Choosebox help and guide

Let customers build their own box or mix-and-match bundle: pick products, get a discount, and add the whole thing to cart as one box. Components stay real products, so inventory never oversells.

Watch the whole setup, choosing which products can go in, pricing, turning the box live, and what a shopper sees at checkout. Watch on YouTube →

What Choosebox does

You create a box: choose which products a shopper can pick from, how many items go in the box, and the discount. On your storefront, shoppers build their box in a simple picker; at checkout the picked items collapse into one discounted box line. Because the items are your real products, stock draws down normally and the exact contents carry through to the order for fulfillment.

Getting started

1. Install Choosebox from the Shopify App Store and open it from Apps in your Shopify admin.
2. Create a box. Go to Boxes → + Create a box. Give it a name (this is what shoppers see on the box line, e.g. "Build Your Own 6-Pack").
3. Choose what can go in the box: either hand-pick Specific products or point it at A collection (every in-stock product in that collection becomes eligible).
4. Set how many items per box: a Minimum and Maximum. Set both to the same number for a fixed "pick exactly N" box, or a range like 3–6.
5. Set the discount (see Pricing below), optionally pick a Box image, then flip the status toggle to Live and click Save box.
6. Add the box to your storefront with the box's Copy ID & open theme button (see below), then test it.

Choosing what goes in the box

Each box has one source:

• Specific products: hand-pick the exact products shoppers can choose from (from any collections, or none). Make sure you include at least as many as your Minimum, or the box can't be completed.
• A collection: the box pulls its choosable items from one collection you select. Add or remove products from that collection and the box updates automatically.

How many items per box

Minimum and Maximum control how many items a shopper puts in their box: not how many products you offer. Below the Minimum, the "Add box to cart" button stays disabled and shows "Pick N more"; at the Maximum, extra picks are blocked. Minimum must be at least 1, and Maximum can't be below the Minimum.

Pricing

• % off: take a set percentage off the picked items.
• Fixed box price: the whole box sells for one price regardless of what's chosen.
• Tiered: "buy more, save more": at N items give X% off, with multiple tiers. Available on every plan, including Free.

A fixed price suits items that cost about the same, like a four-pack or a half dozen. Where your prices vary a lot, remember that quantities count toward your maximum, so a shopper can take your maximum number of your dearest item. The editor works that worst case out under Total box price and warns you when the discount gets steep, or when your maximum sits above your minimum, which makes every item past the minimum free. Matching the maximum to the minimum fixes it, and so does % off, which scales with whatever the shopper picks.

Out-of-stock items

Choosebox reads each product's real, online-sellable availability. With Hide out-of-stock products on (the default), a sold-out item simply drops out of the picker and returns when restocked. You can even add a currently out-of-stock product to a box in the editor, availability is checked live on every page load, so it appears for shoppers automatically the moment it’s back in stock, with no re-editing. Turn it off and sold-out items show as a grayed "Out of stock" card that can't be picked. Either way, shoppers can never add something that would fail at checkout, and because components are real products, you won't oversell. A product or variant that isn't published to the Online Store sales channel also shows as “Out of stock”, since it can't be sold on your storefront until you publish it there.

Products with variants

Each product appears as one card. A single-variant product adds in one click. A product with multiple variants (sizes, colors, etc.) shows an “Add” button that opens a small popup: shoppers choose one or more variants and a quantity each (e.g. Ice ×1, Sunset ×2), each with its own thumbnail. Every unit counts toward the box’s maximum, and the exact variants carry through to the order.

Box image (optional)

Set a Box image in the box editor to control the thumbnail on the box line in cart and checkout. Leave it blank and the box automatically uses the first item the shopper picked. To choose one, click any of the thumbnails shown under the Box image field, which are the products already in your box, or use Choose any product’s image to pick a different one. If you would rather use an image that is not on a product, upload it under Content → Files in your Shopify admin and paste its URL under “Or paste an image URL”.

Discount codes on top of a box

They work. A shopper can use one of your discount codes on an order containing a box, and both come off. Shopify runs the box pricing first and then applies discounts, so a code stacks on top of the box discount rather than replacing it or being refused.

This is worth knowing because it is not true of every app in this category. Apps that build a box as a draft order cannot accept discount codes at all, which is a common reason merchants move away from them.

Splitting a box into steps

By default a shopper sees every eligible product in one grid. For a bigger box you can split that into named screens they move through in order: one bread, then one pastry, then an extra.

Open a box, scroll to Steps, and press Split this box into steps. For each step, give it a name shoppers will read as the heading, set the least and most items it takes, and click the products that belong on it.

• A product can appear on more than one screen.
• Anything you leave off every screen is not shown to shoppers at all.
• The box’s own least and most still apply on top. If the steps add up to something the box can never satisfy, the app tells you and will not save it.
• Shoppers cannot skip ahead past a step whose minimum is not met, but they can go back.

Seeing how your box is doing

The app home screen shows a Last 30 days card once your builder has loaded at least once, and each box shows its own numbers in its editor.

