Hide Products & Collections
When you use Hide products or Hide collections in Step 1 – Lock content, you’re not just hiding prices – you’re hiding the items themselves from parts of your storefront.
This is different from “Hide prices”:
Hide prices → product is visible, price is not.
Hide products / collections → product or collection can disappear entirely for blocked visitors.
1. What “Hide products” does
Target: specific products.
When you choose Hide products as the target:
You pick one or more products.
For visitors who don’t meet your access conditions:
Those products are removed from product grids (collections, search results, related products, etc., depending on theme & settings).
Direct access to the product URL can be blocked or redirected to a lock message (depending on your configuration).
Typical uses
Wholesale-only products that retail customers must never see.
Exclusive SKUs for partners, distributors, or VIP customers.
Products still in testing or beta, only for selected accounts.
2. What “Hide collections” does
Target: whole collections.
When you choose Hide collections:
You select one or more Shopify collections.
For blocked visitors:
Those collections disappear from navigation menus, collection lists, and search results where the collection itself might appear.
If someone tries to access the collection URL directly, they see a lock message instead of the product grid (if you configured one).
Typical uses
Wholesale/B2B catalog separated into its own collection(s).
Distributor-only collections by region or tier.
VIP collections that should not show up in public navigation.
3. Hide product cards vs lock collections
It’s important to understand the difference between hiding product cards and locking collections:
Hiding product cards (Hide products target)
You keep the collection itself visible (e.g., “All products” or “New arrivals”).
Inside that collection, individual product cards are hidden based on your rules.
Result for blocked visitors:
They see the collection page, but some products simply don’t appear in the grid.
The layout may adjust automatically based on your theme (e.g., items shift left, no blank slots).
This is useful when:
You want mixed collections where some products are public and some are restricted.
You don’t want to create separate collections for every audience.
Locking collections (Hide collections target)
The collection as a whole is gated.
Blocked visitors:
Don’t see that collection in menus or collection lists.
If they somehow open the exact collection URL, they see a lock screen instead of any grid.
This is useful when:
You want very clean separation between retail and wholesale.
Each audience should have its own “catalog view” without overlap.
4. How rules affect collections, search, and grids
Because hiding products/collections affects how things render visually, it’s helpful to know what to expect in different places.
A. Collection pages (product grids)
If you hide products:
Blocked visitors:
Won’t see those products in the grid.
Remaining products shift to fill the grid (no item should show with a visible product card, but if your theme expects a fixed number of items, you may see layout differences).
If you hide the entire collection:
Blocked visitors:
Won’t see the collection in navigation or collection lists.
Opening the collection URL shows a lock message instead of any grid.
B. Search results
If products are hidden:
Blocked visitors generally won’t see them in search results, depending on theme and integration.
If collections are hidden:
Collection links may not show in search (again theme-dependent), and if opened, they’re locked.
If search is critical to your UX, always test:
As a guest/unapproved user.
As an approved/tagged user.
Make sure search results match your expectations for each segment.
C. Featured collections and product blocks on homepage
If your theme uses featured collections or product sliders on the homepage:
Hide products:
Restricted products simply don’t appear for blocked users; the slider shows fewer products.
Hide collections:
If you’ve hidden the featured collection itself, blocked users may:
Not see that section at all, or
See a message/empty state depending on how the theme handles it.
Always review your homepage and key landing pages after creating or editing hide rules.
D. Handling “blank” or unexpected layout gaps
In some themes, if products are removed at runtime, you might see:
Empty spaces where products would have been.
Slightly uneven grids when many products are hidden.
If that happens:
Prefer hiding whole collections instead of many individual products, or
Create dedicated wholesale-only collections and hide the entire collection from non-B2B users, or
Reduce mixing of public and restricted products in the same collection.
This gives a cleaner visual experience, especially for non-B2B visitors.
5. Choosing the right approach
Use this as a quick decision guide:
I want a clean, separate B2B catalog, invisible to retail → Use Hide collections for wholesale collections.
I want some products in a collection to be wholesale-only → Use Hide products on those SKUs and test collection grids.
I want one URL to behave completely differently for B2B vs B2C → Combine Hide products or Hide collections with tag-based conditions and clear lock messages.
Once you understand the difference between hiding products and collections, you can design catalog structures that both look good and respect your B2B rules across all parts of the storefront.
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