Product Categories allow you to organize products into groups that customers can browse on the storefront.
Categories can be used for storefront navigation, product grouping, and organizing products into parent and child category structures.
This article will focus on creating and managing product categories. To learn how to assign them to products, check out the Product General Details article.
To get started, navigate to Products → Categories from the left sidebar menu.
Viewing Product Categories
The Categories page displays the categories that have been created for the store.
The category list includes:
- Category
- Image
- Products
The list also includes checkboxes for selecting categories and a drag handle on the right side of each row for reordering categories.
The order of categories in this list determines how categories are displayed on the storefront.
Creating a Category
To create a new category, click Create Category.
The category editor includes:
- Category Name
- Parent Category
- Description
- Image
- Search Engine Listing Preview
General Information
The General Information section contains the main category details.
Category Name
The Category Name is how the category appears on the storefront.
This field is required.
Parent Category
Use Parent Category to assign the category under another category.
This is used to create category hierarchies.
For example, Mens Shorts could be assigned under Mens Apparel.
This field is optional.
Description
Use Description to add additional information about the category.
The description is optional and may appear on the storefront depending on how the theme is configured.
Category Image
Use the Image section to upload an image for the category.
Category images may be used on the storefront depending on the store's theme and category display settings.
Uploaded images should follow these requirements:
- Maximum file size: 2 MB
- Allowed formats: jpg, jpeg, png, and gif
Search Engine Listing Preview
The Search Engine Listing Preview section allows you to customize how the category may appear in search engine results.
This section includes:
- Title
- Description
- URL and Handle
The URL and Handle field controls the category's storefront URL handle.
The title field will auto-populate with Category Name - Store Name.
The description field will auto-populate with the description you entered in General Information.
The URL and Handle field will auto-populate with defaultdomain.com/product-category/category-name.
Editing a Category
To edit an existing category, click the category name from the Categories list.
This opens the category editor, where you can update the category name, parent category, description, image, and search engine listing information.
When you are finished, click Update to save your changes.
Parent and Child Categories
Categories can be organized into parent and child categories.
For example, Mens Apparel could be a parent category, with child categories such as:
- Mens Shorts
- Mens T-Shirts
- Mens Jackets
Child categories can also become parent categories for additional nested categories.
If a category has child categories, click the arrow next to the category name to expand or collapse the nested categories.
Parent category relationships are managed from the category settings page using the Parent Category field.
Note: Categories cannot be nested by dragging them into each other. Dragging is used to reorder how categories are displayed.
If a product is assigned to a child category, it will also be included in the parent category.
Reordering Categories
To reorder categories, use the 6-dot drag handle on the right side of the category row.
Reordering categories affects how they are displayed on the storefront.
Deleting Categories
To delete a category, open the category editor and click Delete.
You can also select categories from the Categories list using the checkboxes and delete selected categories in bulk.
Deleting a category removes the category from any products where it is currently assigned. It does not delete the products themselves.
If a parent category is deleted, its child categories move up one level in the category hierarchy.
That's everything you need to know about Product Categories. In the next article, we will cover Managing Product Attributes.