Knowledge Base

Customers navigate your online store using the links on pages and in menus. Make it easier for your customers explore your store by customizing the menus and links that appear in your store's header, footer, or sidebar. 

Your online store has two default menus that are displayed on every page: the main menu and the footer menu. The appearance and location of menus depend on your store's theme. 

Default menus

By default, the Main menu contains links to these pages in your online store:

By default, the Footer menu contains links to this page:

A selected menu item is typically displayed in bold text:

Add, remove, or edit menu links

You can make changes to menus and links in your Shopify admin. The Navigation page lists the menus on your online store, and the links within each menu. Links are listed in the order that they are displayed within their menu on your online store.
From the Navigation page, you can:

• Add a link to a menu
• Remove a link from a menu
• Edit the name of a link in a menu
• Change the order of the links in a menu.

Add a link to a menu

1. On the Navigation page, click Edit menu beside the menu you want to edit.

2. Click Add menu item:

   

3. A new menu item will appear, with two new fields. In the Name field, enter the name of the link you want to add. This name will be displayed in the menu.

4. From the drop-down menu beside the link name, select a link type:

   
   • Home page links to your online store's home page.
   • Collection links to a specific collection.
   • All collections links to an index of all your collections.
   • Product links to a specific product.
   • All products links to all products.
   • Page links to a specific webpage on your online store.
   • Blog links to a blog on your online store.
   • Search page links to a search page for your online store.
   • Web Address links to a website outside of your online store.

5. If you select Collection, Product, Page, or Blog, then a drop-down menu will appear beside the Link field. You can use this drop-down menu to select the specific destination that you want to add to the navigation:

   

6. If you select Web address, then a text field will appear beside the Link field. Enter the URL of the destination webpage:

   

   To open a link in a new browser tab, you need to customize your theme.

7. Click Save Menu.

Remove a link from a menu

To delete a link from a menu:

1. Click Edit menu beside the name of the menu that includes the link you want to remove.

2. In the Menu items section, click the trash can icon next to the link you want to delete:

   

3. Click Save menu.

Edit the name of a link

You can edit the name of any link to customize your menus:

1. Click Edit menu beside the menu that includes the link you want to edit. A menu details page opens.

2. In the Menu items section, find the link you want to edit. Click the text field under the Name header, and enter the new name for the link:

   

3. Click Save menu.

Change the order of links in a menu

If you want to change the order in which your menu links appear, then you can use the handle tool to reorder your links.

You can change the order of links in a menu by editing the menu:

1. On the menu that you want to reorder, click Edit menu.

2. In the Menu items section, there is a list of links. The links will display on your online store in the order they appear in that list. Click and hold the handle icon beside the link you want to reorder to drag the link into a new place.

3. Click Save menu.

Create a drop-down menu

The easiest way to add a new menu to your online store is by adding a drop-down menu to one of the links in the main menu. You can group products, collections, or pages together to make it easier for customers to navigate your online store. 

A drop-down menu displays a list of links when a customer hovers their mouse over it. On mobile devices, the drop-down menu opens when tapped to display the menu items. You can make drop-down menus on your online store from any link in the Main menu:

Before you add a menu, choose an existing link in the Main menu to drop-down from, or add a new link to the main menu to use as the name for the new drop-down menu.

To create a drop-down menu:

1. Click Add menu.

2. Enter the Name for your drop-down menu. Make sure the name you enter is exactly the same as the name of a link in the Main menu. This link will become the name of the new drop-down menu:

   

   Shopify automatically generates a Handle, or unique web address, for the menu. In most cases you will not need to change this address.

3. Add links to include in the new drop-down menu. Click Add menu item to add a link, enter the name of the link, and choose a destination.

4. Click Save menu.

You can find the new drop-down menu on the Navigation page of your Shopify admin. You should have a new menu with the same name as one of the Main menu links.

You can view your online store to see how your menu will appear to customers. Reload your browser to view saved changes. With your mouse, hover over the menu name to view the drop-down menu: 

Some themes will display an icon next to the name of a drop-down menu in the Main menu, to help customers recognize that a drop-down menu is there.

Customize your online store with more menus

You can add a new menu to your online store that doesn't drop-down from the Main menu. Depending on your store's theme, you might be able to add a new menu by customizing your theme.

If your theme doesn't let you enable a new menu by editing your Customize theme page, then you will need to edit your store's Liquid files to display the menu. You can also hire a Shopify Expert to make the changes for you.