• Builder loads is how many times the builder asked for its box. That includes page prefetches and crawlers, so read it as a ceiling rather than a count of people.
• Shoppers started building counts the people who picked at least one item, once each, however many they went on to choose. This is the number that tells you whether anyone is engaging with the box at all.
• Boxes added to cart and orders with a box are exact.
• The percentages are the useful part, and the two drop-offs mean different things. Read the first one against where you put the box, because the app counts loads but cannot see what page they happened on. If the builder sits on a product page as an add-on, nearly everyone who loads it came for that product, so a low start rate is normal and the number worth watching is whether it holds steady over time. If it sits on a page whose whole job is the box, a low start rate means shoppers are arriving and not engaging.
• The second drop-off is simpler. Plenty of people starting and few finishing points at the box itself, usually the price, the minimum number of items, or what is in it.

Changing the wording, or translating the builder

Open a box and expand Storefront wording. Every string a shopper can see is there: the prompt above the products, the prompt once the minimum is met, the prompt when there are still slots left to fill, the prompt once the box is full, the counter next to the button, the Add and Edit buttons, the sold-out label, the discount tag and every error message.

Leave a field empty and it keeps the English wording, which is shown in grey inside the empty field so you can see what you are replacing. Fill in only the ones you care about.

Wording is set per box, and it applies on the box’s own page and in the theme block. It is included on every plan.

Gift messages

Open a box, scroll to Gift message and switch on Let shoppers add a message to this box. Shoppers then get a message field under the products, before the add-to-cart button.

• What to call it is what shoppers see, and it is also the heading the message appears under on the order. A florist might use “Card message”.
• Placeholder text is the grey prompt inside the empty box.
• Longest message caps the length. Around 200 characters fits a standard gift card; 500 is the most allowed.
• Require a message stops the box being added until something is written. Off by default, and worth leaving off unless every one of these boxes really is a gift.

Preview your box

The box editor shows a live preview at the top. It lays out your eligible products with their images and prices, and you can click products right in the preview to build a box the way a shopper would, the item count and the discounted box total update as you pick, respecting your Minimum and Maximum. Change your products, item counts, or pricing and the preview updates instantly, so you can sanity-check the discount before going live.

Adding the box to your storefront

There are two ways to put a box in front of shoppers. The first needs no theme editing at all.

Its own page, with no theme editing

Every live box is also served at /apps/choosebox/build on your own store. Choosebox draws it inside your theme, so the page arrives with your header, footer, fonts and colours already on it. Nothing is added to your theme and nothing can be placed wrongly.

1. Make the box live and press Save. A draft box shows nothing, on this page or anywhere else.
2. In your Shopify admin, go to Content → Menus. Open the menu you want the link in, usually Main menu. (Menus used to live under Online Store → Navigation. Shopify moved them.)
3. Add menu item and give it a name, such as “Build a box”.
4. Paste /apps/choosebox/build into the Link field, press the tick, then press Save.

The second way puts the builder inside a page you already have, using the theme block. Both can run at once.

Inside a page, from the box editor

1. Press Save, then click "Open my theme editor". Go to the page where you want the box.
2. Allow cookies if asked. The theme editor needs cookies to load. If it stays blank, enable third-party cookies for admin.shopify.com and reopen it.
3. Add the block where you want it: Add block → Apps → Choosebox builder.
4. Drag the block into position and press Save. Leave the Box ID field empty, the block shows whichever box is live.

Putting a box on any other page

1. Open your theme editor, the “Copy ID & open theme” button on the Boxes list gets you there, and copies that box’s ID in case you need it.
2. Add the block. On the page where you want the box (a dedicated "Build a Box" page works well), click Add section (or Add block) → Apps → Choosebox builder.
3. Press Save. Leave Box ID empty unless you run more than one box and want this block pinned to a specific one, then paste that box’s ID.

If you cannot find Choosebox in the theme editor

Two different things cause this, and the first one is far more common.

You may be looking at the page rather than inside a section. App blocks can only be added inside a section, so the add control at the page level will not list any apps at all. Click directly on the section you want the builder in, then look for an Apps group in the add list that appears. Themes also disagree about what that control is called. Some say Add block, some say Add section, and others use their own word such as Add feature or Add element. Look for the Apps group rather than for a particular phrase.

Or your theme may be an older one. Themes from before Shopify's Online Store 2.0 cannot hold app blocks anywhere, and no app can change that. You can check in about ten seconds: go to Online Store → Themes, open the three dots next to your theme and choose Edit code, then open the templates folder. A file named product.json means your theme supports app blocks. product.liquid means it does not. A good second clue is that sections only work on your home page.

Styling the box to match your theme

There are two places styling can come from, and they work together.

In the app, on the box itself

Open a box and scroll to Appearance. You get accent, text, card background, card border and button text colours, corner roundness, card border width, overall width, the add-to-cart wording and a Custom CSS field. Leave a colour cleared and it follows your store theme, which is the default and usually the right answer.

