Creating Categories

You can create Categories to add your products to by going to: Store Catalog > Categories.

Categories are used to compartmentalize your products and give them organization. If you are using an integrated wholesaler, your site will already have a category hierarchy. You can add as many categories to this hierarchy as you like.

There are two different types of categories:

  • Static Categories: will only display the products the store admin has assigned to it. 
  • Dynamic Categories: will allow you to select criteria for the products that you’d like to appear in that category.

How to create a Static Category

Creating a static category in the admin is a very straight forward process:

  1. Select Static Category
  2. Select where you want to want to create your static category
  3. Click on New Category

How to create a Dynamic Category

With dynamic categories, you can choose the criteria that determine which products should be included in that category. To create a new dynamic category, navigate to "Store Catalog" followed by "Categories" and choose the "Dynamic Category" option.

Creating a dynamic category in the admin is a very straight forward process:

  1. Select Dynamic Category
  2. Select where you want to want to create your Dynamic category
  3. Click on New Category

This documentation will show you how to add products to your new dynamic category:
Dynamic Category Product Selection

  1. Name - Name your category.
  2. Description - Put a description of your category, which will show on the category page.
  3. Short Description - Enter a short description of your category that will display on your page.
  4. Product Criteria - Select what products you want to be in this dynamic category
  5. Default Sort Order - Choose how your products are sorted.
  6. Sort Order Override - Override the sort order.
  7. Display Template - Change how the products in your category are displayed.
  8. Icon - The icon for your category which will show on your category page.
  9. Banner - Choose a banner that will show up on your category page.
  10. HTML - Provide HTML coding to enhance your category page.
  11. Show Title - Show the title of the category on the category page.
  12. Hide Category - Hide the category from your category menu.
  13. SEO & Meta Data - Enter information to enhance your SEO and findability.

Creating a Category via Spreadsheet

You can also create a category via a Product Import/spreadsheet. To do so, you will only need two columns: sku & category.

You can add skus to multiple categories by just tweaking your spreadsheet. Under the category column, list out all the categories you want them to appear in, using the semi-colon ";" to separate them.

For example "Office Supplies>Paper & Printable Media>Resume/Stationery Paper;Paper>Premium Writing Paper; Technology>Tools" This will put it in both the "Premium Writing Paper" sub-category and the "Tools" category.

When you get to the Product Importer you will want to unchecked the "Adhere To Managed Flags" and check "Add New Categories".

Below is a sample spreadsheet.

Supporting Documentation

For a more detailed description of the functionality of the features found in this section of the admin as well as the definitions for the terminology used, please visit the following link(s):

Category_Spreadsheet.xlsx