Swatches or Listings: Which Do You Need?

The app does two jobs, and which one you need depends on how your colors are set up in Shopify. The first screen asks: do you sell one product in many colors, or separate products per color? Pick the answer that matches your store and the app takes you to the right place.

One product in many colors: use swatches

Your colors are variants of a single product, for example one "Summer Tee" with Red, Blue and Green. You don't need a listing. Swatches turn the color choice on that product page into color dots.

• Click Find my colors on the first screen. The app scans your catalog, finds your color options and matches them to colors. Nothing on your store changes until you approve it.
• Or open Swatches and set each color yourself.
• Shopify only shows swatches on products that have a product category. The app tells you how many products are missing one.

A separate product for each color: use a listing

Each color is its own product with its own page and stock, for example "Summer Tee - Red" and "Summer Tee - Blue". A listing shows them as one product page with swatches, so shoppers switch colors without leaving the page.

• Click Group my products on the first screen to let the app find products that belong together. You can group by a separator in the title ("Summer Tee - Red"), by the first words of the title ("Classic Hoodie Navy" and "Classic Hoodie Grey"), or by a tag such as "group:summer-tee".
• You review every suggested group before anything is created. Products already in a listing are skipped.
• Turn on Keep adding new matching products automatically and new products that match a listing join it on their own.
• Or click Make a listing myself and pick the products by hand.

Not sure?

Click Scan my catalog. The scan looks for both: color options that can show as swatches, and separate products that could become one listing. The results appear on the app's home page.

Shopify Plus and Shopify's Combined Listings app

Shopify has its own Combined Listings app, and it works only on Shopify Plus. Listings in this app work on every Shopify plan through the Swatch Options theme block. If your store is on Plus, the first screen says so: you can use either, and this app adds swatches and automatic grouping.

Finishing setup

The setup guide's last step is done once you have set up swatches or made a listing. You don't need both.