There’s no direct way to create sub-collections in Shopify. Luckily, there’s a workaround that you can use to add subcollections to your Shopify store.
In this beginner-friendly guide, I’ll teach you the exact steps to add sub-collections in Shopify and show you how you can create subcollection lists using two different methods.
Ready to learn? Let’s get started!
Why you need sub-collections
Sub-collections, also known as sub-categories or child categories, allow you to group similar products inside a main collection or parent category.
That helps your customers navigate and find products easily. It also allows you to create dedicated landing pages with focused keywords for your products, which is great for improving your SEO.
Imagine you’re a customer who’s looking for socks made from a specific material.
Instead of browsing through a broad “Women’s Clothing” collection, wouldn’t it be better if you can quickly find what you need in a sub-collection like “Women’s Accessories” or “Women’s Socks”?
When you make it easier for your customers to navigate and find products, they’re more likely to keep shopping and returning to your site.
Longer dwell times, higher conversion rates, and repeat purchases, are all great for your business.
And that’s not the only reason to add sub-collections for your Shopify store.
Sub-collections can even provide valuable insights into customer preferences and behavior. You can use those insights to tailor your marketing campaigns to maximize conversions.
Now that you understand why you need sub-collections, let’s look at how you can create them on your Shopify store.
How to add sub-collections to the navigation menu in Shopify
There is no concept of sub-collections in Shopify. All collections exist at the same level in the backend.
So, for example, let’s say you create three collections on your store: “Men’s Clothing,” “Men’s T-shirts,” and “Men’s Shorts.” All three collections will exist as individual collections.
If you want the “Men’s T-shirts” and “Men’s Shorts” collections to act as sub-collections to the “Men’s Clothing” collection, you can nest them accordingly in your navigation menu.
Here’s how to do that:
First, go to Products > Collections. Then, click the Create collection button on the top right.
You can either create a collection manually or use the automated collection type. Automated collections allow Shopify to add products based on set conditions.
For more information on Shopify collections, read my detailed guide explaining how to add collections in Shopify.
Once you’ve added multiple collections to your store, you’re ready to organize them as sub-collections.
Go to the “Online Store” sales channel from your Shopify admin dashboard and click on Navigation.
Select Main menu from the “Menus” section.
Let’s say your homepage menu includes “Home,” “Catalog,” and “Contact” items.
Add a main collection to your menu, such as “Men’s Clothing,” by following these steps:
- Click Add menu item.
- Enter a name for your menu item.
- Type your collection name in the search field and select it from the dropdown list.
- Click Add on the bottom right to add the main collection to your menu.
After that, repeat the same process to add the sub-collections to the menu and nest them under the main collection by dragging them to the right in the navigation menu.
Once added, save the changes by clicking Save menu.
Then, go to the frontend of your store to see your changes. You’ll see a dropdown section labeled “Men’s Clothing” containing “Men’s T-shirts” and “Men’s Shorts.” Like this:
How to create a sub-collection list on the collection pages in Shopify
You need to customize your theme to create a landing page for your main collection and display sub-collections on it. Luckily, you don’t need any advanced coding skills to do it.
Let’s say you want to create a main collection called “Books,” and display sub-collections such as “Fiction,” “Non-Fiction,” and “Children’s Books,” on your Shopify store.
By default, you’ll only see the products in each collection on its dedicated collection page.
If you want to display your sub-collections on the main collection page, you can do it using one of two methods:
- Create a new template design
- Add dynamic fields
Creating a new template is the simplest way to add a sub-collection list on a collection page. You can simply create a new template specifically for the “Books” collection and add a collection list with your sub-collections.
However, this template will only work for the “Books” collection, because it will include sub-collections specific to books.
That’s why this method works best for online stores with smaller catalogs and up to 3 collections.
The second method, adding dynamic fields, involves more steps but it’s much more versatile, especially if you have a larger product catalog with multiple collections and sub-collections.
Let’s look at both methods, starting with the template design option.
Method 1: Create a new template design
Go to Online Store > Themes in your Shopify admin and open the theme editor by clicking Customize.
