Shopify mobile navigation: Best way to create, optimize, and fix issues

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In today’s mobile-first world, a smooth and intuitive navigation system is key to keeping visitors engaged and driving conversions on your Shopify store. A well-structured mobile menu ensures customers can quickly find what they need, enhancing user experience and boosting sales. But how do you set up Shopify mobile navigation the right way? And what should you do if it’s not working as expected? In this guide, we’ll walk you through the best practices for setting up, optimizing, and troubleshooting your Shopify mobile navigation—so your store runs flawlessly on any device.

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How to Setup Shopify mobile navigation?

Setting up a mobile navigation bar in Shopify can be achieved through different methods, depending on whether you’re using a third-party app or customizing your theme directly. Here’s a step-by-step guide for both approaches:

Creating a Separate Mobile Navigation Menu

If you want a different menu for mobile, you might need to edit your theme’s code or use a customizer to select a different menu for mobile devices. This typically involves modifying Liquid code in your theme files.

You might need to replace or modify code like this in your theme’s navigation snippet:

text
<nav role="navigation">
<ul id="MobileNav" class="mobile-nav post-large--hide">
{% for link in mobile-nav.links %}
 {% if link.links != blank %}
 <!-- Your link rendering code here -->
  {% endif %}
 {% endfor %}
</ul>
</nav>

Replace mobile-nav.links with your custom mobile menu links, such as linklists.mobile-menu-mobile.links if you have set up a separate link list for mobile.

Customizing Theme Directly

Access Shopify Admin Panel: Log in to your Shopify admin.
Navigate to Themes: Go to Online Store > Themes and click Customize for your current theme.
Edit Mobile Menu:
- Click on the Sections icon and find the Mobile Menu option.
- Expand and unhide the options you want to display.
Customize Settings: Adjust settings like layout, fonts, and colors to optimize for mobile.
Save Changes: Click Save to apply your customizations

Utilizing Shopify Apps and Extensions

EComposer provides a mobile navigation extension that adds a navigation bar at the bottom of a mobile website, making it easier for visitors to find what they need.

How to Use the EComposer Mobile Navigation Extension:

Install the app from the Shopify App Store.
Open the EComposer Editor, select a page to edit, and switch the display to tablet or mobile view.
Install the Mobile Navigation extension from the extensions tab. Once installed, it will automatically work on all website pages.
Customize the design, including menu typography, icon width, background color, icon color, label color, and menu spacing.
Edit and organize navigation buttons—add or remove buttons, rearrange their positions using drag and drop, and customize titles and links.
Preview the menu on your live website and fine-tune the settings as needed to ensure the best user experience.

That’s it! Your mobile-friendly navigation bar is now set up on Shopify.

Way to create Shopify mobile navigation bar using Ecomposer

How to optimize Shopify mobile navigation?

Customize the “hamburger icon”

The “hamburger icon” can be changed to something else.

To change the icon, access the code editor by going to Shopify dashboard, clicking the three dots to the left of “customize,” and selecting “edit code”.
Find the icon-hamburger-liquid file.
Replace the code in this file with the code for an SVG icon. You can find SVG icons online and use a site like edit SVG code.com to upload and edit the code.
Adjust the size of the icon by changing the numbers in the view box. Increase the numbers to decrease the icon size.

User Experience

Ensure menus are fully visible on mobile devices.

Make the menu drawer take up the full page by adding code to either the base.css, team.css, or style.css file. To do so, create space at the bottom of the file and paste in the code.
To find these files, use the search bar in the code editor.

Optimize nested/submenus to automatically open on mobile.

To achieve this, paste the following code at the bottom of the section-header.min.css file:

@media (max-width: 720px){ .navigation-list-item>.navigation-list { display: block !important; } }

Adding Specific Links

Add link navigation to the mobile view by editing the “header-mobile-navigation.liquid” file and using HTML anchor tags.

To add link navigation to the mobile view in the Prestige theme, go to Online Store > Themes > Actions > Edit code.
In the left sidebar, locate and click on “Sections” folder and open the “header.liquid” file in the editor.
Then, locate the “header-mobile-navigation.liquid” file in the Sections folder and open the “header-mobile-navigation.liquid” file in the editor.
Look for the HTML code that represents the mobile navigation menu, add the links you want to include in the mobile navigation menu using HTML anchor tags ( <a> ). For example: <nav> <a href=”/page1″>Page 1</a> <a href=”/page2″>Page 2</a> <a href=”/page3″>Page 3</a> </nav>.
Replace /page1, /page2, and /page3 with the actual URLs or page handles you want to link to.

How to fix common Shopify mobile navigation issues?

Mobile Menu Not Showing Up

Add CSS code to the assets/main.css file. To do this, add the following CSS code to the bottom of the file:

@media only screen and (max-width: 600px){ .topbar-email, .topbar-child1 { color: #7d8184 !important;} .topbar-social-item {color: #7d8184 !important;} .side-menu .main-menu>li {color: #7d8184 !important;} .side-menu .main-menu>li>a {color: #7d8184 !important;} }

If there is no main.css file, it may also be called theme.scss.liquid.

Conflicts with Third-Party Apps

Live chat apps may interfere with the mobile menu. Disable or adjust app settings to resolve the issue. Try moving the icon in mobile from left to right for live chat, and if that doesn’t work, try disabling it to see if the menu starts working again. If you have added any third-party apps, remove them and check if it solves the issue.

Tips: While optimizing your Shopify mobile navigation is essential, a mobile website can still have limitations—like slow loading times, inconsistent performance, or navigation glitches. The best way to deliver a truly seamless shopping experience? A dedicated mobile app.

With SimiCart Mobile App Builder, you can transform your Shopify store into a fully optimized mobile app with smooth navigation, faster load speeds, and a user-friendly interface tailored for mobile shoppers. Say goodbye to menu issues and hello to a frictionless, app-native experience that keeps customers engaged and coming back.

Ready to future-proof your Shopify store? Build your mobile app today with SimiCart!

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Conclusion

A well-optimized mobile navigation system is more than just a menu—it’s a powerful tool that enhances usability, keeps customers engaged, and ultimately drives more sales. By following the best setup practices, making key optimizations, and quickly resolving any issues, you can create a seamless browsing experience that keeps shoppers coming back. Take the time to fine-tune your mobile navigation, and watch your Shopify store thrive in the competitive eCommerce landscape.