How to Use Shopify's New Collections in 2026

The most useful part of Shopify's new collections model is not the redesigned editor. It is that product selection logic can finally be combined.

A single collection can now use automated conditions, hand-picked products, exclusions, specific variants, other collections, and compatible app sources. That can replace repetitive maintenance for large catalogs and frequent campaigns.

What Can Merchants Do With the New Collection Model?

Previously, a Shopify collection was either manual or smart. You selected every product yourself, or Shopify selected products from one set of conditions.

The new model organizes a collection around sources. Each source contributes products or variants, and Shopify combines them into the final collection. Automated catalog logic and merchandising decisions can now work together.

Consider a campaign collection called Fall Workwear. Instead of maintaining dozens of products by hand, a merchant could use:

• Automated inclusion: include products tagged autumn.
• Manual selection: add several featured products that do not match the normal rules.
• Exclusions: remove products tagged preorder, and use an inventory condition when only stocked products or variants should qualify.
• Other collections: bring in products from Blazers, Knitwear, and Work Bags collections.
• App sources: connect assortment logic supplied by a compatible Shopify app or custom app.

When a qualifying product is added or its data changes, the automated selection can update with it. Merchandisers can still add campaign picks without rebuilding the collection.

There are two details to plan carefully. First, manually including a product controls membership, not its position. Use the collection's sorting setting if a featured product must appear first. Second, Shopify evaluates exclusions within a source before combining all sources. A product excluded from one source can still enter through another, so every inclusion path needs to be checked.

Three Updates That Matter Most

1. Build Collections From Specific Variants

A collection no longer needs to treat every version of a product as one unit. A Variants source can include only the colors, sizes, prices, inventory states, or variant metafield values that meet its conditions.

This opens up practical collection ideas such as:

• Red variants for a holiday gift guide
• XS and XXL products for an extended-size landing page
• In-stock variants within a campaign price range
• Variants prepared for a specific market or merchandising workflow

We tested this with a demo collection called Black Essentials — Extended Sizes. It contains qualifying black variants in XS and XXL while presenting a normal collection page to customers.

The collection contains ten products, but its filter data is scoped more precisely. Opening the Size filter shows only XS and XXL because those are the sizes represented by the included variants.

When we opened a product from the collection, the product page loaded with Black and XS selected. The product's other valid options remained available on the product page, which is expected: collection membership controls which variants qualify for the collection, not which variants exist on the product.

Theme behavior still needs testing. A customized product card might not preserve Shopify's variant image, price, swatch, quick-add state, or product URL. Check the full path from collection grid to product page.

2. Reuse Existing Collections

A merchant could maintain Leggings, Tops, and Shorts as base collections, then connect them to an Activewear collection. Changes to an eligible child collection flow into the parent without repeating the same selection work.

This helps with seasonal edits, navigation, and landing pages that reuse product groups. Shopify currently restricts sub-collection chains to one level.

3. Combine Automation With Merchandising Picks

Automated conditions can handle scale while manual selections handle promotion. A merchant no longer needs to abandon an automated collection just to insert one campaign product that falls outside the normal rules.

Exclusions add another useful control. They can remove individual products or products matched by supported conditions. Collection-based exclusions are also available, although Shopify applies limits and restrictions to how they can be combined.

What Can Shopify Apps and Custom Apps Do?

A compatible app can publish its own source and let a merchant connect that logic to one or more collections. The app can supply part of an assortment without taking over the entire collection.

A custom app could calculate a product group from business data that Shopify's native conditions do not represent, then combine it with native rules, campaign picks, or another collection.

Custom apps can also create shareable condition sources. Update one source, and every connected collection can receive the change.

That flexibility creates new integration responsibilities. Before relying on a collection app or custom integration, ask:

• Does it support the GraphQL Admin API 2026-07 collection model?
• Does it read and update Collection.sources rather than assuming every collection has one legacy rule set?
• Can it recognize variant-targeted and sub-collection sources?
• Does it test how app-owned sources interact with native inclusions and exclusions?
• What happens to its app-owned sources when the app is disconnected or uninstalled?

The last question matters because Shopify says uninstalling an app does not automatically delete its shareable sources. Those sources can remain linked to collections until the app deletes them. Merchants should understand the cleanup process before making an app-owned source part of important navigation or campaign pages.

Why Does the 2026-07 API Version Matter?

The new collection model is available through the GraphQL Admin API 2026-07. Apps using an earlier API version can continue working with legacy-shaped collections, but they cannot read collections that use new features such as multiple sources, variants, exclusions, or sub-collections.

This is more serious than missing a few fields. Shopify documents that older GraphQL versions can return null for an individual new-model collection or omit it from collection lists. A REST request for the same collection can return a 404. The collection still exists, but the older integration cannot represent it.

The collection webhook topics remain the same, but their payloads do not include the full new source configuration. A custom app that needs the complete setup should query the collection's sources rather than trying to reconstruct the logic from the webhook alone.

Developers maintaining an integration should review Shopify's migration guide for the new collections model. Merchants using a third-party collection app should ask the vendor whether the migration is complete.

Do Existing Collections Need to Be Rebuilt?

No. Shopify says previous collections are automatically converted when the new collections model becomes available in a store. Stores that do not yet have the new editor can continue using legacy manual and smart collections.

Before changing an important live collection, create an unpublished test collection and check:

• Which products and variants appear
• Whether exclusions work across every source
• Product card images, prices, swatches, and quick-add behavior
• The selected variant after opening a product
• Sorting and featured product positions
• Any app, ERP, PIM, feed, or custom integration that reads collections

Shopify's collection setup guide covers the merchant-facing controls and current limits.

Collections Are Becoming Reusable Merchandising Tools

For stores with many SKUs, frequent launches, or custom merchandising requirements, collections can now become reusable selection logic. Automated rules provide scale, manual picks preserve campaign control, and variants, other collections, and app sources add precision.