How to Structure Shopify Collections and Navigation

Who it is for

Stores with more than a handful of products

Time needed

Half a day to plan and build

What you need

Clean tags, types and categories

Shoppers don't browse your store the way you organize your stockroom. They arrive looking for "women's running shoes" or "gifts under $50", not for "SKU range B, autumn delivery". Collections and navigation translate your catalog into the way buyers think, and they decide how many clicks it takes to reach a product, which pages Google ranks, and whether filters work at all.

This guide covers how I plan and build collection structures on Shopify: the difference between collections, categories, types and tags, how to create each kind of collection, nested collections, menus, filters and collection SEO. Menu names and limits come from Shopify's help center, as checked on 7 November 2026.

Collections vs categories, types and tags

Shopify has four ways to group products, and mixing them up is the most common cause of a messy store.

The product category comes from Shopify's Standard Product Taxonomy. Each product has one, and Shopify uses it for tax rates and for Google and Meta. Collections are yours to design, and a product can sit in as many as you like. So "Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Dresses" is the category, while "Summer Dresses", "Wedding Guest" and "Under $100" are collections the same dress can appear in.

Step 1: Plan the structure before you build

I sketch the structure on paper before touching the admin. Three layers work for most stores:

1. Top-level collections for the main ways people shop: by product group (Dresses, Tops), by person (Women, Men) or by use (Running, Hiking). These become your main menu, ideally seven or fewer.
2. Sub-collections under each, only where a group has enough products to need splitting. Twenty products don't need five sub-collections.
3. Filters for attributes such as size, color, material and price. These shouldn't be collections at all.

Then add a few merchandising collections that cut across the structure: New In, Best Sellers, Sale, and gift collections in season. Check your plan against search data too. If people search "linen shirts" and you only have "Shirts", a Linen Shirts collection may earn its place, because it can rank for that search.

Step 2: Create a collection

1. Start. Go to Products > Collections and click Add collection.
2. Title and description. Use the name shoppers search for. Write a short description that helps buyers choose, such as fit notes or how to pick a size.
3. Add a source. Keep the source as Products and either add conditions (automated) or click Add products (manual).
4. Set conditions for an automated collection, and choose Match all conditions or Match any conditions.
5. Choose the sort order.
6. Set the optional details: sales channels, theme template, metafields and the search engine listing.
7. Save, then add the collection to a menu so shoppers can reach it.

Use automated collections wherever you can. New products slot into the right places as soon as they're tagged, and nobody has to remember to add them. Conditions can use title, type, vendor, tag, category, price, compare-at price, weight, stock level, variant title and some metafields. "Match all" works for ranges, such as price over $50 and under $100. Shopify allows up to 60 conditions per collection and up to 5,000 collections that use conditions.

Manual collections suit small, curated sets: a staff picks page, a lookbook or a gift guide. Products stay until you remove them, so review them every season.

Step 3: Build collections within collections

For years, "Shopify collections within collections" meant workarounds with tags and menus. Shopify now supports it natively: a collection can use other collections as a source.

1. Create the child collections first, such as Running Shoes, Trail Shoes and Walking Shoes.
2. Create the parent, such as All Shoes.
3. Change the source. In the parent, switch the source drop-down from Products to Collection, click Connect a collection, select the children and save.

The parent now shows every product in its children, and stays in step when they change. You can also exclude a collection, for example All Shoes without the Sale collection. Limits apply: up to 50 collections that contain another collection, up to 5 that exclude another collection, and up to 100 that contain individual variants. You can also use a Variants source to show only some variants, such as only the red versions in a Red collection.

Step 4: Set sort order, layout and images

Sort order decides what shoppers see first, before they scroll or filter. The options are most relevant (the default, based on sales performance), best selling, alphabetical, price, date and manual. I use best selling for big evergreen collections, and manual for launches and seasonal pages, where I want hero products first. To change it, open the collection and use the sort drop-down in Collection items. Note that price sorting uses base prices, not market or B2B catalog prices.

If a collection needs a different layout, such as a lookbook, create a collection template in the theme editor and assign it under Theme template.

