Key takeaways
- Enable or disable sort options in Theme Editor > Collection page > Filter and sort settings.
- The Shopify Search & Discovery app controls which filter types are available (price, tag, vendor, etc.).
- Available sort options include: Best selling, Price, Newest, Oldest, Product title A-Z.
- Filters and sorting are free via Shopify’s built-in tools - no paid app required.
Sorting and filtering help customers find products faster on large collection pages. Shopify includes these features natively - here’s how to turn them on and configure them.
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We’ve built and customised hundreds of Shopify storefronts. We also built Fudge - an AI storefront editor with a 5.0 rating on the Shopify App Store.
How to enable sort options on collection pages
Sort controls are enabled in the Theme Editor.
Step 1. Go to Online Store > Themes > Customize.
Step 2. Navigate to a Collection page using the page selector at the top.
Step 3. In the left sidebar, click the Collection section or Product grid section.
Step 4. Look for settings labelled “Enable sorting”, “Show sort”, or similar. Toggle it on.
Step 5. Save.
A sort dropdown now appears on your collection pages. Customers can use it to change the product order.
Related: Add Structured Data in Shopify.
Available sort options in Shopify
When sorting is enabled, customers can sort by:
- Featured - your default sort order (the one set in the collection editor)
- Best selling - ordered by historical sales volume
- Alphabetically, A-Z and Z-A
- Price, low to high and high to low
- Date, new to old and old to new
You can’t add custom sort options (like “Recommended” or “Rating”) without code or a third-party app. The above list is what Shopify provides natively.
For more detail, see our guide on add ingredients or care instructions in shopify.
Related: Add Custom JavaScript in Shopify.
Related: Reorder Products in a Shopify Collection.
How to enable filters on collection pages
Filters let customers narrow the product grid by attributes like price range, product type, colour, size, or vendor.
Shopify’s Search & Discovery app controls the available filters. It’s free and maintained by Shopify.
Step 1. In your Shopify admin, go to Apps and search for “Search & Discovery” - it may already be installed. If not, install it from the App Store (it’s free).
Step 2. Open the Search & Discovery app.
Step 3. Go to Filters. Here you can add and configure filter options:
- Availability (In stock / Out of stock)
- Price (range slider)
- Product type
- Vendor / Brand
- Tag-based filters - this is the most powerful option, and lets you create filters like “Colour”, “Size”, “Material” based on product tags
Step 4. Add the filters you want and set their display names.
Step 5. Make sure your collection page template has filtering enabled in the Theme Editor (look for “Enable filtering” in the collection section settings).
Related: Customize a Collection Page in Shopify.
Tag-based filters
The most useful filters come from product tags. If you tag your products consistently (e.g., colour:blue, colour:red, size:small, size:large), the Search & Discovery app can turn those tags into filter groups.
How to set up tag-based filters:
- In the Search & Discovery app > Filters, click Add filter.
- Choose Product tag.
- Set the filter group name (e.g., “Colour”) and specify which tags belong to it.
For this to work, your products need to be tagged consistently. Go to Products > select a product > Tags field to add or check tags.
Showing filter and sort counts
A useful UX feature is showing how many products match a filter selection (e.g., “Blue (12)”). This is sometimes called filter counts and is available in some Shopify themes natively - look in the Theme Editor > Collection section settings for a “Show filter counts” toggle.
Filter and sort panel position
By default, filters often appear in a left sidebar or above the product grid depending on the theme. In the Theme Editor’s collection section settings, you may be able to choose between:
- Horizontal filter bar above the grid
- Vertical sidebar on the left
- Drawer that opens from the left
Choose the layout that fits your theme and product density.
Custom filtering beyond Shopify native
If you need metafield-based filtering (filtering by product metafields rather than tags), faceted search, or complex nested filter logic, Shopify’s native tools and Search & Discovery have limits. Third-party apps like Boost Commerce or Searchpie extend this significantly.
For custom filter UI designs that differ from your theme’s default style, Fudge can rebuild the filter panel based on your description.
FAQ
Yes. In Products → Collections → click the collection → set "Sort by" at the bottom. The default is "Manual" (which corresponds to "Featured" on the storefront), but you can choose Best selling, Newest, Alphabetical, etc. This sets the initial sort; customers can still re-sort.
Three common causes: (1) Search & Discovery app isn't installed, (2) you've installed it but haven't configured the price filter under Filters, or (3) the theme's filter section is disabled in the Theme Editor. All three need to be in place for the filter to render.
Native filters via Search & Discovery have minimal speed impact - they leverage Shopify's indexed search. Third-party filter apps (Boost, Searchpie) can be heavier; check Lighthouse before and after installing. For very large collections (1000+ products), filter performance is dominated by data size, not the filter app.
Yes, in newer Shopify Online Store 2.0 themes. In Search & Discovery → Filters → Add filter, you can select metafield-based filters if you've defined product metafields. Older themes may not support metafield filters even with the app — describe what you want to Fudge ("add a metafield-driven 'material' filter to the collection page") and it adds the filter logic directly to the collection template.
In the Theme Editor → Collection section → toggle off "Enable sorting" or similar. Some themes don't allow disabling sort - in that case, you'd need a code change to remove the sort dropdown from the section template.
