Use this guide to customize how the For You Feed and Picked For You blocks look and which collections they can surface. Most controls live in the block settings (right rail) in App Studio.

For an overview of how For You Feed works, see For You Feed. For common questions, see For You Feed FAQs.

For You Feed vs Picked For You

These blocks share the same personalization system, but they are used differently:

For You Feed: A full screen personalized feed of collections tailored to each shopper. Best used as a primary discovery surface (bottom nav item, dedicated tab, or clear home entry point). It should be the only block added to the layout of the screen.
Picked For You: A more compact personalized carousel you can place alongside other content (for example on home or cart) without replacing an entire screen.

How to open block settings

Open App Studio and go to the screen where the block is placed.
Hover over the For You Feed or Picked For You block.
Select Edit in the top right of the block.
In the right rail, choose the Visual tab to edit the block content.
Update the options, then save and publish your changes.

Look and feel settings

Use these controls to match the block more closely to your app:

Slide Content: Choose which images to display in slide content.
- Collection Images
- AI-Generated Images & Videos
- Product Images Only
Call to Action text: Customize the call-to-action labels shoppers will see.
Hero Product: How the featured product for each collection frame is chosen.
- First Product in Collection
- Best Seller
- Personalized
Product Highlights: Shows small featured products from the collection on each feed slide.
Appearance: Choose Dark or Light theme
Scroll Type: Control how shoppers move through the feed or carousel.
- Reel (snap scroll)
- Cards (free scroll)
Images: Adjust how collection and product imagery is presented (for example, layout or orientation preferences available in settings).

Collection controls

These settings control which collections personalization is allowed to use. Clean these up before launch so shoppers do not see outdated, seasonal, or low-quality collections.

Promoted Collections

Collections you want prioritized in the personalized experience. Use this for your strongest or most relevant collections (bestsellers, core categories, current campaigns).

Hidden Collections

Collections that should never appear. Common examples:

Out-of-season collections
Internal or utility collections (for example, sale exclusions, gift card-only, or accessory-only collections you do not want featured)
Collections with outdated imagery or little in-stock inventory

Allowed Collections

An allowlist of collections the experience can pull from. When you use Allowed Collections, personalization is limited to that set.

Tips:

Start with Hidden Collections to remove noise, then use Promoted Collections to boost what matters.
Use Allowed Collections when you want a tighter, curated pool. If your feed suddenly shows fewer collections than expected after allowlisting, try clearing the allowlist and relying on Hidden + Promoted instead, then reach out to Tapcart if you still need a strict allowlist.
Review these lists when seasons change so outdated collections do not keep resurfacing.

Onboarding quiz (For You Feed)

What it is

A first-time preference step built into the For You Feed block. New shoppers pick products they’re interested in so the feed can personalize sooner. It’s not a separate block, and it’s not a text Q&A. Think “select what you like” with product tiles.

How it works

Onboarding shows for shoppers who don’t have much browse history yet.
Tapcart auto-fills the onboarding screen with a mix of products from the merchant’s catalog (varied across the assortment, not all similar items).
What does affect the pool: Hidden / Allowed Collections. If a collection is hidden (especially a broad one like “All products”), its products can be blocked from onboarding too.
Choices help tune that shopper’s For You Feed right away.
No separate setup: once For You Feed is enabled and the block is placed, onboarding is part of the experience.

Note: Merchants can’t write quiz questions or manually pick which products show up.

How to preview

Open App Studio and select the For You Feed block.
In the preview controls, switch the view to Onboarding.
You’ll see the product-picking screen presented to shoppers.

Picked For You settings tips

Picked For You is built for compact placements, so a little setup goes a long way:

Place it where discovery already happens. Home and cart are common spots when you want personalization without dedicating a full tab.
Check collection imagery. The carousel leans on collection images. If a collection has no strong photo (or only a generic image), the tile can look weak. Prefer collections with clear, on-brand images, or update those collection images in Shopify.
Give personalization time. New placements can look broad or unexpected at first. As shoppers browse and engage, results typically sharpen. Onboarding helps this happen sooner for first-time users.

App Studio preview vs live app

What you see in App Studio is not always identical to what shoppers see on device.

In some cases, the dashboard preview may fall back to demo or generic products when it cannot source merchant-specific content for the preview.
If the preview looks off, confirm on a real device or test build before changing your live layout.
Always validate Promoted / Hidden / Allowed changes in the live app experience, not only in studio preview.

Best practices

Clean collections first. Hide outdated or irrelevant collections before you promote the feature heavily.
Make For You Feed easy to find. Bottom navigation is the strongest placement. A clear home entry point or second home tab also works well.
Use Picked For You for compact discovery. Add it where you want personalized recommendations without replacing your full home experience.
Pair with AI push. For You Feed and AI push notifications share personalization signal, which generally drives stronger repeat engagement together.
Give it traffic. Personalization improves with real shopper behavior. Very small catalogs (fewer than about 50 products) may stay closer to a default experience.

Troubleshooting

The feed or carousel looks generic

Expected early on. Personalization sharpens as shoppers use the app. If it still looks the same for everyone after about a week of healthy traffic, contact support.

Wrong or outdated collections keep showing

Add them to Hidden Collections. Use Promoted or Allowed Collections to steer toward stronger options. Re-check after publishing and on a real device.

I only see a small number of collections after using Allowed Collections

An allowlist can limit the pool more tightly than expected. Try clearing Allowed Collections and using Hidden + Promoted instead.

I see demo products in App Studio

Studio preview can fall back to generic content in some cases. Confirm on device before treating it as a live-app issue.

Picked For You images look weak or generic

Update collection images in Shopify for the collections in your pool, and hide collections without usable imagery.

I do not see the block in my library

The feature may not be enabled for your app yet. Contact Tapcart to confirm access.

For You Feed and Picked For You Block Setup