1. What can you do with the Sibling Products block?
The Sibling product block is a part of the Product information section. It lets you group related products and display them as swatches on the product page. Unlike Shopify’s default variants, each sibling product has its own images, details, and price. This also helps with inventory management, cross-selling, and using custom product templates for each variation.
For example, A store sells helmets in different styles. Each style is a separate product with its own images, price, URL, variant options, etc., but should be linked for easy navigation.
2. How to set up the Sibling Products block?
Here are simple steps to set it up:
STEP 1: Create individual products
In the Shopify admin, click on the Products tab > “Add product” to create new products.
STEP 2: Put those products into a collection
- Still in Shopify admin, go to Products > Collections
- Click the “Create collection” button and add all sibling products you created in Step 1.
STEP 3: Create 2 product metafields
- Still in Shopify admin, click on Settings > Metafields and metaobjects > Products > Add definition to create product metafields.
- You will need to do this process twice to create 2 different product metafields:
|
# |
Name |
Namespace and key |
Select type |
Why do you need this metafield? |
|
1 |
Sibling type |
custom.sibling_type |
Must be Single line text exactly. |
This defines what options customers use to switch between siblings, serving as a “variant picker”. |
|
2 |
Sibling collection handle |
custom.sibling_collection_handle |
Must be Single line text exactly. |
This helps to identify the individual products that are a part of the sibling. |
If you need help on how to create a metafield, try this interactive guide down here 👇 (Please remember to repeat this process twice)
STEP 4: Copy the collection’s URL handle
- Go back to the collection that you created at Step 2 (Products > Collections > click on your collection).
- Scroll all the way down, and find the Search engine listing group.
- Click on the pencil icon.
- Then, copy the URL handle.
STEP 5: Enter the collection’s URL handle into the “Sibling collection handle” metafield
Now, remember the individual products you created in Step 1?
- Again, go to Products.
- Check the boxes of the products you want to be in the sibling.
- Choose “Bulk edit”.
- Click on “Columns” in the top right corner.
- Scroll to find Metafields, tick on “Sibling collection handle” (or search Sibling collection handle).
- Paste the URL handle you copied in Step 4 above into the Sibling collection handle column.
- Click “Save”.
STEP 6: Enter the type into the “Sibling type” metafield
Just like Step 5 above, you need to:
- Go to Products.
- Check the boxes of the products.
- Choose “Bulk edit”.
- Click on “Columns” in the top right corner.
- Scroll to find Metafields, tick on “Sibling type” (or search Sibling type).
- Enter the text into the metafields.
- Click “Save”.
For example, your products are shoes with the same design but made in different countries such as UK, USA and Belgium. So here, this “Sibling type” metafield is where you enter the UK, USA, and Belgium text.
STEP 7: Add the Sibling products block in Theme Editor
- In Shopify admin, go to Theme Editor by clicking on Online Store > Themes > “Customize”.
- Go to the Product page (click on the Homepage dropdown > Products > Default products).
- Under the Product Information section, click “Add block”.
- Find and add the Sibling products block.
STEP 8: Set up important settings of the Sibling products block in Theme Editor
Still on that page at that step 7, you can see the Sibling products block setting panel, and there are 3 most important pieces of information to fill in:
- Option name: Enter any texts you want to show as the labels for the type. For example: color, and pattern.
- Collection handle metafield: Enter “custom.sibling_collection_handle” (which is the Namespace and key of the Sibling collection handle metafield).
- Option value metafield: Enter “custom.sibling_type” (which is the Namespace and key of the Sibling type metafield).
Don’t forget to click “Save” when you finished!
STEP 9: Set up other settings of the “Sibling products” block in Theme Editor
Still in the Sibling products block setting panel, these settings may be useful to you:
-
Linking option:
- Load sibling products' content only: Choose when the siblings are of the same template, and the template content is mostly static.
- Redirect to sibling product pages: Choose when each sibling has distinct rich content (e.g. product reviews) to navigate users directly to the sibling product page.
- Option display type: Choose to show the type picker as a Button or a Dropdown.
- Enable color swatches: Toggle on to show images/color instead of plain text for the type. (To make this work, you must first set up the product swatches).
- Swatch size: Change the size of swatch buttons, only able when Enable color swatches is turned on.
STEP 10:
Click “Save” when done.
Still stuck? Contact us to get help.
3. Set up Siblings product - Video guide
Below is a video guide for Eurus Theme - another theme from our team. However, the steps can also be applied to the Maximize Theme. You can watch and follow the instructions for easier setup.
