How to Hide Products and Collections on Shopify: Step-by-Step Guide

For Shopify merchants catering to both retail and wholesale customers or offering exclusive items to selected groups, controlling product visibility is essential. Hiding certain products, prices, and collections based on customer tags or guest status not only enhances the shopping experience but also protects sensitive pricing information. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll explore how to hide products and collections from specific customers on Shopify, and highlight apps that make this possible.

Why Hide Products and Collections for Specific Customers?

Managing product visibility on Shopify helps merchants achieve several key objectives:

1. Tailored Shopping Experience: Show relevant products and collections to customers based on their profile or membership level.
2. Exclusivity: Make products or collections visible only to VIPs or wholesale customers, adding exclusivity to your offerings.
3. Increased Conversions: Restrict access to special pricing or limited-edition products to drive conversions and build customer loyalty.

Step 1: Install a Product Visibility Management App

While Shopify doesn’t provide built-in features to hide products or collections for certain customers, apps like Addify’s Catalog Visibility and Locksmith offer robust solutions. Let’s focus on the Addify app for this guide, as it provides a range of options for hiding products, prices, and entire collections based on customer tags.

Step 2: Configure Product and Collection Visibility in Addify Catalog Visibility App

Addify’s Catalog Visibility app makes it easy to customize product visibility based on customer segments. Here’s how to set it up:

a. Install Addify Catalog Visibility App

1. Go to the Shopify App Store.
2. Search for “Addify Catalog Visibility” and click “Add App.”
3. After installation, navigate to the app dashboard in your Shopify admin.

b. Set Up Customer Tags

Addify’s app allows you to control visibility for specific customer groups using tags. You can create tags like “Wholesale,” “VIP,” or “Exclusive” to segment your customers.

1. In Shopify’s main dashboard, go to Customers.
2. Select a customer and add a tag in the “Tags” section, such as “Wholesale” or “VIP.”
3. Repeat this for each customer you want to include in your targeted groups.

c. Define Visibility Rules for Products and Collections

With Addify, you can hide entire products or collections, and set access rules based on customer tags.

1. In the Addify app, navigate to the Visibility Rules section.
2. Select whether you want to hide Product, Collection, or Product Price.
3. Choose the specific product(s) or collection(s) you wish to restrict.
4. Define the customer tags (e.g., “Wholesale” or “VIP”) who will have access or will be restricted.

d. Set Up Error Messages or Redirects

The Addify app allows you to show custom messages to users who try to access restricted products or collections. You can also redirect them to another page for a smoother user experience.

1. Under Error Message Settings, type a custom message like “This product is available for VIP members only.”
2. Alternatively, enable Redirect and specify a URL to send customers to a different page.

e. Optional: Enable Password Protection

Addify also provides the option to set up password protection for specific products or collections.

1. In the Addify dashboard, go to Password Protection.
2. Select the products or collections you want to protect.
3. Enable password protection and set a password.
4. Customize the message that appears when users attempt to access a protected product or collection.

Step 3: Test Your Visibility Settings

After configuring visibility rules, it’s essential to test the setup to ensure the right customers see the right products.

1. Log in as a test customer with specific tags (such as “Wholesale” or “VIP”) to confirm that the restricted products or collections display correctly.
2. Log out or use an untagged test account to ensure restricted items are hidden from general customers or those without specific tags.

Key Features of Addify’s Catalog Visibility App

• Hide Product Prices: Shopify hide price on specific products or collections and replace them with custom text, encouraging customers to log in.
• Hide Collections: Restrict entire collections to certain customer tags, ideal for wholesale or exclusive products.
• Hide Products for Specific Customers: Use customer tags to control which products appear for different user groups.
• Password Protection: Add password protection to selected products, allowing only authorized customers access.
• Custom Error Messages & Redirects: Guide restricted customers with error messages or redirects for a better experience.

Pricing

The Addify Catalog Visibility app offers a range of plans:

• Basic Plan: $2.99/month or $29.99/year for merchants on the Basic Shopify plan.
• Standard Plan: $3.99/month or $39.99/year.
• Advanced Plan: $4.99/month or $49.99/year.

All plans come with a 7-day free trial to explore the features and determine the best fit for your store.

Conclusion

Managing product visibility by hiding products, prices, or collections for certain customers is essential for Shopify stores catering to diverse customer segments. The Addify Catalog Visibility app provides a powerful, flexible solution to customize product visibility based on customer tags, enabling merchants to offer a tailored shopping experience, protect sensitive pricing, and create exclusivity. By following this step-by-step guide, you’ll be able to configure and test visibility settings to ensure the right customers see the right products.