Sibling products allow you to set up variants as individual products with their own images and product details.
On product pages, sibling products appear as variant swatches. In collections and product listings, sibling products are displayed as individual products.
Set up sibling products
To set up sibling products you will need to add individual products to a new collection, then add and update two metafields for each sibling product.
Create products with unique images and details
Add products to a collection to group together as 'siblings'
Create two metafields to show siblings as swatches and add option names to products
1. Add individual products to siblings collection
To create a group of sibling products, you need to create individual products and add them to a new collection. The collection is used to group your sibling products together as variant options.
STEPS
In your Shopify admin:
Click Products in the side panel. Click Add product to create the individual products for your siblings collection.
We recommend using the same product title that includes the different option names (eg. color). For example: "Green Running Shoes", "Blue Running Shoes", etc.
Tip: Create the first product then duplicate it to keep them consistent and save time from having to re-write and set up the details for each product.
Go to Products > Collections to Create collection. Add your products to the collection.
You can name your collection anything you like.
Note: By default, your sibling collection will appear on the Collections List page. To hide the sibling collection from the collection list page, you can choose selected collections to display in the theme editor.
Click Save.
2. Set up metafields for sibling products
Once your sibling products are added to a collection, you need to add two metafields to your products.
Sibling products use metafields to (a)display sibling products as swatches and (b)give each product a variant option name.
Metafields are custom fields added to your products in the Shopify admin. The steps below will cover all you need to know, but if you'd like to learn more, see Shopify's guide to metafields ↗.
2a. Create metafield for siblings collection
Go to Settings > Custom data to create the first metafield for your Products. This metafield will be used to display sibling products as swatches.
The metafield requires the following fields:
Name
Siblings collection
Namespace and key
eclipse.siblings_collectionMust be exact to work. Note that 'siblings' is plural with an 's'. Do not add or modify words.
Type
Collection (Reference)
If you are creating multiple sibling collections, you only need to create one metafield.
STEPS
In your Shopify admin:
Go to Settings > Custom data.
Click Products.
Click Add definition button in the top-right.
Enter "Siblings collection" in the Name field. Note that "Siblings" is plural.
The Namespace and key field will automatically update to custom.siblings_collections
In the Namespace and key field, replace the word "custom" with "eclipse".
The Namespace should now be eclipse.siblings_collection. This namespace must match exactly or it will not work.
Do not add additional words or multiple metafields for different sibling collections.
Click + Select content type and select Collection under Reference.
Click Save.
2b. Define metafield for sibling option name
Go to Settings > Custom data to create the second metafield for your Products. This metafield will be used to give individual products a variant option name (e.g. "Red" or "Wood").
The metafield requires the following fields:
Name
Sibling option name
Namespace and key
eclipse.sibling_option_nameMust be exact to work. Note that 'sibling' is singular with no 's'. Do not add or modify words.
Type
Single line text
STEPS
In your Shopify admin:
Go to Settings > Custom data.
Click Products.
Click the Add definition button in the top-right.
Enter "Sibling option name" in the Name field. Note that "Sibling" in the name is singular and not plural.
The Namespace and key field will automatically update to custom.sibling_option_name
In the Namespace and key field, replace the word "custom" with "eclipse".
The Namespace should now read as eclipse.sibling_option_name. Note that "sibling" is singular, not plural. This namespace must match exactly or the siblings swatches will not work.
Click + Select content type and select Single line text.
Click Save.
3. Update metafields for each sibling product
After creating the 2 metafields, go to Products in your Shopify admin to add information to the metafields.
That's it! the sibling product swatches will now automatically display on the product pages.
STEPS
In your Shopify admin:
Click Products in the side panel and open each individual product that's in the sibling collection..
Click the Siblings collection metafield and select the collection with your sibling products.
Click the Sibling option name metafield and enter text for the swatch label.
The option name will appear as a label above the swatch. It is also used to display custom swatch colors when product images are not enabled
Update these metafields for each product. Click Save.
Change option label
By default, the label above the sibling swatches is "Color". Go to Theme settings > Products to change the Siblings label.
Use product image or color for swatches
Sibling products swatches can display product images or custom colors.
Use product images
Go to Theme settings > Products and select the Use product images as swatches option.
In your Shopify admin, go to Products to upload and select images for your individual sibling products. Click and drag the product image you want to the first position in the product media gallery.
Use custom colors
Go to Theme settings > Swatches to assign custom swatch colors. Enter the option name followed by a colon (:) and a hex code (eg. #00b300) for your desired color.
You can use a HTML color picker like this one to find the hexcode for your color. Select and copy the six-character hex code, including the hashtag symbol.
STEPS
In your theme editor (Customize):
Go to your Product template and click Variant selector under Product overview
Under Product sibling swatches, uncheck the Show product image option.
Click to open the Theme settings and open the Product tab.
In the Custom swatch colors field add the exact Option name used for your sibling product (ex. "Green") followed by a colon and your hex code color (ex. #00b300).
The Option name should match the name you entered in the "Sibling option name" metafield for your product.
Click Save.
Hide sibling collections
By default, all published collections appear on the Collections list page and in Search results. Follow the steps below to hide sibling collections on your store.
Hide from collections list page
To hide a sibling collection from the Collections list page, you can choose to show only selected collections, instead of all collections.
STEPS
In your theme editor (Customize):
Use the template selector to open the Collections list template.
Click to open the Collections list section in the side panel.
Under Select collections to show, choose Custom list.
Click Select collections and choose only those collections that you want to show.
Click Save.
Hide from search results
While Shopify doesn't provide an option to hide collections, you can use metafields as a workaround to remove specific collections from search results.
STEPS
From your Shopify admin:
Go to Settings > Custom Data > Collections > Add definition.
Enter Hide collection in the Name field.
Enter seo.hidden in the Namespace and key field.
Click (+) Select type and select Integer.
Make sure that One value is selected.
Click Save.
Return to your Shopify admin:
Go to Products > Collections and select the collection you want to hide.
Scroll down to the Metafields area.
Enter the number 1 in the Hide collection metafield.
