Managing an organized and user-friendly online store on Shopify is crucial for success. Merchants often need to control the visibility of products in Shopify to manage which items appear in their online store, helping them handle inventory, seasonal stock, or exclusive collections efficiently. The ability to hide products helps store owners keep their catalog clean without permanently deleting items.
Keeping your Shopify store clean, relevant, and easy to navigate is key to a great customer experience. One way to manage this is by hiding products, without deleting them, from your storefront. Whether you're managing seasonal inventory, sold-out items, or region-specific products, Shopify gives you flexible tools to control visibility.
What Are the Reasons to Hide Products?
Hiding products allows store owners to prevent customers from seeing them in the storefront. Below are some reasons why merchants decide to hide products:
Out-of-stock
By hiding products that are temporarily unavailable, you can prevent customer frustration by not displaying items that cannot be purchased immediately. This avoids giving them hope that the item is still accessible.
Discontinued Products
Items that are permanently removed or will not be restocked from inventory are hidden to maintain a clean and relevant storefront, ensuring customers don't waste time on outdated listings.
Limited Edition
Limited edition products are released in small quantities and cannot be restocked once sold out. Hiding them after they are sold out increases the perceived value of limited edition items and encourages customers to act quickly when they see such products in the future.
Low-Performing Products
Sometimes, underperforming items may be hidden from the store to direct customer attention toward best-sellers and high-margin products.
Country Restrictions
Some products may not be available for sale in certain countries due to legal or logistical reasons.
Steps to Hide Products on Shopify?
Hiding products from your Shopify store is a straightforward process that can be customized according to your specific needs. Shopify provides several methods to do this. By following the appropriate steps, you ensure that your product catalog is displayed exactly as you want.
- Shopify Admin Panel
- Shopify Theme Code Edit
- Shopify Apps
1. Shopify Admin Panel
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Log in to your Shopify store with your linked email and password to access the admin panel.
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In the admin dashboard, click Products on the left sidebar menu to access the product management page. This section lists all products in your store. You can filter, search, and manage individual product details.
- Select the product you want to hide from your store, and click on its title to view and edit the specific information of product.
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On the detail page, scroll down to find the status section to modify the visibility setting. Click on the Active button and select Draft status from the drop-down menu.
- Click on Save to apply the changes.
Once you successfully hide the product, it will no longer be visible on your online store or any connected sales channels. But you can still manage the product from your admin panel.
2. Shopify Theme Code Edit
This method requires technical knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other languages to edit theme code.
- In the Shopify Admin Dashboard, navigate to Online Stores > Themes to access your active theme.
- In the active theme section, click the three-dot button (...) before the Customize button. Select Edit Code from the drop-down menu.
- You will be directed to the theme code editor, where you can see all theme files organized in folders on the left sidebar.
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In the search bar, input the liquid template file name. Open the file and make necessary changes to the code.
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After editing the code, click Save to apply the changes.
If you do not have any development experience, then you need to hire an experienced Shopify developer. Sometimes editing theme code breaks the overall site structure.
3. Shopify Apps
Shopify offers several apps designed to control product visibility beyond the default Shopify settings. These apps allow store owners to hide products, restrict access, and manage catalog visibility. These apps provide flexible solutions to customize your store display according to your needs.
Some popular apps like Locksmith, Addify ‑ Hide Products, and Wholesale Lock Manage offer features like schedule product appear/disappear, customize visibility rules, and more.
How to Confirm Product Completely Hidden from your Shopify Store?
To confirm that a product is hidden from your Shopify store, you have to ensure it is not visible to customers in the online storefront. This helps to organize your store and offer relevant products to your customers.
Verify on Live Store: Open your store website in a browser. Search for the product name using the search bar. Also, navigate to the relevant category or section where the product may appear. If the search result gives no results, confirm that the product is hidden.
Check Product URL: You can also check the product URL directly. Access the product URL. If the product page shows a 404 error or does not load, the product is hidden.
Check on Product Page: In the Shopify admin dashboard, go to your product page. Under Sales channels, confirm that not included in any sales channel. This confirms that the product is hidden from the online store.
Best Practice To Hide Product on Shopify?
Consider these practices to properly hide the product from your online store:
Keep Track of Hidden Products: When the product is hidden, keep track of which product is hidden. This helps to avoid confusion, simplifies inventory management, and makes it easier to unhide products when needed.
Test Changes: Before hiding products on the live store, test changes in the demo store. This verifies that they are not appearing in collections, search results, or navigation menus. Also, it prevents any potential mistakes that might impact your customer experience.
Noindex URL: Add a noindex tag on the hidden product to prevent indexing by the search engine. This prevents the products from showing up in search results and improves SEO management.
How to Unhide the Hidden Product on Shopify?
To unhide a hidden product means you need to repeat the steps to make the product visible and purchasable again. This process is done by updating the product availability settings.
- Go to your Shopify admin page, navigate to the Product menu on the left-hand side.
- Use the search bar or scroll through your product list to find the product you want to unhide. Click the product title to open the product details page.
- In the Product Status section, switch the status from Draft to Active.
- Scroll down to the Publishing section, click the three-dot icon (⋯) beside Publishing. Select Manage Sales Channels.
- Check the boxes for the sales channels where you want the product to be visible.
- Click the Save button at the top or bottom right of the page.
