accountcraft Install free
All articles

AccountCraft Journal

Shopify Account Navigation: Menus, Quick Links, Extensions

Set up Shopify New Customer Accounts navigation: edit the menu in Content > Menus, add quick links, use full-page extensions, and fix a menu that won't show.

14 min read

Shopify account navigation is controlled in two places: the customer account menu, which you edit under Content > Menus in your Shopify admin, and the account component, the avatar menu that gives shoppers quick links from your store header. Both belong to New Customer Accounts, and both work without touching your theme code. This guide walks through where each setting lives, how to add, reorder and remove links, how apps add full pages to the menu, and what to check when something does not show up.

AccountCraft
apps.shopify.com
Make Account Pages Your Own
AccountCraft adds customizable pages to Shopify New Customer Accounts with a no-code Block Builder, including components such as wishlists and personalized data fields.
Install AccountCraft

TL;DR

  • Edit the customer account menu in Shopify admin under Content > Menus, or from the checkout and accounts editor. You can add, reorder and remove links there.
  • New Customer Accounts generate a main menu automatically: vertical on desktop, horizontal on mobile. With five or more items, mobile collapses it into an icon.
  • The account component puts an avatar in your header so customers reach orders and profile links without leaving the store.
  • Apps can add full pages to the menu through customer account UI extensions. AccountCraft does this with a no-code block builder.
  • If the menu is missing, check whether sign-in links are hidden in Settings > Customer accounts.

Table of Contents

How account navigation works in New Customer Accounts

When a customer signs in, they land on an account area with a menu: Orders, Profile, and any links you add. With New Customer Accounts, Shopify generates a main menu automatically, shown vertically on desktop and horizontally on mobile. You do not need to build it from scratch.

This is a real change from legacy customer accounts, which Shopify has deprecated. If you are still migrating, the biggest practical difference for navigation is that New Customer Accounts are managed independently of the theme, so theme updates do not change the account experience. That also means you will not find the menu in a Liquid file. Navigation is configured in the admin.

Shopify also notes that the new version supports no-code app customizations, store credit and self-serve returns, which matters here because most of the interesting navigation additions come from apps.

There are three layers to keep apart:

  1. The account menu: the list of links inside the account area (Orders, Profile, and so on).
  2. The account component: the avatar or account icon in your storefront header that opens a quick menu.
  3. Extension pages: new pages added by apps, which can then be linked from the account menu.

Most merchants only need the first. The other two are what make an account area feel like part of your brand rather than a bare order list.

Where to edit the customer account menu

There are two routes to the same menu. Shopify says you can configure customer account menus under Content > Menus, or directly in the checkout and accounts editor. Which one you use is a matter of habit.

Route 1: Content > Menus

  1. In your Shopify admin, go to Content > Menus.
  2. Select the customer account menu from the list.
  3. Make your changes and save.

If you remember the old Navigation section under Online Store, it moved. Merchants on the r/shopify subreddit noticed the menus option now sits under Content, and that is where the account menu lives too.

Route 2: the checkout and accounts editor

Open the editor from your Shopify settings for checkout and accounts, switch to the customer accounts pages, and edit the menu in context. This is handy when you want to see how the change looks next to your branding while you work.

Shopify says merchants can use the same menu across the online store and customer accounts. If you do that, remember that a link that makes sense in your store footer (say, “Gift cards”) may be confusing in the account area. Many stores keep a dedicated account menu to stay in control.

The mechanics are the same as any Shopify menu. Shopify’s menu guide says you add, edit, reorder or remove items from Content > Menus: open the menu, drag items by the handle icon to reorder, and use the edit or remove options on each link.

A practical sequence:

  1. Open Content > Menus and select the customer account menu.
  2. Choose Add menu item, give it a short name, and pick the destination.
  3. Drag the handle icon to put the item where it belongs.
  4. Click Save menu.
  5. Sign in to a test customer account and check the result on desktop and on a phone.

One limit worth knowing: Shopify restricts menu changes to 200 actions before you need to save to reset the counter. If you are rebuilding a large menu, save in stages.

