Folders

What is a Folder?

A folder is a way to group collections together without creating a Shopify collection. Think of it as a virtual container: it holds sub-collections, but it doesn't contain products on its own and it doesn't exist in Shopify's collection list.

This is useful when you want to organize your hierarchy at the top level without creating extra collections that show up in your storefront, in search results, or in Shopify's collections.

For example, say you have dozens of collections and want to group them by purpose to keep things manageable. You could create folders like:

• 📁 Seasonal Rotations
• 📁 Landing Pages
• 📁 Promotions

to organize related collections together. A Promotions folder might contain your Black Friday Deals, Cyber Monday Picks, and End of Season Sale collections. The folders make your tree easier to navigate in the app, but they don't create extra pages on your storefront that you'd then need to manage.

How Folders Differ from Regular Collections

	Folder	Regular managed collection
Creates a Shopify collection	No	Yes
Contains products directly	No	Yes
Appears in breadcrumbs	No	Yes
Counts toward your collection limit	No	Yes
Can have sub-collections	Yes	Yes
Can have filters	Yes	Yes
Filters apply to sub-collections	Yes	Yes

Creating a Folder

1. From the collection list, click Create managed collection

2. Select Folder as the collection type

3. Give your folder a name and optionally set up filters

Any filters you define on a folder will automatically apply to all of its sub-collections. This is a convenient way to set broad conditions once and have them cascade down.

4. Save your folder

Your folder now appears in the collection list. You can start adding sub-collections to it right away, either by creating new ones or by editing existing collections to set the folder as their parent.

Pairing Folders with Collection List Navigation

If you use folders to organize your hierarchy, you may also want to enable the Root only collection list navigation mode in the app settings. Instead of showing the full tree at once, this mode displays only your top-level collections and folders. Click a folder to reveal its sub-collections, click again to edit.

This is especially helpful as your catalog grows — rather than scrolling through a long flat list, you can use folders as entry points and drill down from there.

Limitations

There are a few things to keep in mind when working with folders:

• Folders can only be root collections. You can't nest a folder inside another collection or another folder. They always sit at the top level of your hierarchy.
• Folders don't appear in breadcrumbs. Since they don't have a Shopify collection, the breadcrumb app block skips them and starts from the first real collection in the path.
• Folders don't have a storefront page. There's no URL to link to, because there's no Shopify collection behind them. If you need a landing page, use a regular managed collection instead.

Folders and CSV Import/Export

Folders are fully supported in the CSV import and export workflow. When you export your collections, folders are included in the CSV with a special handle prefix: scp.folder:. For example, a folder named "Winter Sales" would appear as scp.folder:winter-sales.

You can use these prefixed handles in both the collection_handle and parent_collection_handle columns, just like a regular collection handle. Unlike regular collections, folders don't need to exist in Shopify before importing since they never create a Shopify collection.

For more details on the CSV format, see CSV Import & Export.