In the theme editor, click the Home Page dropdown at the top of the page. Select Collections and then click Create template.
Then, name the template (e.g., Books) and click Create template.
On the left sidebar, under the “Preview” section, click Change and select the main collection (in my case, Books) from the right sidebar. Now, you’ll see all the products of the main collection.
Next, add a collection list by clicking Add section in the “Template” section and selecting the Collection list from the list of sections.
Then click on each box and add a sub-collection from the right sidebar.
You can stylize the collection list by adding a descriptive heading and changing the image ratio. If you need an engaging heading, use Shopify Magic to generate a headline.
You can also move the collection list to the top of the page by dragging and dropping the block in the “Template” section on the left sidebar editor.
Once you finish editing the template, save it. After that, you need to assign it to your main product collection.
Go to Products > Collections and select your collection, for example, Books. Then, go to Theme template on the right-hand side, and select the newly created template.
That’s it! When you refresh your collections page, you should see your sub-collections listed on the same page. Like this:
Method 2: Dynamic fields
Creating multiple templates is time consuming, especially when you have 10, 20, or more collections on your store.
In those situations, it’s much easier to create a collection page template with dynamic fields that’ll showcase sub-collections dynamically across all your collection pages.
First, go to Online Store > Themes and click on Customize.
From the “Homepage” at the top, click on Collections and then select Create a Template.
Enter a descriptive name for the template, like “Sub Collections” and click Create Template.
Click on Add Section and select Collection List. Move this section up in the template hierarchy.
Next, let’s assign a dynamic source to the collection list instead of selecting a specific collection.
Click the collection box, followed by the dynamic source icon called Connect Dynamic Source on the left sidebar.
Then, click Add metafield. This will take you to a page where you can add a metafield.
Don’t know what metafields are? Let me explain in simple words.
Metafields are placeholders for content that you can add to objects, like products, to provide extra information, making it easier for customers to shop. They allow you to display important details that aren’t included by default in Shopify.
For example, you can use metafields to show the material of a piece of clothing, product care instructions, or the expiration date of a food item on the product page.
I’ve written a detailed guide showing you how to add custom fields to product pages in Shopify using metafields. Read my article to learn more about customizing Shopify product pages with metafields.
To create a sub-collection list on our collection page, we’ll add a sub-collection metafield.
So, first, name your metafield (e.g., “Sub collection 1”). Then click on Select type and choose Collection. Finally, click on Save to save this metafield.
Similarly, create “Sub collection 2″ and “Sub collection 3”” metafields by clicking Add definition.
Once you’ve created your metafields, open your main collection (e.g., Books) by going to Products > Collections.
When you scroll down to the bottom of the collection, you’ll see a new section called “Metafields” with the newly created metafields “Sub collection 1,” “Sub collection 2,” and so on.
Assign each metafield to a sub-collection you want. For example, assign “Sub collection 1” to Fiction, “Sub collection 2” to Non-Fiction, and “Sub collection 3” to Children’s Books. Click Save to update your changes.
Next, let’s assign this page to your main collection (“Books” in our case).
Go to the Theme template section on the right-hand side of the collection page and select your newly created “sub-collections” template from the dropdown.
Click Save to save your changes.
Now, return to the “Sub Collections” template.
Click on the first collection box from the “Collection list,” followed by the Connect dynamic source icon. Select the newly created “Sub collection 1” metafield.
Similarly, assign “Sub collection 2” to the second collection box, “Sub collection 3” to the third collection box, and so on.
Click Save to save all changes.
That’s it! You’ve successfully added a sub-collection list to all your collection pages!
Wrapping it up: Adding sub-collections in Shopify
Organizing your Shopify store with sub-collections is super easy and helps your customers find and buy products faster.
Whether you create templates or use dynamic fields, adding sub-collections in Shopify can improve your website navigation and provide a better shopping experience. Plus, using metafields to provide extra details to your products makes a big difference.
Have questions or need help with setting up sub-collections? Drop by the Ecommerce Launcher Reddit page or send us a message using our contact form.
