Navigation menus guide customers through your store and help them find products without getting lost

Shopify stores come with a default navigation structure, but you control what appears in your menus, where it appears, and how it's organized. The main navigation typically lives in your store's header — the bar at the top of every page — and you can add secondary menus in the footer or sidebar depending on your theme. Most themes let you create multiple menus and assign them to different locations on your site.

You build and manage these menus in the Shopify admin under Navigation, then link them to your theme. The process takes a few minutes and requires no coding. If your theme supports it, you can also create dropdown menus (submenus that appear when a customer hovers over or clicks a main menu item) to organize product categories or pages without cluttering your header.

Key Takeaways

  • Navigation menus are created in the Shopify admin under Settings > Menus, and you can build multiple menus for different parts of your store.
  • Each menu can link to product collections, individual products, pages, external websites, or other parts of your store.
  • After creating a menu, you assign it to a location in your theme — usually the header or footer — through the theme customizer.
  • Dropdown menus let you nest items under a parent menu item, so customers can see related links without scrolling.
  • Menu changes take effect immediately on your live store, so you can test and adjust without affecting customers' ability to shop.

Creating your first menu in the Shopify admin

Log into your Shopify admin and go to Settings, then Menus. Click "Create menu" and give it a name — something like "Main Menu" or "Footer Links" so you remember what it's for. This name appears only in your admin, not on your store.

Once you've named the menu, you'll see a blank space where you can add items. Click "Add menu item" to start. Each item needs a label (the text customers see) and a link destination. You can link to a collection, a single product, a page you've created, an external website, or even a specific section of your store. Type the label, then click the link field and search for what you want to link to, or paste a URL if you're linking outside your store.

Add as many items as you need, then save the menu. You can reorder items by dragging them up or down the list. If you want to create a dropdown menu, you'll do that in the next step.

Setting up dropdown menus and submenus

A dropdown menu appears when a customer hovers over (on desktop) or clicks (on mobile) a main menu item. This is useful if you have many product categories or related pages you want to group together. To create one, add your main menu item first — for example, "Shop by Category" — then add the items you want to appear in the dropdown.

In the menu editor, indent the submenu items by clicking and dragging them slightly to the right, or use the indent button if your theme provides one. The item directly above the indented items becomes the parent, and the indented items become its children. Save the menu, and when you assign it to your theme, the dropdown structure will appear on your store.

Not all themes support dropdowns in all menu locations. If your theme doesn't support them in the header, you might still be able to use them in the footer. Check your theme's documentation or test by creating a simple dropdown and seeing how it displays.

Assigning menus to your theme

Creating a menu in the admin doesn't automatically put it on your store. You have to assign it to a location in your theme. Go to Online Store > Themes, find your active theme, and click "Customize." This opens the theme editor.

In the theme editor, look for a section called "Header" or "Navigation" (the exact name varies by theme). Click it, and you'll see a dropdown or field that says something like "Menu" or "Navigation menu." Click that dropdown and select the menu you just created. Some themes let you assign different menus to different locations — a main header menu, a mobile menu, a footer menu, and so on. Assign your menus to the locations your theme supports.

Click "Save" in the theme editor. Your menu now appears on your live store. Visit your store's homepage to see it in action.

Adding links to collections and products

When you click the link field in a menu item, Shopify shows you a search box. Type the name of a collection or product, and Shopify will find it. Click the result to link to it. This is faster and safer than copying and pasting URLs because Shopify automatically updates the link if you ever change the collection or product name or URL.

You can also link to all products at once by searching for "All Products" or "Shop." This is useful if you want a simple "Shop" link in your header that takes customers to your full catalog. Some stores use this as the parent of a dropdown menu that breaks products into categories.

If you link to a collection, customers land on that collection's page and see only products tagged with that collection. If you link to a single product, they see that product's detail page. Both approaches work; choose based on how you want customers to browse.

Linking to pages and external websites

You can link to any page you've created in your Shopify admin — About Us, Contact, Returns Policy, and so on. Search for the page by name in the link field, just as you would for a collection. You can also link to external websites by pasting a full URL (starting with https://) into the link field. This is useful for linking to your social media, a blog hosted elsewhere, or a partner's website.

External links open in the same tab by default. If you want a link to open in a new tab, you'll need to edit the link in your theme code or use an app that adds that feature. Most themes don't provide a "open in new tab" option in the menu editor itself.

Testing and troubleshooting your navigation

After you assign a menu to your theme, visit your store on both desktop and mobile to see how it looks. On mobile, menus often collapse into a hamburger icon (three horizontal lines). Click it to see if your menu items appear correctly and if dropdowns work as expected.

If a menu item doesn't appear, check that the menu is assigned to the right location in your theme editor. If a link is broken, go back to the menu in Settings > Menus and verify the link destination still exists. If you deleted a collection or product that a menu item linked to, the link breaks and the item may not display.

If your theme doesn't support dropdowns or multiple menus, you may need to switch themes or use an app to add more navigation features. Check your theme's documentation or contact the theme developer to confirm what's possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I have different menus on different pages?

Most themes assign one menu to the header and one to the footer across your entire store. Some advanced themes let you assign different menus to different pages, but this requires theme customization or an app. Check your theme's documentation to see if this feature is built in.

What happens if I delete a menu?

If you delete a menu that's assigned to your theme, that menu location will appear empty on your store. Create a new menu and assign it to that location to restore navigation. Your store remains functional, but customers won't see the menu until you add one.

How many menu items can I add?

Shopify doesn't set a hard limit on menu items, but your theme's design may not display more than a certain number without wrapping or becoming hard to read. Test your menu on mobile especially — a header with 20 items will likely look cluttered on a phone. Most stores keep main menus to 5 to 8 items and use dropdowns for additional links.

Can I hide menu items from certain customers?

Shopify's built-in menu editor doesn't support conditional visibility based on customer type or login status. If you need to show different menus to wholesale customers versus retail customers, you'll need a custom app or theme code modifications.

Do menu changes affect my SEO?

Navigation structure can affect how search engines crawl your site, but changing menu items or reorganizing menus won't harm your SEO if the pages themselves remain accessible. Make sure all important product pages and collections are linked from your navigation so search engines can find them.