Use this article to get Smart Collections running on your store: turn it on, preview it on your storefront before shoppers see it, refresh your product data, set the page layout and hero content, exclude products you never want surfaced, and find the guide for whichever setting you want to configure next. To do any of it, go to Smart Collections → Template & Settings in your Rebuy admin.
Smart Collections replaces your Shopify collection pages with a faster, filterable, merchandisable version built from your existing Shopify catalog, so shoppers can narrow a large collection down to what they actually want. Everything on the Template & Settings page applies globally to every collection on your store.
To change how a single collection behaves, or to run a temporary or scheduled override, use Smart Collection Campaigns: Scheduling, Filters, and More instead of changing these global settings.
Turn Smart Collections on
The Collections Enabled toggle at the top of the Template & Settings page is the master switch. When it is on, your collection pages render using the configuration in the Collection Template Editor. When it is off, Smart Collections stops rendering and your collection pages fall back to your Shopify theme's default behavior.
This toggle takes effect on your live store immediately, in both directions. There is no staging step for it, so use Preview Mode below to check your configuration before you turn it on.
Test Smart Collections before you turn it on
Preview Mode renders your collection pages on your real storefront before the master toggle is on, so you can check your layout, filters, and sort options in the actual shopping environment rather than in a mockup.
To use it:
Open Smart Collections → Template & Settings in your Rebuy admin.
Click the PREVIEW link at the top of the Collection Template Editor card.
A new browser tab opens your storefront with
?preview_smart_collections=trueappended to the URL.Browse your collections and confirm everything renders correctly.
Smart Collections only renders in browser sessions carrying that query parameter. Shoppers visiting your store normally keep seeing your default theme behavior until you turn on Collections Enabled.
Tip: You can share the Preview Mode URL with teammates by copying it from the browser tab. Anyone who opens it sees your Smart Collections configuration rendering on your storefront, which makes it easy to gather feedback before going live.
Choose between storefront Preview Mode and the Live Preview Editor
Smart Collections has two different previews and they do different jobs:
Preview Mode opens your actual storefront in a new tab with a query parameter, so you can test Smart Collections in your real shopping environment before going live.
The Live Preview Editor renders a preview pane inside the Rebuy admin, beside the settings you are editing, so you can watch changes take effect as you make them.
How the Live Preview Editor chooses what to show
The Live Preview Editor loads a collection automatically, based on where you opened it from:
From Template & Settings, it loads your store's top interacted collection — the collection with the most sessions on your storefront — so you have a realistic example while configuring settings that apply everywhere.
From an individual collection, it loads that specific collection, so you can see exactly how your changes affect it.
If your store has no session history yet, the preview may not be able to identify a top collection to load automatically. Session activity needs to build up first.
Refresh your product data with the Sync Manager
The Sync Manager card on the Template & Settings page shows when your Shopify product data last synced into Smart Collections and lets you trigger a sync on demand.
Product data syncs continuously as products change in Shopify, so a manual sync is only needed when products are missing or out of date in your collection results.
To trigger one:
Go to Smart Collections → Template & Settings in your Rebuy admin.
Find the Sync Manager card.
Click the EDIT gear icon to open the Sync Manager panel.
Check the last synced timestamp for Product Sync.
Click Run.
After a sync completes, the Run button enters a cooldown with a countdown timer. Wait for the countdown to finish before triggering another.
Choose whether filters appear in a sidebar or as dropdowns
Layout Settings in the Collection Template Editor controls how filters are presented on the collection page. Two layouts are available:
Sidebar — filters display in a vertical column beside the product grid. This is the default.
Dropdown — filters display as expandable dropdowns above the product grid.
The layout you choose applies to every device size. Smart Collections does not support mixing layouts, such as Sidebar on desktop and Dropdown on mobile. The number of product columns per row can vary by device — see Product Column Breakpoints in Smart Collections: Product Display Settings.
Show your Shopify collection description and hero image
Hero Settings controls whether the description and hero image you configured in Shopify appear at the top of your Smart Collections pages. Both toggles are on by default, and both pull their content from Shopify — so if a collection has no description or hero image set in Shopify, turning the toggle on changes nothing for that collection.
Show Description — displays the Shopify collection description. Its tooltip reads When toggled on, the Collection Description will show for Collections where a Description is configured in Shopify.
Show Hero Image — displays the Shopify collection hero image. Its tooltip reads When toggled on, the Hero Image will show for Collections where a Hero Image is uploaded in Shopify.
Hide a product from every collection
The Excluded Products card removes specific products from every Smart Collections result, no matter how a collection is built or which filters a shopper applies. Use it for seasonal items, out-of-rotation products, or anything you never want surfaced through Smart Collections.
