MerchentiaHow to set up Shop The Look before you generate any looks
Shop The Look has a lot of settings, but most stores change one or two before creating their first looks and leave the rest alone. This guide explains each one in everyday terms: what it does, whether you need to touch it, and what to do when something looks wrong.
The short version
- Check the readiness card on the app’s Home page. It tells you whether your catalogue can fill a look at all.
- Decide where suggestions can come from with the Match scope setting. It’s the one setting most stores change.
- Add the widget to your product page using the buttons on the Settings page. Decide whether you also want a “You may also like” row.
- Create looks for a handful of products, check them, and adjust.
- Roll out to the rest, then fine-tune how the widget looks.
One idea that saves you time
Think of a look as a page in a printed catalogue: some choices are fixed when the page is printed, and changing them later doesn’t reprint the pages you have. Other choices work like your shop window, where shoppers see a change straight away. So each setting below carries one of two labels:
- Set before creating looks Existing looks only pick up a change when you press Rebuild looks, which is free. Saving on its own doesn’t update them.
- Change anytime Live on your store as soon as you save.
Step 1 — Check your store is ready
Open Home (or Looks by AI) and find the “Is your store ready for Shop the Look?” card. It uses none of your looks; it just reads your catalogue and shows whether the app has enough to work with.
| Tile | What it tells you | Good sign |
|---|---|---|
| Products usable | How many products are Active, in stock, on your Online Store, and have a photo. | 70% or more is green. 30% to 69% is amber; below that is red. |
| Outfit categories | How many of the eight outfit rows (Tops, Bottoms, Dresses, Outerwear, Shoes, Bags, Hats, Jewelry) you can fill. A row only counts with at least 3 products in stock. With fewer, every look ends up showing the same item. | 6 of 8 is green. 4 or 5 is amber. |
| Colour readable | How many products have a colour the app recognises. Products with no colour, or a colour word it doesn’t know, don’t count. | 90% or more is green. |
| Looks | How many looks you’ve built and published, and whether the widget is on your product page yet. | — |
What the card can’t tell you: it checks that a product has a photo, not what’s in it. A look needs a photo of a real person wearing or carrying the products. Flat lays and product-only shots won’t produce a look, even if every tile is green. Which kinds of photos work explains more.
Just installed? Give it a few minutes. The app is still reading your catalogue, so the numbers can look lower than they really are.
A product in the wrong row? The app decides whether something is a top, a shoe or a bag from your product details, not from the photo. It reads the title, product category, product type and collections. That’s fixed in Shopify, not in the app.
Step 2 — The settings to decide before creating looks
Open Settings in the app. These four are the Set before creating looks kind. Their defaults suit most stores, and most only change the first one.
Match scope: where suggestions can come from
What it does: tick one or more collections and the app only suggests products from those. Leave everything unticked to use your whole catalogue.
Change it when: looks pull in products from the wrong department, like a cushion next to a jacket in a store that sells homeware and clothing. Tick your clothing collections. It’s the most effective fix for looks that feel off.
Good to know: each look remembers the scope it was created with, and Rebuild looks won’t change that. To apply a new scope to a look you already have, open the product in Looks by AI and press Regenerate. It doesn’t use any of your plan’s new AI looks, and each product can be regenerated once a day. The new version arrives as a draft, so publish it again. (Generate looks skips products that already have a look, unless their photo has changed.)
Similar match: how alike a product must be
What it does: think of it as a strictness dial. A product is only suggested if it’s at least this similar to the item in the photo. Higher means fewer, closer suggestions; lower fills more of each look with looser ones.
Change it when: looks are often missing an item, such as shoes (turn it down a little), or the suggestions feel too far from the photo (turn it up). Then press Rebuild looks.
Match items to the same kind of product
What it does: keeps tops matched with tops and shoes with shoes. Switched off, any product can fill any spot in a look.
Change it when: almost never. Leave it on unless you have a specific reason.
