Website Theme

Store Design

Topic summary

A store owner using the Dawn theme wants to organize products into a main “Digital Designs” collection with sub-categories like Graduation, Awareness, and Holidays, and is considering switching themes to achieve this.

Community Solutions:

  • Multiple users confirm a theme change is unnecessary
  • Dawn already supports sub-category navigation through Shopify’s native menu system

Implementation Steps:

  1. Create individual collections for each sub-category (Graduation, Awareness, Holidays)
  2. Navigate to Online Store → Navigation → Main menu and nest the new collections under “Digital Designs” by indenting them
  3. Build a custom landing page for the parent category using a Collection list section to showcase all sub-collections
  4. Optionally install a free mega-menu app (Meteor Mega Menu or Globo Mega Menu) for enhanced dropdown styling with images and multi-column layouts

Outcome:
The original poster thanks the community and plans to implement the suggested native Shopify features rather than switching themes.

Summarized with AI on October 28. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hi! I currently have the Dawn theme for my website. I am trying to find a theme that gives me the option to have sub categories. For Example: Digital Designs Collection Sub Collection: Graduation, Awareness, Holidays etc.

Can someone tell which theme should I change it to?

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2

Instead of changing theme you should consider to use the custom section for the Sub categories.

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3

Thank you! I didn’t know that was an option. I will go back in and look for it.

4

Hi @AprilCraftTutor

You must do that from your store admin > Content > Menus > edit Main menu, create Digital Designs, then add Graduation, Awareness, Holidays as submenu of Digital Designs

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5

Hello @AprilCraftTutor

You don’t need to rip out Dawn and install a new theme just to surface sub-categories. You can fake “parent → child” navigation and landing pages with Shopify’s native tools or a lightweight menu app.

Here’s how to do it smoothly:

  1. Create your sub-collections
    – Under Products → Collections, make one collection each for Graduation, Awareness, Holidays, etc., and tag or automate them so they pull in the right products.

  2. Nest them in your main menu
    – Go to Online Store → Navigation → Main menu, drag each of those new collections underneath “Digital Designs” and indent them one level. Shopify will now render them as a dropdown (albeit with plain links).

  3. Build a pseudo-landing page for the parent
    – In Online Store → Pages, create a “Digital Designs” page.
    – In the theme editor (Customize), add a Collection list section to this page and manually select your Graduation, Awareness, Holidays collections.
    – Publish it, then point your “Digital Designs” menu item at this new page instead of a standard collection URL.

  4. (Optional) Use a free mega-menu app
    – If you want images or multi-column layouts in the dropdown itself, install something like Meteor Mega Menu or Globo Mega Menu. They’ll pick up your nested menu structure and let you style it without touching Dawn’s code.

With that in place, visitors who hover “Digital Designs” will see your subs right in the nav, and when they click “Digital Designs” they land on a page showing each sub-collection with its own card or banner—no theme swap required.

6

Thank you so much!