Hiding menus from customers who are not registered/logged in

Store Design

Topic summary

Goal: Show general pages to visitors and reveal product collections/menu categories only to logged‑in, approved customers (wholesale use case) in Shopify themes (Empire, later Dawn).

Key approaches discussed:

  • App-based: Locksmith can hide entire collections (and their linked menu items) from non‑logged‑in users. A screenshot was shared showing Locksmith settings. Pairing Customer Fields with Locksmith can manage approvals and access.
  • Code-based: It’s possible to leave collection URLs active but conditionally show no products or alternative content. Another approach is creating two navigation menus and using a conditional (if statement) to render the member menu only when the customer is logged in.

Considerations:

  • Hiding vs restricting: one comment notes collection links will still exist unless explicitly hidden or gated; context matters for why to hide. SEO impact is not a concern for the requester.

Current status/outcomes:

  • No definitive built‑in theme solution; apps (Locksmith) and theme code conditionals are the main options.
  • A later participant requests specific guidance on where to place the conditional menu code in Dawn; awaiting instructions/tutorial. Discussion remains open.
Summarized with AI on January 5. AI used: gpt-5.
4

Hi @rose_m_ard !

The Locksmith app for Shopify has a feature that does exactly what you are looking for. With Locksmith, you can hide entire collections (and their products), including any menu items in your store’s navigation that are linked to the hidden collections. Here’s an example of the settings in Locksmith when hiding a collection:

Image 2021-05-07 at 10.44.46 AM.jpg
Image 2021-05-07 at 10.44.46 AM.jpg684×1170 66.9 KB

Hopefully this helps!