The customer account menu supports links to orders, profile pages, apps, external websites and other online store templates. In practice that gives you a useful range:

Destination type Typical example Good for
Orders Order history Order tracking, returns
Profile Name, email, addresses Self-service edits
App page Wishlist, loyalty, preferences Engagement and retention
Online store template A help or returns page Reducing support tickets
External website A subscription portal Tools hosted elsewhere

Keep labels short and specific. “Order history” beats “My stuff”, and “Saved items” beats “Favorites hub”.

On phones, length matters. When a customer account menu has five or more items, mobile shows an icon instead of a horizontal list. That is not a bug. It means the links are one tap further away. If your most important destination is the third or fourth item, a shopper on a phone may never see it.

The fix is editorial. Decide the three links customers use most, put them first, and cut anything that duplicates another link. Our guide to mobile-friendly Shopify account pages covers how the rest of the account area should read on a small screen.

Quick links are what customers see before they ever open the account page. Shopify’s account component shows an avatar in the store header; clicking it opens a menu with order history, profile and other links you configure, without redirecting the customer away from the store.

For the merchant, three things follow:

  • The quick links are built from the same idea as the account menu, so keep the two consistent. If the avatar menu says “Orders” and the account page says “Purchases”, you create friction for nothing.
  • Customers stay on the storefront, so signing in no longer feels like leaving to a separate site.
  • The component is added through your online store setup rather than a custom code snippet. Follow Shopify’s guide to the account component for the current steps in your theme.

If you want a fuller picture of what a customer can do after they click through, see our customer self-service checklist for Shopify.

Adding full pages with customer account UI extensions

The default menu points at orders and profile. To send customers somewhere new, such as a wishlist, a pet or vehicle list, or a preference center, you need a page that exists inside the account area. That is what customer account UI extensions provide.

Shopify’s developer docs describe these extensions as being limited to specific UI components and APIs in an isolated sandbox, so they cannot access sensitive payment information or raw page HTML. Apps that need protected customer data also go through a review process. For a merchant, this is the reassuring part: an extension is not a script pasted into your theme.

For navigation specifically, the key detail is that full-page extensions can be linked in the navigation menu, and direct linking is allowed by default unless the extension configuration says otherwise. Shopify’s own announcement of this change is in the developer changelog. In plain terms: install an app that adds a full page, then go to Content > Menus and add that page like any other link.

If you or your developer build extensions yourselves, treat the data side seriously. A web app security checklist is a sensible companion when you decide what an account page may read and write.

Adding full pages with customer account UI extensions

Building pages without code

Writing an extension takes a developer, a dev store and an app review. Many merchants would rather build the pages visually. That is the gap AccountCraft fills: it uses Shopify’s official Customer Account UI Extensions, so you get the same sandboxed approach without writing any of it.

With AccountCraft’s Block Builder, you assemble account pages from 14 block types: text, banner, button, card, update form, single field, record list, SMS consent, privacy consent, wishlist, image, video, spacer and divider. Customer fields are bound to customer metafields, so what a shopper edits is stored in Shopify. There is no separate customer database.

Once a page is published, it becomes a destination for your menu. A typical setup looks like this:

  1. Install AccountCraft from the Shopify App Store.
  2. Build a page, for example “My preferences”, with an update form and a privacy consent block.
  3. Go to Content > Menus, open the customer account menu and add the new page.
  4. Drag it into position and save.
  5. Test with a customer account on desktop and mobile.

You can go deeper on this workflow in our post on how to customize Shopify accounts with New Customer Accounts.

A single menu for everyone gets crowded quickly. Wholesale buyers need different links than retail shoppers, and a loyalty link means nothing to a first-time customer.

AccountCraft supports conditional rendering by customer tag, metafield, market, B2B status and account age. That controls what appears on the page and in its blocks, so a VIP tag can reveal a perks card, or a B2B company can see a reorder block that retail customers never see. It is a cleaner alternative to stuffing every link into the menu and hoping people sort it out.

Five conditions that personalize account content

If you run B2B, our Shopify Plus customer accounts guide covers how these setups differ.

A good account menu does more than route clicks. It is also where customers find the controls over their own data: updating a profile, changing marketing preferences, withdrawing consent. For stores selling to customers in the EU or UK, that is worth planning deliberately.

