---
title: "RankRobin sort rules: metrics, windows, and cadences for Shopify collections"
description: "Configure how RankRobin sorts Shopify collections. Pick a metric (units, revenue, trending), a window (rolling, fixed, year-over-year), and a cadence (daily, hourly, manual)."
lastUpdated: 2026-05-21
canonical: https://culsin.com/docs/rankrobin/sort-rules/
source: https://culsin.com/docs/rankrobin/sort-rules/
---
A sort rule is what RankRobin runs against a collection to decide product order. Every rule is built from three things: a **metric**, a **time window**, and a **cadence**.

## Metrics

| Metric | What it ranks on |
|---|---|
| `units` | Total units sold over the window |
| `revenue` | Total revenue (shop currency) over the window |
| `order_count` | Number of orders the product appeared in |
| `revenue_per_day` | Revenue averaged across days in the window |
| `trending_7v7` | Last 7 days vs the 7 days before, weighted toward growth |

Pick the metric that matches what you mean by "best." `units` and `revenue` are the most common.

## Time windows

| Window type | Example |
|---|---|
| Rolling | Last 30 days from today |
| Fixed | A specific calendar range |
| Year-over-year | The same range from a previous year (used for seasonal sorting) |

Year-over-year windows depend on the historical order backfill. RankRobin runs the backfill on install; year-over-year sorts become accurate once it completes.

## Cadence

How often the rule re-runs:

- **Daily** - once per day, at 3am in your shop's timezone
- **Hourly** - once per hour
- **Manual** - only when you click **Sort now**

## Templates

A template is a saved rule (metric + window + cadence) you can apply to multiple collections. Edit the template once and every linked collection picks up the change on its next run.

Use a template when you want the same sort logic across many collections. Use an inline rule when one collection needs something different.

## Pinned products

Pin a product to a fixed position from the collection page in the dashboard. Pinned products stay locked at the top; the metric sorts everything else.

## Out-of-stock products

Each rule has an option to push out-of-stock products to the bottom regardless of metric. Off by default. When a product comes back in stock, it returns to its ranked position on the next sort run.

## Ties

When two products score identically on the chosen metric, RankRobin breaks the tie by total units sold over the same window, then by product ID. Tie-breaks are stable: re-running the rule on the same data produces the same order.

## Products with no sales in the window

Products with zero sales in the window are placed at the bottom of the ranked section by default. Set the rule's **No-sales fallback** to `newest` to keep new products visible while they're still gathering data, or to `manual` to leave their position untouched by the rule. They're never removed from the collection.