Categories and subcategories

Group your products in two levels so customers can narrow the catalogue down.

Categories are optional: a shop can sell everything from one list. Add them when the catalogue is long enough that a customer would want to filter it. A category can hold subcategories, and those cannot hold any, so there are two levels.

1. Open Categories in the admin.
2. Type a name in New category and press Add category. To make a subcategory, pick its parent in Inside category. The default, "Nothing: a top-level category", creates a top-level one.
3. Use Rename to change a name or to move a category into another one.
4. Order them with the up and down arrows or by dragging. A row moves among its own siblings only, never across a parent.
5. Assign products on the product form with Category, or set the category in your import file.

Categories in the import

• Categories named in the file are created if they do not exist. The preview lists them under "New categories, created on import".
• Write "Kites > Line" in the Category cell to mean a category and a subcategory. The separator can be >, › or ».
• If you map a Subcategory column, even an empty one, the category cell is read whole and nothing is split.
• Three levels, a missing level, or a subcategory with no category beside it are row errors: that row is skipped and the rest imports.

Good to know

• Each category has an on and off switch. Off, it leaves the catalogue, and the active products and subcategories inside it are switched off with it. Switching it back on restores only what that switch turned off.
• To delete a category you say what happens to its products (move them or leave them with no category) and, if it has subcategories, whether to keep or delete them. Products are never deleted with it.
• Your customers see the categories as a row of chips, starting with Everything, each with the number of active products behind it. Opening a category shows a second row with its subcategories and an All of chip to go back to the whole category.
• Category names are your own text. They are not translated when you change the language.