Shopify Collection Sort Order

Retail Cloud Connect™ Product Grid App Blocks sort collection pages with AI Commerce Search by default. Merchants who curate collections in Shopify can keep that work: a collection can open in the default sort order chosen in Shopify, and manually ordered collections can open in their curated order as Featured.

Two settings control this behavior:

Setting	Location in the app	Purpose
Collection Default Sort Order	Layout Settings > Filter Behavior	Opens each collection in its Shopify price, date, or title sort order
Manual Collection Ordering	Advanced Settings	Imports Shopify's manual product order for up to five collections and offers it as Featured

Both settings apply to collection pages only. Search results pages continue to use their configured sort options.

Use Shopify's Default Sort Order

Open Layout Settings in the Retail Cloud Connect Shopify App.
Under Filter Behavior, find Collection Default Sort Order.
Select Prioritize Shopify Sort Order, then save the page.

Prioritize AI Sort Order is the default and keeps the first sort option configured for the Product Grid.

When Prioritize Shopify Sort Order is selected, each collection opens in the sort order set for that collection in Shopify:

Sort order	Storefront sort option
Price, low to high	Price (Low to High)
Price, high to low	Price (High to Low)
Date, oldest first	Oldest
Date, newest first	Newest
Title, A to Z	Product Title (A to Z)
Title, Z to A	Product Title (Z to A)

Collections sorted by Best selling in Shopify are not supported and keep the configured Product Grid order. Collections sorted Manually use Manual Collection Ordering instead.

Collection Default Sort Order is part of Layout Settings, so it can be prepared and tested in a Storefront Settings Profile before it is promoted to Production.

Date Sorting

Newest and Oldest use the Published At attribute. Merchants can point that attribute at a product date metafield instead of Shopify's published date. See Published At on the Catalog Import page.

Keep a Manual Collection Order as Featured

Use Manual Collection Ordering when a collection's product order is curated by hand in Shopify, such as a seasonal launch, a campaign landing collection, or a best-of edit.

In Shopify, confirm the collection's product sorting is set to Manually.
In the Retail Cloud Connect Shopify App, open Filters & Data, then Advanced Settings.
Under Manual Collection Ordering, enable Import manual collection ordering.
Select between one and five collections from Manually sorted collections, then save.
Run a full import, or wait for the next one.

After a successful full import, each selected collection page adds a Featured option to its sort dropdown and uses it by default. Featured shows products in the same order as the Shopify collection. Its label can be changed for each language on the Translations page.

If Shopify has no manually sorted collections, the setting stays unavailable and explains that a collection's product sorting must first be changed to Manually in Shopify.

Reordering Products

Changes to a manual order in Shopify appear after the next successful full import. If product updates affect the displayed order, run a full import to restore the Shopify order.

Sort Precedence

When more than one rule could apply to a collection page, Retail Cloud Connect uses the first match:

A sort option the shopper has selected
Featured, when available for a selected manual collection
The collection's Shopify default sort, when Prioritize Shopify Sort Order is selected
The first sort option configured for the Product Grid

When Featured is available, it takes precedence over Prioritize AI Sort Order. A shopper's own choice always wins.

When Featured Is Available

Featured is offered only on a collection page that meets every condition below:

Manual Collection Ordering is enabled and the collection is selected
Its Shopify product sorting is still Manually
A full import has completed successfully since the selection last changed

Featured is not available on search results pages or other collections. If it is missing from a selected collection, confirm that the collection still exists, is sorted manually in Shopify, and has completed a successful full import.

When Changes Take Effect

Enabling manual ordering or changing the selected collections requires a full import before Featured is available. Disabling the setting removes Featured but keeps the selected collections for later.

Manual ordering applies across all markets of the Shopify store. After changing the selection or adding a market, Featured is unavailable until a full import succeeds for every market. If an import reports errors, resolve them and run another full import.

For the rest of the import controls on the same page, see Advanced Settings.