts only include impressions where the rule was active. If you publish a rule mid-period or it was paused for part of the timeframe, only the active days are included.

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Tips for effective merchandising

  • Align with marketing campaigns: Coordinate your merchandising rules with active marketing campaigns.
  • Seasonal adjustments: Update your merchandising to reflect seasonal trends, holidays, or shopping events.
  • Customer insights: Use customer behavior data to decide which products to highlight.
  • 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