Creating and using tags in Shopify

You can add tags to group, search, filter, and make bulk changes to items in the following sections of your Shopify admin:

• Products
• Transfers
• Customers
• Blog posts
• Orders
• Drafts
• Discounts

Tags aren't displayed to customers, but you can use tags to categorize products on your online store and organize search results for customers. Tags with intentional misspellings that your customers commonly use can help them to find your products in storefront search.

For example, at the end of the summer season, you can search for your products with the Summer tag in your Products page, and use a bulk action to hide them from your sales channels.

Tag types

You can create a custom set of tags for each section in Shopify where tags are used. When you create a tag in a particular section, it isn't copied to the other sections where tags are used. For example, you can organize orders by tags like packed or test, but use tags like tax exempt or wholesale to describe some of your customers. Each type of tag corresponds to the section it can organize:

Considerations for tags

Review the following considerations for tags:

• Tags that are associated with orders and draft orders can have up to 40 characters.
• Tags that are associated with products, transfers, customers, blog posts, and discounts can have up to 255 characters.
• Tags are not case sensitive. For example, Approved and approved are the same tag.
• You can only use letters, numbers, and hyphens in your tags.
• Letters with accents and other symbols can exclude search results.
• You can apply up to 250 tags to each product, customer, transfer, blog post, order, and draft order.
• You can apply up to 5 tags to a single discount.
• Use consistent capitalization and use of hyphens (for example, spring-clearance) to make tags easier to remember, read, and use.

Add a tag

You can add a tag when you create or edit products, transfers, customers, blog posts, orders, draft orders, or discounts.

Steps:

1. Open the specific product, transfer, customer, blog post, order, draft order, or discount details page in your Shopify admin.
2. In the Tags section, enter the name of a tag that you want to add, or select it from the list of existing tags. If you enter the name for a new tag, then it's automatically created for future use in the section.
3. Click Save.

Select tags from a list

You can add, remove, and view the full list of tags on a product, transfer, customer, blog post, order, draft order, or discount details page.

Steps:

1. In the Tags section, click the icon or the icon.
2. In the dialog or drop-down menu, select the tags that you want to apply, and then click Save if necessary.
3. Click Save.

Remove a tag

You can remove a tag from products, transfers, customers, blog posts, orders, draft orders, or discounts.

Steps:

1. Open the specific product, transfer, customer, blog post, order, draft order, or discount details page in Shopify.
2. Hover over the tag that you want to remove and then click x. The tag is removed only from that specific product, transfer, customer, blog post, order, draft order, or discount.
3. Click Save.

Adding and removing tags in bulk

You add and remove tags on multiple products, transfers, customers, blog posts, orders, draft orders, or discounts using bulk actions on desktop. Order tags can also be added and removed in bulk on mobile.

Bulk edit product, transfer, customer, blog post, draft order, and discount tags

1. From your Shopify admin, click Products, Transfers, Customers, Blog posts, Drafts, or Discounts.
2. Select the products, transfers, customers, blog posts, draft orders, or discounts that you want to tag.
3. Click …, and then click Add tags or Remove tags.
4. Select the tags that you want to add or remove.
5. Click Save.

Bulk edit order tags

Search by tag in Shopify

You can search for a tag that you added to a product, transfer, customer, blog post, order, draft order, or discount to help you find something. The search returns any results matching the tag. If you search a tag that isn't added to anything, then no search results appear.

Steps:

1. Enter the name of the tag in the Shopify search bar.
2. View the matching results, and select a result to view it in detail.

Filter by tag

You can use tags to filter the lists on the Products, Transfers, Blog posts, Orders, Drafts, and Discounts pages. You can also use product tags to filter the list of variants on the Inventory page.

To filter orders by tag, refer to Filter your orders.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, click Products, Transfers, Blog posts, Orders, Drafts, Inventory, or Discounts.
2. Click Search and filter > Tag.
3. Select the tag that you want to use as a filter. Filter results are displayed.

You can filter the list by one tag at a time or enter a syntax in a list's search field to filter by multiple tags.

