Finder

The finder asks shoppers up to six questions and sends them to one collection with their answers applied as that collection’s filters. It is a way into your range, not a separate result page. Stock, sorting and new products follow the collection without any upkeep, and the finder stores no answers and collects no email.

Each answer names a value from the collection’s filters. Set up the filters first, then build the questions.

Before you start: the collection’s filters

The finder uses the filters Shopify shows on the collection, the same ones shoppers tick in the filter sidebar. It has no filter list of its own.

Pick the collection the finder opens, for example your whole skincare range.
In the Search & Discovery app, add a filter for each thing a question asks about, such as a skin type tag, a concern metafield or a product option. See Shopify’s guide to Search & Discovery filters.
Give your products the tags, metafield values or options those filters read.
Open the collection on your storefront and note each filter value exactly as it reads in the filter list, for example “Oily”.

For a budget question, add a price filter as well. Collections and filters covers how the filters show on the collection page.

Add the finder

The Finder section works on any page template. The Remedy and Larder presets ship it on the home page. Every preset has a finder page template that holds it alone.

To give the finder a page of its own:

In Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Pages and click Add page.
Enter a title, such as “Find your routine”.
Under Theme template, choose finder, then click Save.
Open the page in the theme editor to set up its Finder section.

See Shopify’s guide to templates for how page templates work.

Set up the section

In Collection, pick the collection the finder opens. Left empty, the finder opens all products.
Add a Heading, Text and a Button label if you want them. With no button label, the button reads “See my matches”.
Choose a Layout:
- One question at a time shows one question per screen with a progress bar and “Back” and “Next” buttons. A single-choice question moves on by itself a quarter of a second after the shopper taps an answer. The button that opens the results shows on the last question.
- All questions at once shows the heading and text beside every question. The shopper can skip questions, and the button works once any one question has an answer.
- First question as the opening shows the first question’s answers as large lettered tiles. Each next question opens under the last once it has an answer, and the button works once every question has one. With no questions, this layout shows nothing on the storefront.

The Finder reference lists every setting.

Add questions and answers

Add a Question block for each question, up to six. Give it the question in Question, and set Answers to Pick one or Pick several. A question marked Pick several shows “Choose all that apply”.

Inside each question, add an Answer block for each answer, up to six. An answer has these settings:

Label is what the shopper reads.
Filter value is the collection filter value the answer applies, as it reads in the collection’s filters. Capitals and spaces at either end don’t matter. Left empty, the finder matches the Label instead.
Price up to sets the top of the price filter, in your store currency, for an answer such as “Under 40”. Leave Filter value empty on a price answer.
Image turns the answers of that question into image tiles. Without images, answers show as rows. The First question as the opening layout shows every answer as a text tile and leaves images out.
Top picks pins up to three products to the answer.

In the theme editor, an answer whose Filter value the collection doesn’t offer carries a warning, such as “No filter ‘Oily’ on Skincare”. Shoppers never see it. Fix the value, or add the filter to the collection, until the warning goes.

See the Question and Answer block settings in the reference.

What the shopper gets

Above the button, a summary lists each question with the answers chosen, or “Any” for a question left open. The First question as the opening layout leaves the summary out and names the collection under the button instead. When the shopper clicks the button, the finder looks up the collection’s filters, matches each answer to a filter value, and opens the collection with those values applied. The applied filters show as active filters, so the shopper can remove any of them.

The collection page can then show:

A “Top picks for you” row of up to three products above the grid, taken from the chosen answers’ Top picks in question order, without repeats.
For answers that match no filter, a line reading “Not applied”, the labels of those answers, and “No filter for them here”.
When no product matches the answers, or no answer matches a filter, the finder opens the whole collection with the note “No exact match. Here are all the products. Change your answers to narrow them down.” When the shopper came from another page of your store, a “Retake the finder” link goes back to it.

If the collection can’t be loaded, the message “We could not load the products just now. Your answers are kept; try again.” shows under the button.