Candidates stored per category: backup products for each item
What it does: shoppers see one product for each item in a look. Behind it the app keeps backups, best match first. If the product on show sells out, the next one steps in, and the original returns when it’s restocked.
Change it when: your stock moves fast and items vanish from looks because their backups have sold out too.
Good to know: it doesn’t show more products, it only keeps more waiting in line. See how looks handle sold-out stock.
Exact match: you can leave this one alone
What it does: nothing shoppers see. It only decides whether a suggestion is labelled “exact” or “similar” when you review looks in the app.
Good to know: dragging Exact below Similar pulls Similar down with it, and Similar does change what shoppers see. Watch both sliders.
Step 3 — Add the widget to your product page
The widget goes into your theme, not the app. Buttons on the Settings page open your theme editor on your product page with the block ready to add. There are two blocks:
- Shop the look: the complete-the-look row.
- Related products: an optional “You may also like” row, explained further down.
Each block has its own design options: layout (carousel, grid or pinned image), add-to-cart buttons, a size and colour picker, card size, image shape, rounded corners, button style and heading size.
Three things people often go looking for:
- The “Shop the look” heading is changed in the theme editor, not in the app. The “You may also like” heading is the other way round: that one is in the app’s Settings.
- The two blocks are styled separately. If both are on the same page, give them the same card size and image shape so the rows line up.
- “Pinned image” is for looks you build by hand. It puts dots on the photo; AI looks have no dots, so they show as a carousel.
Step 4 — Create a few looks, check them, then do the rest
Open Looks by AI, tick a handful of products you know well, and press Generate looks. Check the results before creating looks for everything else. If something looks wrong, the table further down lists the usual fixes.
Two options in the Generate looks window are worth knowing:
- Generate looks for: everything in the current list, or only the products you ticked.
- Additional filter: limits where suggestions come from, for this run only (it starts from your Match scope). Handy if you sell menswear and womenswear: run the women’s looks with the filter set to your women’s collection, then the men’s. Each look remembers its filter.
The window also lists skipped products: ones that aren’t Active or have no photo. If many are skipped, fix them in Shopify first; no setting will help.
Once a look exists you can edit it by hand (add, swap, remove or reorder items) and publish it. Your edits survive Rebuild looks.
Settings you can adjust later
There’s no rush with these. Adjust them once you can see real looks on your store.
Show these detected categories
Tick boxes for which kinds of item can appear in a look. Untick one and that kind of item disappears from every look straight away.
Show similar products when no look is found
If a product’s photo has no model in it, the app can’t build a look. Switch this on and the widget shows similar products instead of staying empty.
Good to know: switching it off takes effect straight away. Switching it on only covers products the app looks at from then on. For products it has already looked at, open each one in Looks by AI and press Generate look before anything shows (Generate looks doesn’t retry a photo that had no model). Each try uses one of your plan’s new AI looks, because the AI checks the photo again.
Refresh my looks when I add new products
When you add a product that’s a better match for part of an existing look, the app can swap it in. It’s off by default so approved looks don’t change without you. It uses the Similar match dial as its bar, so a stricter dial means fewer swaps.
The “You may also like” row (Related products)
A second, separate widget. It suggests products from your product details rather than from photos, so it also works for products without a model shot.
- Show the Related products widget (default off): switching it on prepares suggestions for your whole catalogue, so on a big store the row can be empty for a few minutes.
- Heading (default “You may also like”): set here in the app.
- Products to show (default 4): sold-out products, products not on your Online Store, and anything already in the look are skipped, so you may see fewer.
- Minimum similarity (default 50%): how alike suggestions must be. This one changes on your store straight away; set it too high and the row empties.
- Rebuild now: only needed after adding a batch of new products.
What’s free
- Rebuild looks is free. It doesn’t run the AI again.
- Creating a look again for a product that already has one doesn’t use an extra look from your plan. Each product can be redone once a day, within a monthly fair-use limit.
- Changing settings costs nothing.
- Hand-built looks don’t use AI. Every plan includes 25.
