Swatches is where you decide what each option value looks like — a color, a photo, or its own name — and whether this app draws that option at all. Open Swatches and you get one row per option in your store, whether it came from a listing you built or from a catalog scan.
What each row tells you
Option — its name, and a link into its values
Values — how many there are
Shows as — color swatch, variant image, text buttons or dropdown
Shown by — whether this app draws it, or your theme does
Shown by is the one worth reading first. This app means we replace your theme’s control for that option. Your theme means you switched the app off for it. Not set up means a scan found the option but nobody has configured it, so your theme keeps it.
Choosing how an option looks
Open an option and pick from How this option shows:
Color swatch — each value shows the color you give it
Variant image — each value shows the photo of the product or variant it belongs to, so there is nothing to upload
Text buttons — each value shows its name, which is what sizes usually want
Dropdown — your theme’s own control, left alone
The choice decides what is drawn, not what data happens to exist. An option set to Color swatch shows colors even where photos are available.
Filling in the values
Each value has a photo and a color. Click the photo to choose or replace one; the bin removes it. Set the color in the field beside it. Everything saves as you change it — there is no Save button.
Values are shown fifty at a time, and the search box at the top finds an option by name.
Color groups
A color option also has a Color group column, holding Shopify’s own list of nineteen standard colors. This is what makes a shopper filtering a collection by “Blue” find your Ice, Cornflower and Lapis. The app guesses from the value’s name and often cannot — “Ice” matches none of the nineteen — so setting it yourself is worth the minute it takes.
It does not change what the swatch looks like. The swatch is the color or photo beside it.
Value order
By default your values appear in whatever order Shopify has them, which is usually the order you built your variants in. Value order changes that per option: A to Z, Z to A, price low to high, price high to low, or in stock first.
Price and stock are worked out per product, not across your store. “Price, low to high” on a Color option means cheapest of that product’s colors — a value that costs less on one product and more on another sorts correctly on both. Values a product cannot actually sell appear last whichever direction you pick.
Value order is part of the Growth plan.
Badges
A badge is the shelf label you put on one value — Most popular, New or Limited. Pick one in the Badge column and it appears as a small pill above that swatch on the product page. Leave it on No badge for everything else: a row where every swatch is labelled tells a shopper nothing.
It is worth reserving for the value you actually want chosen. “Most popular” on your best seller does the same job as the sticker on a shelf — it answers the question a shopper is already asking.
Badges are part of the Advanced plan. On a lower plan the column is visible but greyed out, and any badges you set before are kept, hidden, and come back if you upgrade again.
Turning the app off for one option
Let the app show this option hands that option back to your theme without affecting the others. Useful when your theme already does something you like for sizes, but you want the app’s color swatches.
The order options appear in
Drag the handle at the left of each row. The order you set is the order options appear on your product pages, so a shop that leads with size can put size first.