Product Categories

Categories are groups of products that you wish to show on the same page in your store (for example, Women's Fashion, Men's Clothing, Bestsellers). They help customers to faster navigate through the store and find products they need. The same product can belong to multiple Categories at the same time. Read more about how to manage the Categories in your store.

Creating Categories and SubCategories

To create a new Category of the first level:

  1. Go to Catalog → Categories;
  2. Click Add Root Category;
  3. Enter the Name of your Category (edit the name of a Category anytime later. To do it, just change the text in the Name field and save the changes);
  4. Click Choose File to upload an image for your Category. Upload an image that represents your Category or an image of a product from the Category.
  5. Enter the description. Describe what kind of products are in that Category, or just leave it blank.
  6. Click Save.

To create a new subCategory:

  1. Click on Add SubCategory.
  2. Enter the Name of the new SubCategory.
  3. Click Choose File to upload an image for the Category. Upload an image that represents your whole Category or an image of a product.
  4. Enter the description. Describe what products are in that Category, or just leave it blank.
  5. Click Save.

Assigning Products to Categories

To assign multiple products to a Category:

  1. Go to Catalog → Categories;
  2. Select the Category to which you want to assign a product from the Category tree on the left;
  3. Switch to the Category products tab;
  4. Click Assign Products to Category:

5. Select the necessary items in the list. You can filter the products by SKU and Name.

6. Click Add products to assign items in bulk (or click the Plus icon to assign products one by one):

Assign a product to Categories and move a product from one Category to another right on the product's editing page.

To assign a product to a Category:

  1. Go to Catalog → Products;
  2. Open the product that you want to update;
  3. At the bottom of the page, see the Categories section and click Manage Categories;
  4. Select one or multiple Categories that you want to assign the product to (Uncheck the StoreFront page Category if you do not want this product to be featured at the store);
  5. Click Save.

See how many products are assigned to a Category in the Category tree in the store management admin in Catalog → Categories:

If one product is assigned to two or more categories, one of the categories will be marked as Default.

To change the default category:

  1. Go to Catalog → Products.
  2. Open the product you want to change the default category to.
  3. Scroll down to the Categories section.
  4. Choose the category you want to make default and click the three dots:
  5. Click Make default and click Save:

Moving Products from One Category to Another

You can manually rearrange categories for several products on theCatalog → Products or on the Catalog → Categories pages. The first option allows you to assign and remove categories in bulk.

To rearrange products on the Products page:

  1. Go to Catalog → Products.
  2. Tick all the products you want to update (you can click Filter in the upper left corner to use filters and make the search faster).

Note: You need to create at least one category in your store (on top of the default Store front page category) before it becomes possible to assign or remove categories.

3. Click Mass Update → Manage Categories → Assign or Remove Categories.

4. Tick or untick the categories in the list:

5. Click Apply.

The changes will be saved automatically. The categories will be assigned to/removed from all the selected products.

To rearrange products on the Categories page:

  1. Go to Catalog → Categories.
  2. Find the desired category in the left panel and click it.
  3. Open the Category products tab:

4. Click Remove All. They are now uncategorized and will be listed on the storefront page much like featured products.

5. Open the category where you want to move the products.

6. Open the Category products tab.

7. Click Assign Products to Category.

8. In the popup, select the products to add.

9. Click Add products:

10. These products are now listed under the desired category.

Disabling and Deleting Categories

If you wish to remove a category from your store, you can disable it or delete permanently.

Disabling a Category

When you disable a category, it stops showing in your store. At the same time, you can see it in your Ecwid admin and enable it back anytime when needed.

To disable a category:

  1. Go to Catalog → Categories.
  2. Select the category you want to disable.
  3. Click Disable:

Note: If a disabled category has enabled products, these products won't show in your catalog in the storefront.

Deleting a Category

If you wish to remove a category completely, you can delete it.

To delete a category:

  1. Go to Catalog → Categories.
  2. Select the category that you want to remove in the category tree on the left.
  3. Click Delete category:

Note: The products that were assigned to the deleted category will not be deleted. They will be moved to the Store Front page category.