Shopify navigation redesign

Group the range the way shoppers think

Businesses often organise menus by supplier, internal category codes or the order in which ranges were added. Shoppers think in terms of what they need: a product type, an occasion, a room, a problem to solve. A navigation redesign starts by listing the ways customers describe what they want, using site search terms, customer questions and the words used in reviews, then grouping the range accordingly.

The same product can appear in several collections, so the menu can offer more than one route to it.

Common grouping patterns

Shopify's menu structure

Menus are managed in the Shopify admin under navigation and linked to collections, products, pages or external addresses. Shopify supports nested menu items to two levels below the top level, so a menu can have three tiers at most. How those tiers are displayed, as simple dropdowns or as large mega menus with images, depends on the theme.

Three tiers are plenty for most stores. If the range seems to need more, the grouping usually needs simplifying, or filters within collections should do the extra narrowing.

Navigation on phones

Common navigation mistakes

• Internal jargon

  Range names that mean something to staff but not to customers.

• Too many top-level items

  A long row that wraps on desktop and overwhelms the phone drawer.

• Empty or tiny collections in the menu

  Shoppers click through to two products or none.

• Sale as the only route

  Permanent sale links that train customers to wait.

Renaming collections without breaking links

A navigation redesign often renames, merges or splits collections, which can change their URLs. Old URLs may be bookmarked, shared on social media or ranking in search results. Shopify's URL redirects let you send each old address to its replacement. Listing every changed collection URL and creating its redirect is part of the redesign, not an afterthought.

Test the new structure before building it

A simple way to check a proposed menu is to ask a few customers or colleagues to find specific products using only the proposed labels, written on paper or in a spreadsheet. If they hesitate or choose the wrong group, the labels need work. This kind of quick check costs little and avoids rebuilding the menu after launch.

Search is part of navigation

Many shoppers skip the menu and type what they want. A visible search field, results that show products and collections, and sensible handling of misspellings and synonyms all support navigation. If your search terms show people looking for things using words that do not appear anywhere in your product titles or descriptions, adding those words where they genuinely fit helps both search and the menu labels.

Reviewing search terms regularly keeps the navigation aligned with how customers actually describe your range.