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Smart Collections

Managing Shopify Smart Collections with Shipturtle Categories

Welcome to the Smart Collections guide! This article explains how product organization works between Shipturtle and Shopify. You will learn how Shipturtle categories map to your Shopify store, how to use Shopify Smart Collections to organize products dynamically, and the best practices for managing them.

Important: There is no direct linkage between Shipturtle collections and Shopify collections. The connection works indirectly through the Product Type field in Shopify. Shipturtle does not create collections automatically; instead, it provides the structured categorization needed for Shopify to do the work.

1. How Shipturtle Categories Sync with Shopify

In Shipturtle, merchants can create Categories to keep their marketplace catalog organized.

The Key Behavior: Every category you create in Shipturtle is automatically synced to Shopify as a Product Type.

Example: If you create the following categories in Shipturtle:

  • Apparels
  • Jewelry
  • T-Shirts

These will automatically appear in your Shopify Admin as:

  • Product Type = Apparels
  • Product Type = Jewelry
  • Product Type = T-Shirts

To verify this in Shopify: Go to Products, open any product synced from Shipturtle, and locate the Product Type field. You will see the synced Shipturtle category available for selection.

2. How to Set Up Shopify Smart Collections

Shopify Smart Collections (Automated Collections) allow you to automatically group products based on predefined conditions. Because Shipturtle categories sync as Product Types, you can use them directly as your collection conditions!

Step-by-Step Setup:

  • Go to your Shopify Admin dashboard.
  • Navigate to Products → Collections on the left menu.
  • Click the Create Collection button.
  • Under the Collection Type section, select Automated.
  • In the Conditions section, set the dropdown rule to use Product Type.
  • Enter your desired Shipturtle category name exactly as it appears.
  • Click Save.

3. Example Use Cases for Smart Collections

Here is how you can set up your rules depending on how you want to display your products:

Scenario A: Single Category Collection (e.g., Jewelry)

  • Goal: Show only jewelry products.
  • Condition: Product Type is equal to Jewelry
  • Result: All products categorized as Jewelry in Shipturtle will automatically populate this Shopify collection.

Scenario B: Combined Collection (e.g., All Shirts)

  • Goal: Show both Shirts and T-Shirts in one collection.
  • Condition 1: Product Type is equal to Shirts
  • Condition 2: Set the rule to "Any condition" (OR)
  • Condition 3: Product Type is equal to T-Shirts

4. The End-to-End Workflow Summary

  1. Create Category: You create a category in Shipturtle.
  2. Data Syncs: The category syncs to Shopify as a Product Type.
  3. Assign Products: You assign products to that category in Shipturtle.
  4. Create Collection: You build a Smart Collection in Shopify using the Product Type condition.
  5. Automated Grouping: Shopify reads the Product Type, and the products automatically appear in the correct storefront collection.

5. Best Practices & Common Mistakes

To ensure your collections always sync correctly, keep these guidelines in mind:

  • Standardize your naming: Avoid creating duplicate variations of the same category (e.g., using both "Tshirt" and "T-Shirts"). Inconsistent naming will break your Smart Collection rules.
  • Be consistent with capitalization: Treat category names as case-sensitive when building your Shopify rules.
  • Establish a clear hierarchy: Plan a logical category structure before syncing to avoid having to change categories frequently, which can disrupt your live collections.
  • Assign properly: If a product is not assigned to a category in Shipturtle, it will not receive a Product Type in Shopify, meaning it won't appear in your Smart Collection.


If you’re stuck, reach us at team@shipturtle.com or open a ticket on the support page.