Organizing your products into categories helps streamline navigation and makes it easier for website visitors to find what they’re looking for in your store.
Why Categories Matter
Required for Products: Every product must belong to at least one category. You’ll need to create a category before adding products.
Site Navigation: Categories serve as key navigation points on your website’s frontend, helping users browse through your products efficiently.
Getting Started:
To create or manage categories, head to:
Backend Navigation: Ecommerce > Ecommerce Settings > Categories
The categories list displays:
Product category name
Parent category (if applicable)
Icon
Active Status
Action options: Edit, View Frontend, and Delete (in the carat)
Add a New Ecommerce Category
Select the Add Product Category button in the top right corner:
Enter Fields:
When creating a new category, you’ll be prompted to complete the following fields:
Category Name – The title of your category (e.g., Sponsorships, Publications).
Parent Category (Optional) – Nest categories under a broader umbrella (e.g., "Books" under "Publications").
Description (Optional) – Provide additional details to help users understand the category.
Icon (Required) – Displays alongside the category name. Choose something visually relevant.
Featured Image (2400 x 1000) – Displayed prominently if the category is marked as featured. If left blank, a default image will be used.
Make a Product Category Active or Inactive
Select the toggle in the upper right corner to make the Category Active:
Alternately, click the icon in the Active column in the list of Product Categories:
Tip: If a category is inactive, no products assigned to that category will display on the frontend.
Category Visibility
Control who can see it by setting visibility rules for each category:
Public – Anyone can view.
Members with Benefits Only – Limit access to logged-in members with benefits.
Specific Groups/Committees – Restrict visibility to designated groups or committees.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Friendly File Name
Each category will have a Friendly File Name, which becomes its unique URL (e.g., /products/category-name). The page title and friendly file name auto-populate when entering the category name.
Use this to share direct links to pre-filtered product lists on your site or in email campaigns.
Advanced Sharing Options
Enabling Advanced Sharing Options lets you fine-tune the content’s appearance when it’s shared on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and X (Twitter).
These settings override the default SEO data to ensure your post is optimized for social media platforms.
View Categories on Frontend
To see what these look like on the frontend of your site, click the View Product Categories button in the upper right corner, or click the link next to the specific category:
This opens up the frontend product page in a new tab. Filter by specific categories to see the filtered views:
