Migrating Product Collections from Shopify to SHOPLINE – SHOPLINE Help Center

Product collections group products together so customers can browse your store by theme, product type, or promotion. With the SHOPLINE Multi-platform Store Migration app, you can migrate your Shopify store's product collections and their sort order to SHOPLINE, without rebuilding each one manually.

This guide explains the types of product collections, how collection migration relates to product information migration, which collections can be migrated, how secondary migrations handle collections, and how to resolve common errors.

Note: Product collections and product categories are two different types of data. To learn how Shopify's standard product categories are migrated, see "Migrating Product Categories from Shopify to SHOPLINE". To learn how product information is migrated, see "Migrating Products from Shopify to SHOPLINE".

Understanding Product Collections in Shopify and SHOPLINE

Shopify no longer separates collections into manual and smart collections. Within the same collection, you can add products manually, add products automatically using conditions, and set exclusion rules to keep specific products out of the collection.

SHOPLINE offers two types of product collections:

Manual collections: You choose which products to add to the collection.
Smart collections: Products that meet the conditions you set (such as product title, tag, or price) are added to the collection automatically.

During migration, the system converts each Shopify collection into a SHOPLINE manual or smart collection based on how products were added to it. For details, see "Migration Rules for Shopify Product Collections" below.

How Product Collection Migration Relates to Product Information

Product collections are part of the Products module and depend on product information data. Products must be migrated to SHOPLINE successfully before they can be added to their collections.

You can migrate product collections in either of the following two ways:

Migrate with product information: After you select the Products module, you can choose whether to migrate product collections together with product information.
Migrate product collections separately: Once the migration success rate of the Products module reaches 95% or higher, you can migrate product collections on their own. This is useful when adding new collections or overwriting existing ones.

Migration Rules for Shopify Product Collections

During migration, the system first checks whether the Shopify collection's rules are within the supported range, then determines the collection type in SHOPLINE based on how products were added.

A product collection must meet all of the following conditions to be migrated to SHOPLINE:

Only one condition group is set.
Variants, other collections, or third-party apps are not used as the product source.
No exclusion rules are set (including condition-based and manual exclusions).
All conditions and operators (if any) are within the supported range. For details, see "Appendix 1: Product Collection Sorting and Filtering Rules for Migration" below.

If a collection doesn't meet any one of these conditions, its migration fails and an error message is displayed. For how to resolve these errors, see "Appendix 2: Handling Common Product Collection Migration Errors" below.

Collections that meet the conditions above are migrated as the corresponding collection type, based on how products were added:

How Products Are Added in Shopify	Supported	Migration Result
Manually only	Yes	Created as a manual collection
By conditions only, with all rules within the supported range	Yes	Created as a smart collection
Both manually and by conditions	Partially	Only the conditions are migrated, and a smart collection is created. Manually added products are not migrated.

For supported conditions and operators, see "Appendix 1: Product Collection Sorting and Filtering Rules for Migration" below.

Important: If a Shopify collection uses both manual and condition-based product additions, the migrated collection only contains products that meet the conditions. After migration, we recommend going to the SHOPLINE product collections page to check the products in the collection.

How Secondary Migration Handles Product Collections

If you migrate again (i.e. perform a secondary migration), the system handles previously migrated product collections based on the migration setting you choose under Overwrite update settings:

Disabled (Default): Do not overwrite. Previously migrated collections are skipped automatically.
Enabled: Overwrite. Previously migrated collections are updated with their latest Shopify settings.

Notes:

The type of a migrated collection can't be changed. If you change how products are added to a collection in Shopify after the first migration (for example, from manual to condition-based), the collection will fail to update when you overwrite it.
Collection migration records are kept for 90 days. If more than 90 days have passed since the last migration and a collection with the same handle already exists in SHOPLINE, you can choose to skip or overwrite it.

FAQs About Migrating Product Collections

Q1: Why are some product collections missing after migration?

A1: Missing collections are usually caused by how products were added, or by conditions or operators that aren't within SHOPLINE's supported range. In this case, the system displays an error message by collection handle. You can resolve it by following "Appendix 2: Handling Common Product Collection Migration Errors" below.

Q2: Why are some manually added products missing from the migrated collection?

A2: If a Shopify collection uses both manual and condition-based product additions, the system only migrates the conditions and creates a smart collection. Manually added products that don't meet the conditions won't appear in that collection. In addition, products that failed to migrate can't be added to their collections.

Q3: Is the sort order of product collections migrated as well?

A3: Yes. The system converts the sort order of each Shopify collection into the corresponding SHOPLINE sort order. For details, see "Appendix 1: Product Collection Sorting and Filtering Rules for Migration" below. After migration, we recommend checking the product sort order in your SHOPLINE admin to avoid unexpected sorting affecting your store's conversion.

