Collections and staff picks
Bookhead lets you create curated collections of books to feature on your website and sales channels. Collections are perfect for highlighting staff recommendations, seasonal themes, or any grouping you want to showcase.
Collections
Collections are curated lists of specific books from your inventory. Use them for:
- Themed displays: "Summer Reading", "Holiday Gift Guide", "Local Authors"
- Marketing campaigns: Books for a newsletter, social media feature, or in-store display
- Website navigation: Featured sections on your storefront
Creating a collection
- Go to Collections in the staff menu
- Click Create collection
- Enter a name for your collection (e.g., "Summer Reading 2024")
- Search for books to add using ISBN or title
- Click Add to include books in the collection
- Click Save
Managing collections
From the collections list, you can:
- View the books in each collection
- Edit to add or remove books
- Delete collections you no longer need
How collections sync to channels
Collections sync to Shopify as Custom Collections. When you create or update a collection in Bookhead, it automatically syncs to your Shopify store within 15 minutes.
Note: Squarespace doesn't support collections via API. For Squarespace, use categories instead.
Staff picks
Staff picks are a special type of collection that highlights books recommended by your team. They're a great way to add a personal touch to your online store.
How staff picks work
Staff picks are connected to reviews. When a staff member writes a review for a book:
- The book is automatically added to that staff member's "Staff Picks" collection
- The collection is named after the reviewer (e.g., "Margaret's Picks")
- The collection syncs to your sales channels
Creating a staff pick
- Go to Staff Picks in the staff menu
- Click New review
- Search for the book you want to recommend
- Write your review
- Click Save
The book is now in your staff picks collection and will sync to connected channels.
Managing staff picks
From the staff picks page, you can:
- View all reviews and their associated books
- Edit existing reviews
- Delete reviews (removes the book from staff picks)
Displaying staff picks
Staff picks collections work like regular collections - they sync to Shopify as Custom Collections. You can feature them on your website's homepage, navigation, or anywhere you display collections.
Collections vs. categories
It's easy to confuse collections and categories. Here's the difference:
| Collections | Categories | |
|---|---|---|
| What they are | Curated lists of specific books | Organizational groupings based on genre/type |
| How they're created | You manually add books | Books are automatically included based on their bookstore category code |
| Use case | "Staff Picks", "Holiday Gifts" | "Fiction", "History", "Children's Books" |
| Syncs to | Shopify (as Custom Collections) | Shopify and Squarespace (as tags/categories) |
Use collections when you want to hand-pick specific books. Use categories when you want to organize books by genre or type.