Shopify publishes a guide on using Shopify to help comply with GDPR, which covers legal bases and what merchants should disclose. Read it as the starting point, and talk to a qualified adviser about your specific obligations. Compliance stays the merchant’s responsibility, and no app or menu setting changes that.

What a menu can do is make those controls easy to find. A link labeled “Privacy and communication preferences” that opens a page with a privacy consent block and an SMS consent block gives customers one clear place to record their choices. AccountCraft’s consent blocks help collect, record and honor customer consent through Shopify’s customer privacy APIs, and the data stays in Shopify. For more on that approach, see account UI extensions that stay GDPR ready.

Perspective

We see the account menu as the most underused piece of navigation on a Shopify store. Merchants spend weeks on the main menu and mega menus, then leave the account area with two links, Orders and Profile.

That is a missed opportunity, because customers who sign in have already told you they plan to come back. What they find next decides whether they do. A short, well-ordered menu that leads to a wishlist, a preferences page and a place to manage consent turns the account from a receipt archive into a place customers use.

We built AccountCraft so that none of this requires a developer or a theme change. The menu stays in Shopify admin, the pages are built from blocks, and the customer’s data stays in Shopify. Our advice: pick three links that matter most, build those pages first, and add conditions so each customer sees what is relevant to them.

Ivan Signorile

Build your account menu with AccountCraft

If your account area is still just orders and a profile, AccountCraft gives you pages worth linking to. There is a free plan to start, and the paid plans, Pro and Plus, are billed through Shopify. Check the Shopify App Store listing for current pricing.

AccountCraft

Install AccountCraft free from the Shopify App Store, or see the plans on accountcraft.app.

If you are still moving off legacy customer accounts, our guide to restoring the legacy experience with New Customer Accounts shows how to rebuild what your customers used to have.

When something does not show, work through this list in order.

  1. Check sign-in visibility. If the account menu does not appear on your store, look at whether sign-in links are hidden in Settings > Customer accounts. Shopify notes that hiding them also prevents customers from signing in.
  2. Confirm you edited the right menu. Content > Menus lists several menus. Make sure you changed the customer account menu and not the footer or main menu.
  3. Save the menu. Reordering by drag and drop does not stick until you save.
  4. Check the app page is published. A link to an extension page only works if the app has that page enabled.
  5. Look at the mobile layout. With five or more items, the menu becomes an icon on phones, so it can look like links vanished.
  6. Test as a signed-in customer. Preview as a logged-out visitor and you will not see account menus at all.

One limit to plan around: Shopify says you cannot use custom domains per market for customer account pages, since a single domain is used across all markets. If you sell internationally, build links that work from that one domain.

What customers can see and change

Before you add links, remember what the account already does. Shoppers can view and edit their name, email and saved addresses, see their order history and track specific orders. So you do not need extra links for those basics. Spend your menu slots on what the default account does not cover: wishlists, saved vehicles or pets, preferences, consent and support pages.

If account signups are your concern, you can encourage them without forcing registration. Our post on keeping guest checkout while adding wishlists explains how.

A quick menu design checklist

  • Keep it to four items or fewer if mobile matters to you.
  • Put the most-used destination first.
  • Use the same labels in the header quick links and the account menu.
  • Link to a preferences page where customers can manage consent.
  • Use conditional visibility inside pages for segment-specific content.
  • Test every change with a real signed-in test customer on a phone.

FAQ

Where do I edit the customer account menu in Shopify?

Go to Content > Menus in your Shopify admin and open the customer account menu. You can also edit it from the checkout and accounts editor. Either way you can add, reorder and remove links, then save.

They are the links in the menu that opens when a customer clicks the account avatar in your store header. They give fast access to orders, profile and other links you set, without sending the customer to a separate page.

Can I add a custom page to the account menu?

Yes. Full-page extensions built with customer account UI extensions can be linked in the menu. An app like AccountCraft creates these pages visually, and you then add the page under Content > Menus like any other item.

Why did my account menu disappear on mobile?

With five or more items, the menu shows as an icon on mobile instead of a horizontal list. Reduce the number of items or move key links to the front so they stay easy to reach.

Will a theme update break my account navigation?

No. New Customer Accounts are managed independently of your theme, so theme updates do not change the account experience. Your menu lives in Shopify admin.

Sources