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Overview

Product sequences group related products so they appear together on collection pages. Use them to keep sets of matching products (such as coordinating tops and bottoms) next to each other.
Product Sequences work in conjunction with Sort Orders and require sequence mode to be enabled in your Sort Order settings.

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How sequences work

When you create a product sequence, you’re defining a group of products that should always appear together in your storefront. Layers makes sure that:
  1. Products within the same sequence group stay together
  2. Products maintain their defined order within the sequence
  3. The sequence applies across all collections, or only inside the collections you choose
Customers see the same grouping in every collection the sequence applies to.

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Collection scope

Every sequence applies either store-wide (All collections) or to one or more selected collections. Choose them in the sequence editor’s Collections field. You can change the selection at any time, including after creation. All collections cannot be combined with specific collections. A scoped sequence keeps the same product order in each selected collection and takes precedence there over an all-collections sequence containing the same products. It does not add products to those collections. The editor flags member products missing from each selected collection; those products won’t appear when shoppers browse that collection. A product can belong to one sequence per collection: it can’t appear in two all-collections sequences or in two sequences whose selected collections overlap. It can belong to separate sequences targeting different collections, as well as an all-collections sequence. The Collections column in the sequences list shows each sequence’s scope.

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Save a draft or publish

Choose Save Draft when creating a sequence you aren’t ready to use, or Publish when it is ready for your storefront. A manually saved draft stays unpublished until you publish it. Publishing still requires enough active products and passing conditions before the sequence can appear to shoppers.

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Draft product support

You can include draft (unpublished) products in a sequence, so you can prepare sequences ahead of time, for example adding upcoming products before they go live. Draft products within a sequence are marked with a Draft badge in the sequence form so you can distinguish them from active products. A published sequence requires at least 2 active (published) products to become enabled on your storefront. If it contains fewer, it stays out of storefront results. Once enough products are published and meet any configured conditions, Layers automatically activates it. Automatic activation does not publish a sequence you intentionally saved as a draft.

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Non-viewable products

Products in a sequence that are no longer eligible to appear on your storefront are marked with a red Not Viewable badge in the sequence form. This applies when a product is hidden in Shopify, excluded by a catalog tag filter, or otherwise filtered out of the searchable catalog. Non-viewable products stay in the sequence so the grouping is preserved if they become viewable again, but they don’t appear in storefront results while they’re filtered out. If a non-viewable product needs to remain in the sequence, leave it in place; if it should be removed permanently, delete it from the sequence and save. The badge appears alongside any existing Draft or Sequence badges so you can tell at a glance which products in the group are currently visible to shoppers.

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Sequence control

Sequences can be controlled at multiple levels:
  • Sort Orders: Add a Sequence Grouping expression to a sort order to activate sequence mode for it
  • Merchandising Rules: Control whether sequences are preserved or disabled for specific segments. When you create a new merchandising rule and select a sort order with sequences enabled, Enable Sequences defaults to on so your sequences are preserved automatically. You can turn it off if you need to override this for a specific rule. When it’s on, the rule editor’s product grid renders your active sequences grouped together (the same grouped order shoppers see), and sort order previews through the Layers MCP server apply the same grouping when they preview the rule’s collection.
  • Blocks: Blocks can independently control sequence behavior through a dashboard option, bypassing merchandising rules entirely
When a block has sequence control configured, it uses the block’s setting instead of looking up merchandising rules.

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Sequence architecture

Product Sequences apply across all collections or only the collections you select, and integrate with Sort Orders to maintain consistent product groupings.

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Example use case

A common use case for Product Sequences is coordinating fashion items:
  • A matching top and bottom that should appear side by side
  • A complete outfit (shirt, pants, accessories) that should be displayed as a group
  • A set of products that are frequently purchased together

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Automatic sequence creation

Automatic sequence creation via metafields only processes during bulk operations, not incrementally. Sequences are created or updated when performing bulk data imports from Shopify, but not during real-time product updates.
Layers can automatically create product sequences based on Shopify metafields. You define sequences directly in your Shopify admin using metafields, and Layers syncs them to create sequences. When an automatic sequence is created or updated, Layers automatically resolves conflicts for global sequences (those scoped to all collections). If a product already belongs to another global sequence, Layers removes it from the old group before adding it to the new one. If this reduces an old group to one or fewer products, Layers deletes the entire group since single-product sequences are not meaningful.

