Caliper checks whether a part fits the customer's vehicle. The customer chooses a vehicle once (year, make, model); from then on every product card, product page, compare table and cart line shows a Fits or No fit badge, and collection pages can be filtered to that vehicle.
The feature works with standard Shopify data only. No app is required.
1. Create the fitment metafield
Settings → Custom data → Products → Add definition
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Fitment |
| Namespace and key | custom.fitment |
| Type | List of single line text |
| Storefront access | On (default) |
One value per vehicle, formatted Year|Make|Model, for example 2016|Ford|Explorer. The separator is | by default and can be changed in Theme settings → Vehicle fitment.
Fill the metafield per product in the product editor, or in bulk with the product CSV import (column Fitment (product.metafields.custom.fitment), values as a JSON list) or with an app that writes metafields.
2. Enable the filter
Apps → Search & Discovery → Filters → Add filter and choose the Fitment metafield. This creates the storefront filter the finder sends customers to. Its URL parameter is filter.p.m.custom.fitment, which is the theme default.
3. Choose the vehicle list source
The finder's dropdowns need the list of vehicles you sell parts for.
Default: filter values. With nothing else configured, the finder reads the values of the fitment filter. Shopify exposes at most 100 values per filter, so this is fine up to 100 distinct vehicles.
Recommended: a CSV file. For larger catalogs, upload a CSV to Content → Files and paste its link into Theme settings → Vehicle fitment → Vehicle list file. The theme loads it once per visit (1,200 vehicles is about 4 KB gzipped).
year,make,model
2016,Ford,Explorer
2017,Ford,Explorer
2014,Honda,Civic
The header row is optional; Year|Make|Model lines also work. Keep the values identical to the metafield values so the filter matches.
4. Other hierarchies
The three levels are not limited to vehicles. Set Level labels in theme settings to, for example, Brand, Platform, Model (power tool batteries) or Brand, Series, Model (mowers and trimmers). Values stay Level1|Level2|Level3.
What the customer sees
- Hero with vehicle finder or Vehicle finder section: the three dropdowns.
- Collection pages: a chip with the chosen vehicle, Change vehicle, and My garage (the last five vehicles, stored in the browser).
- Product cards: Fits / No fit badge. Product page: a green banner, plus the Fitment list block with every vehicle the part is listed for.
- Shared links keep the vehicle:
?filter.p.m.custom.fitment=2016|Ford|Explorersets it for the visitor who opens the link.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| Finder says "Vehicle search is not available yet" | No filter enabled and no CSV link, or the CSV link is wrong |
| Finder works but filtering shows nothing | Metafield values differ from the CSV (spaces, capitalisation) |
| Only some vehicles in the dropdowns | More than 100 vehicles and no CSV file |
| Badge never appears | Product has no fitment metafield, or the theme setting points to a different metafield |