Other ways to use tags

There are more ways to use tags and stay organized:

• Create a smart collection in your Shopify admin using product tags.
• Tag products to help customers find them in your online store search.
• Filter with tags when you create a link to a collection in your online store menus. This will display only products in the linked collection that match those tags.

Troubleshooting tags

If you're having trouble saving tags to items, or a tag doesn't display in filters or appear in search as expected, then try the following troubleshooting steps:

• Check the tag format:

  • Verify you're only using letters, numbers, and hyphens
  • Remove any special characters, symbols, or accented letters
  • Check for extra spaces before or after the tag

• Verify the character limits for the respective tag types:

  • Orders and draft orders: Maximum 40 characters
  • Products, transfers, customers, and blog posts: Maximum 255 characters

• Confirm the save:

  • Return to the item's details page
  • Check if the tag displays in the Tags section
  • Try adding the tag again if missing

Troubleshooting bulk edit issues with tags

If you're having problems with bulk editing tags:

1. Check your permissions:

   • Verify that you have admin access and the correct permissions for bulk editing the items
   • Check if you're at your tag limit (250 per item)

2. Review the bulk edit for any data entry errors:

   • Keep tags under character limits
   • Use only allowed characters

3. Edit fewer items to troubleshoot the issue further:

   • Edit items individually to identify issues
   • Break bulk edits into smaller batches

Product tag suggestions don't display all tags

Shopify's product tag suggestion feature has a limitation where only your store's first 5,000 unique product tags are displayed. This affects both the dropdown suggestions when you search for a tag and the View all option. If your store has more than 5,000 product tags, then tags created after the first 5,000 won't display in the suggestions list.

To keep your product tags within the suggestion limit, you can do the following maintenance:

1. Review your current product tags and identify any that are no longer needed.
2. Remove unused tags in bulk from multiple products.
3. Consider consolidating similar tags. For example, use summer-sale instead of having separate tags for summer-sale-2023, summer-sale-2024, and so on.

Locating products with no tags

The admin product search and tag filters don't support searching for products that are missing tags. Results for this type of search might be incomplete. To find untagged products, export your product list and check the Tags column in a spreadsheet. Learn more about the export workflow for finding untagged products.

Examples of using tags

Using tags strategically can streamline your store management tasks. The following examples demonstrate how tags can coordinate with automated workflows, enhance product discoverability, and help you manage customer relationships.

Example: Creating customer segments with tag filters

You can use tags to create dynamic customer segments that help you identify and manage specific groups of customers. For example, you can create segments to track your loyalty program members or identify high-value customers.

Steps:

Let's create a customer segment for your VIP loyalty program members who have spent over $1,000 CAD:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Customers > Search and filter.
2. Click Tagged with from the filter options.
3. Enter vip-loyalty and high-value in the tag filter to find customers with both tags.
4. Click Save filters and name your segment "VIP High-Value Customers".

You can now access this segment anytime to manage your VIP customer relationships and run targeted marketing campaigns. You can use this saved segment for various marketing and customer service initiatives, such as sending exclusive promotional offers, providing early access to new products, offering enhanced customer support, and tracking loyalty program engagement.

Example: Improving product discoverability with misspelled tags

When creating product tags, you can strategically include common misspellings to help customers find your products even when they make typing errors in search. Here's some examples to demonstrate how to implement this approach:

This strategy ensures that customers can still find your products regardless of common spelling mistakes. For best results:

• Only include the most frequently occurring misspellings
• Keep the primary, correct spelling as the first tag
• Monitor your search analytics to identify which misspellings are actually being used
• Review and update your misspelled tags periodically based on search data

Example: Automate tag management with Shopify Flow

You can use Shopify Flow to automatically add and remove tags based on triggers and conditions. Here's an example of a comprehensive workflow that manages both high-value orders and repeat customers:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Apps > Flow.

2. Click Create workflow.

3. Select "Order paid" trigger, set condition "Order total price > $500 CAD" to add high-value tag to order and high-value-customer tag to customer.

4. Add "OR" condition "Customer orders count > 3" to add repeat-customer tag to customer.

5. Add action to send thank you email.

6. Name your workflow (for example, "Customer Value Tracking"), and then click Save, and activate the workflow.