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Configuration dashboard

You can configure which metafields drive automatic sequence creation through the dashboard at Settings > Product Sequences. In Settings > Product Sequences, you can:
  • Add multiple metafield configurations (namespace and key pairs)
  • Control whether each metafield already includes the current product
  • Remove metafield configurations that are no longer needed
Each configured metafield automatically creates sequences during bulk data synchronization, with sequences named as Auto: {namespace}.{key} (e.g., “Auto: layers.global_sequence” or “Auto: custom.related_products”). When you remove a metafield source from Settings > Product Sequences, Layers also deletes the auto-generated sequences created from that source. Removing a source does not affect manually created sequences or sequences created from other metafields. Metafield-sourced sequences are managed by sync. They appear in the dashboard as read-only: you can open the editor to review their contents and contextual conditions, but product lists, names, and delete/bulk actions are locked so a dashboard edit can’t be overwritten by the next sync. To change one, update the metafield in Shopify (or its metafield configuration under Settings > Product Sequences) and let sync apply it.

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Metafield configuration options

When configuring a sequence metafield, you need to specify:
  • Namespace: The metafield namespace (e.g., layers, custom)
  • Key: The metafield key (e.g., global_sequence, related_products)
  • Includes current product: Whether the metafield value already contains the current product
The “includes current product” setting controls how Layers processes the metafield value:
  • Enabled (default): The metafield value already includes the current product. Layers uses the product list as-is.
  • Disabled: The metafield value contains only related products. Layers automatically prepends the current product to create the sequence.

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AI-powered ordering

When automatic sequences are created from metafields, products are grouped in the order they appear in the metafield value. With AI-powered ordering enabled, Layers uses AI to rearrange the products into a more logical merchandising order before saving the sequence. For example, the AI may place tops before bottoms, outerwear before innerwear, and accessories last.
AI-powered ordering only applies to automatic sequences created from metafields. Manually created sequences are not affected.

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Enabling AI-powered ordering

You can enable AI-powered ordering for your store under Settings > Product Sequences. Toggle AI sequence ordering on to activate the feature. When disabled, automatic sequences use the order products appear in the metafield value.

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How it works

When AI-powered ordering is enabled and a metafield triggers an automatic sequence:
  1. Layers reads the product titles from your catalog
  2. The AI evaluates the titles and determines a logical display order based on merchandising best practices
  3. The reordered product list is saved as the sequence
If the AI is temporarily unavailable, Layers falls back to the original metafield order so sequence creation is never blocked.

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Custom ordering rules

You can provide custom ordering instructions that guide how the AI arranges products within a sequence. Custom ordering rules help when your catalog has domain-specific conventions that the default ordering logic may not capture. To configure custom rules:
  1. Go to Settings > Product Sequences.
  2. In the AI sequence ordering card, enter your instructions in the Ordering rules text field.
  3. Save.
Your rules are appended to the AI’s base instructions, so you can be specific about how products should be prioritized. For example:
  • “Always place dresses before skirts”
  • “Group products by color family, with neutrals last”
  • “Place best-selling categories first: tops, then bottoms, then accessories”
Rules can be up to 5,000 characters. Keep instructions clear and concise for the best results.

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When to use it

AI-powered ordering is useful when:
  • Your metafield values don’t have a deliberate product order
  • You want a consistent merchandising presentation without manually sorting each sequence
  • Your catalog contains outfit sets, coordinated collections, or product bundles where display order matters
If you already maintain a specific order in your metafield values and want to preserve it, leave this feature disabled.

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Default configuration example

The default configuration uses the layers.global_sequence metafield:
In your Shopify admin, create a metafield with:
This metafield automatically creates a sequence named “Auto: layers.global_sequence” grouping these three products together across all collections.

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Custom configuration example

You can configure custom metafields for different use cases. For example, a “related products” metafield whose value lists only the related products, not the current product:
In your Shopify admin, on Product A:
This metafield automatically creates a sequence named “Auto: custom.related_products” containing [Product A, Product B, Product C], with Product A prepended automatically.

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Sequence conditions

You can attach conditions to a product sequence so it only becomes active when every product in the group satisfies those conditions. Sequences that fail their conditions show a Draft status badge and are excluded from storefront results until the conditions are met again. They stay published, so they go live again automatically. Conditions are evaluated against product attributes such as title, vendor, product type, tags, price range, availability, publication status (Published on Web and Published on App), metafields, computed attributes, and collection membership (the handles of the collections each product belongs to). Layers re-evaluates conditions automatically whenever a product in the sequence is updated during catalog sync. During large catalog updates, Layers batches these re-evaluations, so a sequence’s status can take a minute or two to update.

