How to add recently viewed products to Shopify

Shopify has no store-wide setting for recently viewed products — it depends on your theme. Shopify’s current default theme, Horizon (2025), ships a native recently viewed block, so new stores may already have one. But Dawn, older default themes, and many third-party and premium themes don’t — and there’s no toggle to turn one on. If your theme lacks it, you add it with a theme app block (Customize → Add block → Apps) or custom code. The feature to look for is one that tracks views in the shopper’s own browser (localStorage), so it’s fast and stores no personal data. Here’s how it works and how to add one on any theme.

Does Shopify show recently viewed products by default?

Only on some themes. Horizon, the 2025 default, includes a native recently-viewed block; Dawn and many older or third-party themes don’t, and there’s no store-wide Shopify setting to turn one on. On a theme without it, you add the section yourself — with a theme app block or custom code.

Why add a recently viewed row?

A recently-viewed row is one of the few merchandising elements driven entirely by what the shopper themselves looked at — not an algorithm’s guess. That makes it genuinely useful:

• It removes the “where was that product?” dead end that loses sales mid-consideration.
• It gently increases the number of products a shopper re-engages with per visit.
• It needs no setup per product — it just reflects the shopper’s own path.

It pairs well with a deliberate save mechanism: a wishlist captures the items a shopper chooses to keep, while recently viewed quietly keeps the ones they didn’t.

How do I add a recently viewed section to Shopify?

If you’re on Horizon, enable the theme’s built-in recently-viewed block. On any other Online Store 2.0 theme, the no-code route is a theme app block:

1. Install an app that provides a recently-viewed block (OS 2.0 themes only).
2. Go to Online Store → Themes → Customize.
3. Navigate to the page and section where you want the row — usually the product page.
4. Click Add block, then pick the recently-viewed block under the Apps heading.
5. Drag it into position, set how many products to show, and Save.

No theme-file edits, and you can reposition or remove the block any time from the editor.

Does recently viewed collect personal data?

It doesn’t have to. A device-local widget stores the browsing list in the shopper’s own browser (localStorage) and writes nothing to Shopify — so no personal data leaves their device, there’s nothing to erase under a data request, and it’s faster because there’s no server round-trip.

Will a recently viewed section slow my store down?

Not if it’s built right. Reading a short list from the browser and rendering a small carousel is lightweight. The things to watch are capping the list to a sensible length and not blocking the page while it loads — done right, it adds no meaningful weight; done wrong, a heavy widget on every page is a tax you don’t want.

The fix: Revisit

Revisit adds a recently viewed products row to any Online Store 2.0 theme as a drop-in block — no code, no theme-file edits. It’s device-local by design: the list lives in the shopper’s browser and nothing is written to Shopify, so there’s no personal data to store or erase. The core row is free forever; Pro (€5/mo) removes the small “powered by” mark and lets you choose the layout — carousel or grid — to match your theme. If you’re on Horizon you may already have a native row; Revisit is for every other theme, and for when you want the device-local privacy guarantee and control over how the row looks.