Something looks wrong? Start here
| What you see | Usually because | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Suggestions come from the wrong department, like a cushion next to a jacket | The app is searching your whole catalogue | Tick the right collections in Match scope, then open each of those products and press Regenerate |
| A look is missing an item, like shoes | The strictness dial is too high, the item isn’t visible in the photo, nothing close enough is in stock, or that category is unticked | Lower Similar match a little and press Rebuild looks. Check the category tick boxes too |
| The same product appears in every look | Fewer than 3 products in stock in that category | Add or restock products in that category. No setting fixes this |
| You changed a setting but your store looks the same | It’s a Set before creating looks setting | Press Rebuild looks. For Match scope, open the product and press Regenerate |
| The widget is empty on some products | There’s no person in the photo, or nothing suggested is in stock | Switch on Show similar products when no look is found. More in why the widget is empty on some pages |
| The Save settings button is greyed out | Similar match is higher than Exact match, or every category box is unticked | Fix either one and the button works again |
| You can’t find where to change the “Shop the look” heading | It’s in the theme editor, not the app | Open the Shop the look block in your theme editor |
The fine print, for the detail-minded
- If the category tick boxes hide everything in a look, the widget doesn’t necessarily go blank. It shows a hand-built look for that product if there is one, then similar products if that setting is on.
- Rebuild looks runs in the background and reuses what the AI already found in your photos, which is why it’s free. It never unpublishes a look, and if a rebuild would leave a look empty, the app keeps the look you had.
- The readiness card’s category counts only include products the app has finished reading, which is why they can look low just after install.
- The readiness card deliberately doesn’t suggest which products to create looks for first. That’s a merchandising call only you can make.
- The theme-editor buttons open your live (published) theme on the product page. If you work in a draft theme, open it yourself.
- The design options also include card width (default 190px) and a box for custom CSS if you have a developer.
- The Generate looks window opens on whichever option matches how you got there: the products you ticked, or the current list.
Do it with Shop The Look
Merch - Shop The Look comes with sensible defaults: most stores only decide the Match scope and whether to show the “You may also like” row, then tune the rest once real looks are live. The readiness card checks your catalogue before you create a single look, and both widgets go into your theme with no code. Live on the Shopify App Store, with plans from a free tier up to Enterprise.
Install on the Shopify App Store →
Frequently asked questions
Which settings should I change before creating my first looks?
Usually just one: Match scope, which decides where suggestions can come from. Similar match, Candidates stored per category and Match items to the same kind are also decided when a look is created, but their defaults suit most stores. You may also want to decide whether to switch on the “You may also like” row.
I changed a setting but nothing changed on my store. Why?
Some settings are decided when a look is created, so changing them doesn’t touch looks you already have. Press Rebuild looks to apply the change. It’s free. The one exception is Match scope: existing looks keep the scope they were created with, so open the product and press Regenerate to apply a new one.
Does fixing a look use up my plan?
No. Rebuild looks doesn’t run the AI, so it’s free. Creating a look again for a product that already has one doesn’t use an extra look from your plan either. Each product can be redone once a day.
Will my approved looks change on their own?
The look stays as you approved it. The one thing that changes automatically is which product is shown when one sells out: the next backup steps in, and the original comes back when it’s restocked. New products are only swapped in if you switch on Refresh my looks when I add new products, which is off by default.
Does the readiness card tell me if my photos will work?
No. It checks that each product has a photo, not what’s in it. A look needs a photo of a real person wearing or carrying the products, and that’s only checked when the look is created.
What’s the difference between Exact match and Similar match?
Similar match is the one that matters: products less similar than this are never suggested. Exact match only decides whether a suggestion is labelled “exact” or “similar” when you review looks in the app. Shoppers never see that label.
Why is the Save settings button greyed out?
There are two possible reasons: Similar match is set higher than Exact match, or every box in the category list is unticked. Fix either one and the button works again.
Where do I change the “Shop the look” heading?
In your theme editor, on the Shop the look block, not in the app. The “You may also like” heading is the other way round: that one is in the app’s Settings page.