Layout presets sit at the top of that section: Default, Minimal, Compact, Rounded, Sharp and Wide. Each one sets roundness, border width and width together. They do not change colour on purpose. The builder is built to take your store’s own colours, and a preset that painted it something else would undo that on most themes.

What you set here applies to the box’s own page and to the theme block.

In the theme editor, on the block

The Choosebox builder block keeps its own copy of the same settings. Anything set there wins for that block, so a block you have already styled by hand does not change. Leave a block setting blank and the block uses what you set in the app instead. The block also has its own Custom CSS field, separate from the one in the app.

By default the picker matches your store theme, it inherits your theme’s fonts, text color, and background automatically. Open the Choosebox builder block in your theme editor to adjust anything; settings are grouped into Text, Colors, Layout, and Advanced. Leave any color blank to keep the theme default.

• Text, a custom Heading (defaults to the box name) and the Add-to-cart button text. Editing these also lets you translate the widget for non-English stores.
• Colors, Accent & button color (recolors buttons, the selected-item highlight, quantity badges, and progress bar), plus optional Text color, Card background, Card border color, and Button text color. Any left blank inherit your theme.
• Layout, Corner roundness (sharp to fully rounded), Card border width, and the widget Max width.
• Advanced → Custom CSS, for power users: add your own CSS targeting .choosebox, .cb-card, .cb-add and other classes. Applies to this block only.

Hiding the box container product from your catalog

Each live box needs a hidden $0 container product, named “Your box name (Choosebox bundle - do not delete)” in your Products list (product type “Choosebox Bundle”, tag choosebox-parent), so the box can check out as one line. It must stay published to your Online Store for checkout to work, but Shopify shows every published product in /collections/all and search, so it can appear where shoppers browse. None of the steps below affect checkout; they only change what’s displayed. Work them in order, most stores only need steps 1 and 2.

1. Keep it out of your collections (do this first)

The container never needs to be in a collection. Don’t add it to a manual collection, and if an automated collection’s conditions would sweep it in, add the condition Product type is not equal to “Choosebox Bundle”. This one habit prevents it from surfacing in most places, including homepage “Featured collection” blocks, which pull from a collection you pick.

2. Hide it on collection & catalog pages (one-line theme edit)

1. Online Store → Themes → Edit code.
2. Open Sections → main-collection-product-grid.liquid.
3. Find {%- for product in collection.products -%} and add this line directly beneath it:

{%- if product.type == 'Choosebox Bundle' -%}{%- continue -%}{%- endif -%}

Save. This single edit covers /collections/all and every collection page at once.

3. Featured collection sections (only if needed)

If a homepage “Featured collection” section still shows the container, open Sections → featured-collection.liquid, find its {%- for product in collection.products ... -%} line, and add the same line beneath it. Usually unnecessary once you’ve done step 1.

4. Search results

Storefront search uses a different loop, so the line above won’t match it. Easiest: use Shopify’s free Search & Discovery app to exclude the “Choosebox Bundle” product type from search and recommendations. Or edit Sections → main-search.liquid, find {%- for item in search.results -%}, and add:

{%- if item.object_type == 'product' and item.type == 'Choosebox Bundle' -%}{%- continue -%}{%- endif -%}

What shoppers see

On the storefront, shoppers pick items in a clean picker with a progress bar, running savings, and a total. When they add the box, the individual items merge into a single box line at the discounted price. At checkout and on the order, the box line expands to show exactly what's inside, so you know what to ship.

Plans & usage

• Free: as many boxes live as you like, up to $500 of box sales a month, every discount type including tiered, gift messages, steps and translation, and a small "Powered by Choosebox" badge. Only the box lines count toward that figure, never the rest of an order. Past it the builder stops showing on your storefront until the count resets on the 1st. Your product pages are otherwise unaffected, and you keep full access to the editor the whole time. Choosebox warns you in-app from 80% of your figure.
• Starter $19/month: up to $5,000 of box sales a month, and the badge is removed.
• Pro $49/month: up to $25,000 of box sales a month.
• Scale $99/month: unlimited box sales.

Creating and editing boxes is always unlimited on every plan. What the plans meter is box sales a month in dollars, and only the box lines count, never the rest of an order. The dashboard shows a usage bar so you always know where you stand. Upgrading is one click through Shopify’s secure billing, and you can cancel anytime from the Plans page.

Support is on every plan, including Free: one inbox, read by the person who builds Choosebox. It is not something a paid plan buys.

Email updates (optional)

At the bottom of Choosebox’s home screen there is an Email updates box. It is optional: add an email and press Save to receive updates, or leave it empty and Choosebox never emails you. Emails greet you by your store’s name.

If you add one, you get a note when your boxes have used 80% of your plan’s monthly box sales, another if they reach the limit and the builder is hidden until the 1st, and an occasional note when there is a major update. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and Unsubscribe under the box removes your address straight away.

Frequently asked questions

Need more help?

Email support@dropfeed.io. We typically reply within 1–2 business days.