On collection image size, Shopify doesn't publish one fixed size, because each theme crops collection banners and collection-list images differently. Check your theme's documentation for the ratio it uses. For product images, Shopify recommends 2048 x 2048 px squares under 20 MB, and keeping every product in the same ratio is what makes a collection grid look tidy.

Step 5: Build the navigation

1. Open menus. Go to Content > Menus and click your main menu.
2. Add top-level items. Click Add menu item, enter a name and choose the collection in Search or paste a link.
3. Nest sub-items. Add the sub-collection, then drag it under its parent with the handle icon. For a heading that shouldn't link anywhere, enter # as the link.
4. Save with Save menu, then check it on desktop and mobile.

Menus support two nested levels below a top-level item, so three levels in total, if your theme displays them. Shopify suggests seven or fewer top-level items. A store can have up to 1,000 menus, and each can hold up to 10,000 items, so the limit is always usability, never Shopify. On mobile, every extra level is another tap, which my mobile CRO checklist covers in more detail.

Step 6: Add filters with Search & Discovery

1. Check your theme supports filters. In Content > Menus, look at the Collection and search filters section.
2. Open the app. Go to Apps > Search & Discovery, click Filters, then Add filter.
3. Choose sources. Start with availability, price, product type and your product options, such as size and color. Add metafield or category metafield filters for things like material.
4. Tidy the values. Group similar values, such as Navy and Dark Blue under Blue, and sort them sensibly.

Limits worth knowing: 25 filters per store, up to 100 values shown per filter, and collections with more than 5,000 products don't show filters at all. That last one is a good reason not to build one giant "All products" collection as your main browsing page. The price filter also disappears when a customer shops in a currency other than your store's default.

Step 7: Make collections rank

In my experience, collection pages are the ones that rank for category searches such as "linen shirts for men", because they match what the searcher wants: choice. To give them the best chance:

• Write the search listing. In the collection's Search engine listing, set a page title (Shopify warns over 70 characters may be cut off), a meta description and a short handle such as /collections/linen-shirts.
• Add useful text. A short introduction and a few buying tips, placed where your theme shows the collection description. Help the buyer choose, rather than repeat the keyword.
• Keep handles stable. Handles can't contain spaces, and changing them often can drop the page from results. If you rename one, create a redirect from the old URL.
• Avoid near-duplicates. "Sale", "Offers" and "Discounts" showing the same products split your rankings. Pick one.
• Link from the menu. Making a collection visible on the online store doesn't add it to your menus, so a collection with no links is hard for both shoppers and search engines to find.

If you want a full plan for collection and product page SEO, my Shopify SEO service starts from $200.

Common mistakes

• A collection for every color and size instead of filters.
• More than seven top-level menu items, so nothing stands out.
• Manual collections that never get updated, full of sold-out products.
• Inconsistent tags, leaving products out of automated collections.
• Giant collections over 5,000 products, where filters don't appear.
• Empty or duplicate collection descriptions, giving Google nothing to rank.
• Renamed handles with no redirect, breaking old links.

Collections and navigation checklist

1. Structure sketched: top-level collections, sub-collections and filters.
2. Tag format agreed and applied to every product.
3. Automated collections used wherever rules can do the work.
4. Parent collections built from child collections where useful.
5. Sort order chosen for every collection.
6. Main menu with seven or fewer top-level items, tested on mobile.
7. Filters set up in Search & Discovery and showing on the theme.
8. Search listing and description written for every main collection.

Next steps

Sketch your structure, fix your tags, then build automated collections and the menu in that order. Collections only work as well as the product data behind them, so if categories, types or tags are patchy, start with my guide to adding products the right way.

If shoppers land on your collections and leave, the structure is often the reason. My Shopify CRO work starts from $500, or send your store for a free review and I'll show you where navigation is costing you sales.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Creating collections and adding products, Shopify Help Center
2. Understanding conditions for collections, Shopify Help Center
3. Editing collection details and layout, Shopify Help Center
4. Set up drop-down menus, Shopify Help Center
5. Search & Discovery filters, Shopify Help Center
6. Managing collection settings, Shopify Help Center

Related services and work

Written by Ashraf Siddik

I'm a Shopify developer and CRO specialist. I have built and improved Shopify stores since 2018, completed more than 1,000 projects, and hold a 4.96 average rating across 719 client reviews.

About me · Client reviews