Click EDIT on the card to open the panel, which has two sub-cards:
Product Tags — search for and select Shopify product tags. Any product carrying a selected tag is excluded.
Specific Products — search for and select individual products by name.
Exclusions set here apply across every Smart Collection on your store. If a product belongs to several collections, excluding it removes it from all of them. To exclude a product from one collection only, use Smart Collection Campaigns: Scheduling, Filters, and More.
Hide a product from Rebuy everywhere with the exclude_rebuy tag
If you tag a product with exclude_rebuy in Shopify to keep it out of Rebuy widgets and recommendations, that product is also automatically excluded from Smart Collections results. Tagging a product with exclude_rebuy therefore hides it from Rebuy recommendations and from Smart Collections in one step, without adding it to the Excluded Products card.
Use exclude_rebuy when you want a product hidden from Rebuy across the board, and use Excluded Products when you only want it out of Smart Collections. For details on the tag, see Hide Products From Being Recommended.
Control how products are ranked with Merchandising Rules
Merchandising Rules gives you rule-based control over how products are ranked and displayed on your collection pages. You can automatically boost, demote, or hide products based on attributes such as tags, product type, vendor, or metafield values, so the right products surface without manual curation. Rules are created and managed in the card's own EDIT panel.
Because rule logic is configured per rule, the full workflow has its own article.
Find the guide for every other setting
The rest of Smart Collections is configured in the Collection Template Editor — click EDIT on the Collection Template Editor card to open it. Its left navigation holds General Settings, for filters, sorting, product display, pagination, and product reviews, and Advanced Settings, for event callbacks and custom CSS. Each area has its own guide below.
Set up the filters and sort options shoppers use
Choose which filters shoppers can narrow a collection by — availability, product type, price, tags, vendor, product options, and metafields — control the order they appear in, style the filter panel, and configure which sort options shoppers can choose from and which one applies by default.
Set up product cards and the inline Add to Cart button
Set the product image aspect ratio, show a second image on hover, adjust the spacing between cards and the number of columns per device, align card content, set the title and price colors, show variant selectors, and configure the inline Add to Cart button and its styling.
Choose how products load: paging or continuous scroll
Choose between numbered paging with a configurable products-per-page count and continuous scroll, optionally add a Load More button that shoppers click to load each set of products, and style that button to match your storefront.
Display product review star ratings on product cards
Connect one of nine supported review apps, turn its star ratings on for your collection pages, and style the star size, star color, review text color, and star background.
Add your own JavaScript and CSS
Run custom JavaScript on Smart Collections lifecycle events, and add CSS to your collection pages, without editing your Shopify theme.
Frequently asked questions
Why don't my Smart Collections settings changes appear on my live store?
Check three things. First, confirm the master Collections Enabled toggle is on — with it off, your collection pages fall back to your Shopify theme regardless of how the editor is configured. Second, confirm you clicked Save in the Collection Template Editor, since changes in the editor do not go live until saved. Third, if the settings are saved and enabled but your product data looks stale, refresh it: open the Sync Manager on the Template & Settings page and click Run, or follow Sync Product Data, Store Data, and Clear Cache for the full procedure. Then reload your storefront and check again.
How do I test Smart Collections without affecting my live store?
Use Preview Mode. Click the PREVIEW link at the top of the Collection Template Editor card, which opens your storefront in a new tab with ?preview_smart_collections=true appended to the URL. Smart Collections renders only in browser sessions carrying that parameter, so shoppers visiting your store normally continue to see your default theme behavior until you turn on the master Collections Enabled toggle. You can share that URL with teammates to gather feedback before going live.
How do I exclude a product from showing in any Smart Collection?
You have two options, and they differ in scope. Add the product on the Smart Collections Excluded Products card, using either Product Tags or Specific Products, to remove it from every Smart Collection while leaving it visible in Rebuy widgets and recommendations. Or tag it exclude_rebuy in Shopify to hide it from Smart Collections and from every Rebuy recommendation at once. To exclude a product from one specific collection rather than all of them, use Smart Collection Campaigns instead.
Can I use a different Smart Collections layout for desktop, tablet, and mobile?
No, Smart Collections applies one filter layout — either Sidebar or Dropdown — across every device size, and mixing them is not supported. What can vary by device is the number of product columns per row, set with Product Column Breakpoints on the Product Display page: 1 or 2 columns on mobile, 1 to 4 on tablet, and 1 to 5 on desktop. See Smart Collections: Product Display Settings.
For more questions, see the Smart Collections Frequently Asked Questions. If you don't see your answer there, send it to us via the messenger on this page along with your store details.
Related Smart Collections articles
Getting started
Features and customization
Reporting