Filter Products

The real power of Smart Collections Builder lies in its filtering capabilities. With advanced attributes, conditions, and values, you can create rules that match exactly the products you want—no more, no less.

Let's break down how filtering works and how to use it effectively.

The Three Parts of Every Rule

Each rule you create consists of three components:

1. Attribute: What product property are you checking?
2. Condition: How should it be compared?
3. Value: What are you looking for?

Think of it like a sentence: "Include products where [Attribute] [Condition] [Value]."

For example: "Include products where Price is greater than 100."

Available Attributes

Attributes are the product properties you can filter on. Smart Collections Builder supports:

Attribute	What It Checks
Metafield	Custom data fields you've set up in Shopify
Tag	Product tags assigned in Shopify
Title	The product name
Type	The product type (e.g., "Snowboard", "Jacket")
Category	The product category
Vendor	The brand or vendor name
Price	The current selling price
Compare-at-price	The original/compare price
Product Status	Whether the product is active, draft, or archived

Available Conditions

Conditions determine how the attribute is compared to your value. Here's what each one means:

Condition	What It Does	Best For
is	Exact match only	Precise filtering (Type is "Snowboard")
is not	Excludes exact matches	Excluding specific items or creating "negative" collections
contains	Includes the value anywhere	Partial matches (Title contains "Pro")
does not contain	Excludes if value appears anywhere	Avoiding certain keywords
starts with	Begins with the value	SKU prefixes, naming conventions
ends with	Ends with the value	SKU suffixes, sizing patterns
greater than	Numeric value is higher	Price or quantity thresholds
less than	Numeric value is lower	Budget or sale collections

Note: Available conditions vary depending on which attribute you select. For example, "greater than" only appears for numeric attributes like Price.

Setting the Value

The Value is what you're matching against. This could be:

• Text: For tags, titles, types, etc. (e.g., "Premium", "Winter").
• Numbers: For prices and quantities (e.g., 100, 49.99).

Example

If you set:

Attribute → Tag
Condition → contains
Value → Premium

The app includes all products that have a tag containing the word "Premium" (like "Premium", "Premium-Edition", "Super-Premium", etc.).

Combining Multiple Rules

One rule is good, but multiple rules are where things get powerful. You can add as many rules as you need to precisely target the products you want.

Click + Add Condition to add more rules. The way rules combine depends on your Rule Type:

• Match All: Products must satisfy ALL rules.
• Match Any: Products must satisfy AT LEAST ONE rule.
• Combination: Custom grouping with AND/OR logic.

Pro Tip: While there's no hard limit on rules, we recommend keeping it to 15 rules or fewer per collection. This keeps your logic manageable and easy to understand.

Real-World Example

Let's create a "Pro Series Snowboards Over $850" collection:

Rule 1:

Attribute → Title
Condition → contains
Value → Snowboard

This filters for products with "Snowboard" in the name.

Rule 2:

Attribute → Price
Condition → greater than
Value → 850

This narrows it to snowboards over $850.

Rule 3:

Attribute → Tag
Condition → contains
Value → Pro Series

This further filters to only Pro Series items.

With Match All selected, only products matching ALL three rules make it into the collection.

Tips for Effective Filtering

Be Specific When Needed

If "contains" is too broad, try "is" for exact matches. "Contains red" matches "red", "reddish", and "Alfred"—while "is red" only matches "red".

Use Consistent Data

Filters are only as good as your product data. Make sure tags, metafields, and other attributes are consistently formatted across products.

Test Your Rules

After creating a collection, check the products to make sure the rules work as expected. If not, edit the collection and adjust.

Start Broad, Then Narrow

It's often easier to start with one simple rule, check the results, and then add more rules to narrow down.

Creating "Negative" Collections

Want to find products WITHOUT certain attributes? Use "is not" or "does not contain" conditions. For example, to find products without a "Sale" tag, use: Tag → does not contain → Sale.

Working with Metafields

Metafields are custom data fields in Shopify—they're incredibly powerful for advanced filtering. Some common examples:

• Material type (Cotton, Polyester, Wool)
• Season (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter)
• Collection year (2023, 2024)
• Custom attributes specific to your products

To filter by Metafield:

1. Select Metafield as the attribute.
2. Choose the specific metafield from the dropdown.
3. Set the condition and value.

Supported Metafield Types

Smart Collections Builder supports the most common metafield types, including:

• Single-line text and multi-line text
• Integers and decimals
• Dates and date-times
• Booleans (true/false)
• URLs
• Colors
• Product references
• List versions of supported types

Unsupported Metafield Types

Currently, we don't support these metafield types:

• Volume, Dimension, Weight
• Rating, Money
• JSON
• File references, Page references, Collection references
• Metaobject references, Mixed references

If a specific metafield type is important for your use case, let us know—we're always working to expand support!

Product vs. Variant Metafields

Currently, Smart Collections Builder only supports product-level metafields. Variant metafields aren't available for filtering at this time.

Have questions about filtering? We're here to help! Reach out via live chat or email us at support@bevycommerce.com.