Create a Best Sellers Collection in Shopify (3 Methods + Auto-Update Options)

When someone lands on your store for the first time, they’re often thinking: “What do other people buy here?”

A Best Sellers collection answers that question instantly. It builds trust (“other people love these products”) and helps new visitors find your proven winners without scrolling through everything.

This guide covers three ways to set this up, from a quick manual approach to fully automated collections that update themselves based on real sales data.

Understanding Shopify’s “Best Selling” Sort

Before we start, there’s an important distinction to understand:

Shopify has a built-in “Best selling” sort option for any collection. But this only changes the order of products within a collection—it doesn’t automatically add or remove products based on sales. If you want a collection that truly reflects your current best sellers, you’ll need one of the methods below.

Method 1: Manual Collection (Quick Setup)

Best for: Stores with stable best sellers that don’t change often

Time to set up: 10-15 minutes

Step 1: Find your actual best sellers

1. Go to Analytics → Reports in your Shopify admin
2. Click Sales by product
3. Set your date range (last 30 days gives a good recent picture)
4. Note your top 10-20 products by units sold or revenue

Step 2: Create the collection

1. Go to Products → Collections → Create collection
2. Name it “Best Sellers” (or “Top Picks”, “Customer Favourites”, etc.)
3. Add a description explaining why these products are popular
4. Choose Manual collection type
5. Add your top products one by one
6. Set sort order to Best selling (this orders them by all-time sales within the collection)
7. Save

The catch: You’ll need to review and update this collection periodically as your best sellers change. Set a calendar reminder to check monthly.

Method 2: Automated Collection with Tags (Semi-Automatic)

Best for: Stores that want some automation but don’t mind occasional manual updates

Time to set up: 15-20 minutes

This method uses product tags to control which items appear in your Best Sellers collection. You still decide which products qualify, but adding/removing them is just a matter of editing a tag.

Step 1: Tag your best sellers

1. Check your sales reports to identify top products
2. Edit each product and add the tag bestseller (or any consistent tag you choose)
3. Save each product

Step 2: Create an automated collection

1. Go to Products → Collections → Create collection
2. Name it “Best Sellers”
3. Choose Automated collection type
4. Set the condition: Product tag is equal to bestseller
5. Set sort order to Best selling
6. Save

Now, any product you tag with “bestseller” automatically appears in the collection. Remove the tag, and it’s automatically removed from the collection.

Pro tip: You can add multiple conditions. For example: “Product tag equals bestseller” AND “Inventory is greater than 0” ensures out-of-stock items don’t appear.

Method 3: Apps for Fully Automatic Updates

Best for: Busy stores where best sellers change frequently, or stores with large catalogues

Time to set up: 20-30 minutes

If you want your Best Sellers collection to update itself based on actual sales data—daily or weekly—without any manual intervention, you’ll need an app.

Recommended apps:

Bestsellers reSort

• Automatically sorts products by sales, revenue, profit, or views
• Can apply different rules to different collections
• Lets you “pin” featured items to stay at the top
• Shows analytics on what’s selling

Beast Best Sellers

• Tracks quantities sold and revenue
• Automatically tags products as best sellers based on your criteria
• Works well with Method 2 above (it handles the tagging automatically)

Best Seller Insights

• Automatically promotes top products to the top of collections
• Adds “bestseller” badges to product images
• Good reporting on product performance

Before installing any app: Check reviews, pricing, and theme compatibility. Most offer free trials so you can test before committing.

How Often Should You Update Your Best Sellers?

This depends on your store:

• Seasonal products or fast fashion: Weekly updates
• Stable product lines: Monthly is usually enough
• Large catalogues with frequent new products: Use an app for automatic updates

A stale “Best Sellers” collection with out-of-stock or discontinued products looks unprofessional. Whatever method you choose, make sure you can maintain it.

Tips for Your Best Sellers Page

• Add it to your navigation: A Best Sellers link in your main menu gives visitors quick access
• Use social proof in the description: “Our most-loved products, based on customer reviews and sales”
• Keep it focused: 10-20 products is enough. Too many dilutes the “best” aspect
• Consider time-based best sellers: “Best Sellers This Month” creates urgency and stays fresh
• Add collection images: A good collection image makes it more clickable in navigation

Which Method Should You Choose?

Start with Method 1 or 2 if you’re just getting started or have a smaller catalogue. These are free and work well for most stores.

Move to Method 3 (apps) when:

• You’re forgetting to update your best sellers regularly
• Your product catalogue is large (100+ products)
• Your best sellers change frequently
• You want data-driven decisions without manual work

A well-maintained Best Sellers collection is one of the simplest ways to boost conversions. New visitors get guided to proven products, and returning customers can quickly see what’s popular right now.