The order swatches appear in is a setting on each listing, and for everything except Manual it is worked out again each time the listing publishes. A colour that sells out or changes price moves on its own, without anyone opening the listing.
Choosing an order
Open a listing and set Swatch order:
Manual — the order you arranged the products in
Name A–Z or Z–A
Oldest or Newest first — by when the product joined the listing
Price, low to high or high to low
In stock first — sold-out colours drop to the end
Most viewed first — from this app’s own view records
What each one is good for
In stock first is the one most shops want. A grid of swatches where the first three are sold out reads as a shop with nothing in it, and moving them to the end fixes that without hiding them.
Most viewed first puts your popular colours where a shopper looks first. It uses views recorded by this app, so a newly installed store needs a little traffic before the order means anything.
Price, low to high suits ranges where colours genuinely differ in price, and puts the entry price in front.
Details worth knowing
Products that tie keep the manual order you set, so an alphabetical list of two identical names never shuffles between publishes. A product with no price sorts last under either price order rather than appearing to be free. A product nobody has viewed sorts last under Most viewed, rather than tying at the front with everything else at zero.