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Per-sequence conditions

Each sequence can have its own set of conditions. When you create or edit a sequence, the Conditions section lets you build rules using product attributes. The sequence is active only when all products in the group match every rule. For example, you could create a condition that checks whether all products in the sequence are available. If one product sells out, the entire sequence moves to Draft until stock is replenished. You can also condition a sequence on publication status. A rule requiring Published on Web to be true keeps the sequence active only while every product in the group is published to your online store. If a product is unpublished, the sequence moves to Draft until it is published again. You can also condition a sequence on collection membership. For example, a rule requiring every product to belong to the summer-collection collection keeps the sequence active only while all of its products remain in that collection.

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Global sequence conditions

Global conditions apply to every sequence in your store and are configured under Settings > Product Sequences. They work alongside per-sequence conditions. A sequence must satisfy both global and per-sequence conditions to be active. Global conditions are useful when you want a store-wide policy, such as requiring all sequenced products to be in stock or to belong to a particular product type. When you update global conditions, Layers re-evaluates every sequence in the background.

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Active and draft status

A sequence’s serving state combines two things: whether you published it, and whether it is currently eligible. A published sequence is eligible when it has at least 2 active (published) products and all products satisfy both global and per-sequence conditions. Layers checks eligibility in the background after you publish and whenever products sync, so a newly published sequence can take a moment to go live. The Status badge in the Product Sequences list shows whether the sequence is currently serving:
  • Published: The sequence is published and eligible. It can appear on your storefront.
  • Draft: The sequence isn’t serving. Either you saved it as a draft or unpublished it, or it is published but not eligible yet (fewer than 2 active products, a failing condition, or eligibility still being checked). The sequence is hidden from storefront results.
A Draft badge doesn’t always mean the sequence is unpublished. When a published sequence fails its conditions or drops below 2 active products, it keeps its published setting and goes live again automatically once it becomes eligible. A sequence you saved as a draft or unpublished stays a draft until you publish it, even when its products become eligible.

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Sequence analytics

Each sequence tracks how often its members are actually purchased together. Layers computes daily rollups over the last 30 and 90 days of order history and surfaces them on the sequences list:
  • Sequences list — The Orders, Bought together, and Revenue columns let you compare performance across sequences at a glance. Bought together shows both the order count and its share of member orders.
Metrics refresh once a day, so newly created sequences show empty values until the next rollup. These rollups also feed sequence insights on the Lab Insights page, which validate existing sequences and suggest new ones based on real purchase behavior.

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Why sequences matter

Sequences keep related products together so shoppers can quickly see matching items and complete looks. They work alongside your base sort order to preserve both relevance and grouping. For step-by-step instructions, see:

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Managing product sequences

For editing or removing sequences, use the Help tutorials for step-by-step guidance:

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Best practices

  • Group only related products: Create sequences only for products that benefit from being grouped together
  • Maintain reasonable group sizes: Keep sequence groups to a manageable size (typically 2-5 products) for the best visual presentation
  • Update regularly: Review your sequences when adding new products or during seasonal changes to keep them relevant

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Troubleshooting

Issue: Products in a sequence aren’t appearing together. Solution: Verify that you’re using a sort order with sequence mode enabled. Issue: Error when adding a product to a sequence manually. Solution: The product already belongs to another sequence targeting one of the same collections. Layers shows which products are causing the conflict. Remove the product from the other sequence or change the overlapping collection selections before saving. Issue: A product disappeared from an existing automatic sequence. Solution: When automatic sequences are created or updated via metafields, Layers resolves conflicts by moving products to their new sequence group. If the product was in a previous global sequence and a new metafield sync assigned it elsewhere, it is automatically removed from the old group. If the old group was reduced to one or fewer products, it is deleted entirely. Issue: Creating a sequence fails with a conflict error when you enter a new name. Solution: A sequence with that exact set of products already exists. Layers only reuses the existing sequence when the new submission matches its name, conditions, and published status. Otherwise, Layers rejects the new sequence to protect the existing sequence’s configuration. Open the existing sequence from the sequences list and use Edit a product sequence to change its name, conditions, or products. Issue: A sequence shows a “Draft” badge unexpectedly. Solution: Check whether the sequence is intentionally unpublished. If it is ready, publish it. Otherwise, check that it has at least 2 active products and that every product meets the per-sequence and global conditions. Catalog sync re-evaluates eligibility but does not publish an intentionally saved draft. Issue: Sequences aren’t visible in the dashboard. Solution: Check that you have permission to view and manage sequences.

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See also