Shopify’s Online Store 2.0 gives store owners more customization options, but you might have noticed that some sections are not available in the header or footer by default. If you’re looking to add custom sections—like featured products, banners, or extra navigation—to these areas, you’ll need a small tweak in your Shopify theme’s code.
Note that this tip is valid for most Shopify free standard themes, like Dawn, Sense, etc. It might not apply to other themes.
1. Identify The Section You Want To Add
Before making changes, decide which section you want to include in the header or footer. This could be:
- A promotional banner
- A featured product or collection
- A newsletter signup
- An additional announcement bar
- And many more—Let’s use a multicolumn section as an example.
2. Access Your Theme Code
- In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes
- Click Actions > Edit Code
- Open the liquid file for the section you want to add. Following our example, we would open the “multicolumn.liquid” file.
3. Find The Code That Enables Or Disables Your Section
Search for “disabled_on” or “enabled_on”. It can be either depending on the section you’re editing.
In our example, the multicolumn.liquid file contains the following code:
"disabled_on": {
"groups": ["header", "footer"]
},Alternatively, the announcement-bar.liquid file contains this code:
"enabled_on": {
"groups": ["header"]
},4. Add Or Remove Header Or Footer From The List
In the multicolumn case, we found the “disabled_on” list. To make the multicolumn section available on the footer, we need to remove “footer” from the list.
After editing it, our code will be like this:
"disabled_on": {
"groups": ["header"]
}On the other hand, to be able to add an announcement bard to the footer, we would need to change the code to the following:
"enabled_on": {
"groups": ["header", "footer"]
},5. Test Your Changes
Once you’ve saved your changes to the theme’s code, return to the Theme Editor. You might need to reload the page if it was open before editing the code.
Now your section should be available in the list.
With this small tweak, you can add custom sections to your Shopify header and footer, giving your store more flexibility and a unique look. Always back up your theme before editing, and test changes on a duplicate theme to avoid live issues.
Need more help? Feel free to reach out!