Appendix 1: Product Collection Sorting and Filtering Rules for Migration

The tables below show which sorting and filtering rules are supported when migrating manual and smart collections. You can re-check the product sort order in your admin afterward, to avoid a drop in store conversion caused by an incorrect sort order.

Product Collection Sorting Rules

Shopify Sort Order	SHOPLINE Sort Order
Most relevant	Smart sorting
Best selling	Best selling
Alphabetically, A–Z / Z–A	Product name (A–Z / Z–A)
Price, highest / lowest	Price (high to low / low to high)
Date created, newest / oldest	Date created (newest to oldest / oldest to newest)
Manually	Custom sorting (follows the product order in Shopify)

Smart Collection Filtering Rules

Shopify Condition	SHOPLINE Condition	Supported Operators
Product title	Product title	Is equal to, is not equal to, contains, does not contain, starts with, ends with
Product type	Custom product type	Is equal to, is not equal to, contains, does not contain, starts with, ends with
Vendor	Vendor	Is equal to, is not equal to, contains, does not contain, starts with, ends with
Variant title	Variant name	Is equal to, is not equal to, contains, does not contain, starts with, ends with
Product tag	Tag	Is equal to, is not equal to
Product category	Standard product category	Is equal to (subcategories included) Note: "Is not equal to" is not supported yet.
Price	Price	Is equal to, is not equal to, greater than, less than
Compare-at price	Compare-at price	Is equal to, is not equal to, greater than, less than, is empty, is not empty
Weight	Weight	Is equal to, is not equal to, greater than, less than
Inventory stock	Inventory	Is equal to, greater than, less than
Product status	Not supported	-
Metafield	Not supported	-

Notes:

If any condition or operator in a collection is outside the supported range, the entire collection can't be migrated.
Product categories are converted to SHOPLINE standard product categories. For details, see "Migrating Product Categories from Shopify to SHOPLINE".

Appendix 2: Handling Common Product Collection Migration Errors

If a product collection fails to migrate, you can view the reason by collection handle (for example, automated-collection) on the migration results page. Common errors and how to resolve them:

Original Error Message	Cause / Meaning	Suggested Fix
More than one condition group is not supported.	The Shopify collection has multiple condition groups, which SHOPLINE doesn't support yet.	Change the conditions to a single condition group in Shopify and migrate again, or create the collection manually in SHOPLINE.
Condition source "{targetType}" is not supported.	The collection uses variants, other collections, or third-party apps as the product source, which SHOPLINE doesn't support yet.	Create the collection manually in SHOPLINE.
Exclusion mode is not supported.	The collection has exclusion rules (condition-based or manual exclusions), which SHOPLINE doesn't support yet.	Remove the exclusion rules in Shopify and migrate again, or create the collection manually in SHOPLINE.
Column "{column}" is not supported.	The collection uses a condition type that SHOPLINE doesn't support, such as product status or metafields.	Change the condition to a supported condition type in Shopify and migrate again, or create the collection manually in SHOPLINE.
Operator "{relation}" is not supported for column "{column}".	The condition type is supported, but the operator used isn't.	Change the operator to a supported one in Shopify and migrate again, or create the collection manually in SHOPLINE.
logic between columns mismatches value-level logic.	The relationship between multiple values within a condition doesn't match the relationship between conditions.	Make the two relationships consistent in Shopify and migrate again, or create the collection manually in SHOPLINE.
column:product_category_id unsupport / product_category_id_with_descendants unsupport	The smart collection uses a standard product category condition that isn't supported yet.	Edit the smart collection's conditions on the original platform first, then retry.
body.smart_collection: The required property 'rules' is missing from the object	The smart collection has no conditions set.	On the original platform, check whether the smart collection's conditions are empty. Add valid conditions, then retry.
SORTATION_CONDITION_INVALID	The collection's sort type isn't supported yet.	This sort rule isn't supported yet. Contact the SHOPLINE support team.
The product or category relocation failed, resulting in the inability to bind the category relationship. Please try again.	Some products or collections failed to migrate, so the collection relationships couldn't be linked.	Retry the failed data. If it still fails, check whether the related products have been migrated successfully.

Notes:

In the error messages, {targetType}, {column}, and {relation} are replaced with the actual product source, condition type, and operator name.
SHOPLINE smart collections only support setting the relationship between conditions (All conditions / Any condition). During migration, multiple values within a single condition are split into separate conditions. For example, if a Shopify collection is set to "Any condition" and one condition is "Tag is equal to Summer or New Arrivals," it is converted into two conditions: "Tag is equal to Summer" and "Tag is equal to New Arrivals." If the collection is set to "All conditions," the relationship between values (or) doesn't match the relationship between conditions (and), so the migration fails.

If you encounter other migration errors, see "Troubleshooting Common Store Migration Failures".