How to Exclude Products From the All Collection in Shopify Without Code or Apps

You have a category with around 30 items that is meant only for local businesses.

You want to keep this category separate from the rest of your shop, and you do not want those products to appear when someone visits the default collection/all page.

If you search for this topic, you will often see people saying that the only way to do this is by editing your Shopify theme code.

That usually means working with Liquid files, conditionals, and collection logic. For most store owners, this feels risky, time consuming, and easy to break.

The other option is to use an app that does this for you. But you do not want to pay a monthly fee just to hide a set of products from a single collection view.

So is there a simpler way to do this without touching code or paying for an app?

The good news is yes. You can solve this using Shopify’s built in features.

The Core Idea Behind the Solution

The default all collection in Shopify automatically pulls in every active product in your store. That includes products meant for local businesses, wholesale buyers, or any other special audience.

Because this collection is automatic and global, it does not give you fine control over what appears there unless you change the logic.

Instead of trying to remove products from the default all collection, you replace it with your own version of all.

This custom collection only includes products you want visible to everyone, while your local business products stay completely separate.

Here is how to do it step by step.

1. Tag Your Products Clearly

Start by deciding on two clear tags.

For products that should only be available for local businesses, add a tag such as locally-available.

For products that should appear in the main shop for everyone, add a tag such as globally-available.

Go through your products and assign the correct tag to each one. This is a one time setup, and after that it becomes part of your normal product workflow.

Any new product you add in the future just needs the correct tag.

2. Create a Custom All Collection

Next, go to the Collections section in your Shopify admin and create a new collection named all.

Set the collection type to automated, then add a condition where the product tag is equal to globally-available.

Once saved, Shopify will automatically include only products with the globally-available tag. Your local business products will never appear in this collection, even though they still exist in your store.

This collection now acts as your controlled version of the all collection.

3. Update Your Navigation Menu

Now you need to make sure customers are sent to this new collection instead of the default one.

Go to Content, then Menus, and open your Main Menu. This is usually the menu shown in the top navigation.

Find the link that points to your catalog or all products. Edit that link and change its destination to the new all collection you just created.

Save the menu.

From this point on, anyone clicking that menu item will only see products that are globally available.

The key benefit of this approach is that it avoids theme edits entirely. You are not touching Liquid files, collection templates, or filters.

You are simply using Shopify’s existing tagging system, automated collections, and menu controls.

This makes the setup safer, easier to maintain, and compatible with future theme updates.