Manage product categories

How to organize your catalog into groups — Apparel, Digital, Accessories

Categories are how you group products into shopable collections. A visitor on your public store can browse by category — clicking Apparel shows every apparel product, clicking Digital shows every download, and so on. Each category has its own archive page at /product_category/<slug> with its own thumbnail and description. This is the one screen where you create, edit, and delete those groupings. Setting up your initial taxonomy takes about 3 minutes per category; a whole catalog backbone takes 10 minutes.

What is this for?

The Categories screen is your catalog taxonomy builder. You reach for it before you seed your catalog (to create the boxes products go into) and every time the shape of your store changes — launching a new line ("Outerwear"), retiring a product family, or reorganizing for a campaign.

Categories matter to shoppers because they're how people browse. A visitor who doesn't know what they want often starts at the top-level category list and narrows down. Categories also matter to SEO — each category has its own searchable archive page that can rank on Google.

Good use cases

Example 1: Setting up the initial taxonomy. On day one, before you seed any products, open Products → Categories. Create Apparel, Digital, and Accessories (three natural buckets for the QA fixture catalog). Each one gets a short description and, if you have them, a hero thumbnail. Now when you add the Tote Bag, T-Shirt, and Sticker Pack, you can pick Apparel and Accessories from their sidebar Categories card.

Example 2: Launching a seasonal collection. You're rolling out a "Summer 2026" line. Open Categories, fill Name Summer 2026, Slug auto-fills to summer-2026, write a short description, attach your season hero image, click Add new category. When you update each of the ten summer products, tick Summer 2026 in addition to their existing categories — they appear in the seasonal archive at /product_category/summer-2026 while staying in Apparel or wherever they were.

Example 3: Renaming a category without breaking URLs. You want Apparel renamed to Clothing. Click Edit on the Apparel row. Change Name from Apparel to Clothing. Leave Slug as apparel to keep existing links working. Click Update. The display name changes everywhere; the public archive URL stays /product_category/apparel.

Example 4: Retiring an old category. A category called "Pilot Program" is no longer relevant and has no products assigned. Click Delete on its row, confirm the prompt. The category is removed; its archive URL starts returning "Not found." — that's fine because nothing links there anymore.

What NOT to use this for

• Do not create deeply nested subcategories — only one level works. This screen manages a flat list of top-level categories. If you're used to parent / child category trees from other stores, that shape is not supported here.
• Do not use categories as product tags. Categories are shown on their own archive pages and appear in your public navigation. For loose, many-per-product labels like "limited edition" or "trending", stick with Categories sparingly or pair the product with a Custom Field.
• Do not delete a category that products are assigned to. Deleting the category doesn't cascade — products keep pointing to a category id that no longer exists, leaving you with products without a visible category on the public site. Reassign products first, then delete.
• Do not rename a category's Slug after launch. The Slug is part of the URL. Changing it breaks every inbound link, bookmark, and social share pointing at that archive.

How this connects to other features

• Add or edit a product — when you create a product, the Categories card in the right sidebar lists every category from this screen. You can also type a new category name in that sidebar to create it on the fly; it shows up here next time you open this screen.
• Products list — each row's Category column shows the product's assigned category / categories. Click a Category pill on a row to filter the list.
• Your store's public page — each category creates a public archive at /product_category/<slug>. The category Name is the archive's H1; the Description shows under it; the Thumbnail can be shown as a hero by your theme.
• Media Library — the Thumbnail picker opens your Media Library modal. Upload category hero images alongside product images.
• SEO → SEO Manager — category archive pages appear in the SEO Manager grid alongside products and pages. You can fill SEO Title and Meta Description for each category archive.

Before you start

• You are signed in to SGEN as an admin.
• Optional: you've uploaded your category thumbnails to the Media Library.
• Have your category names ready — picking naming conventions before you start saves cleanup later.

Where to go

1. Open the left navigation.
2. Click Store Management → Products → Categories (or open /sg-admin/ecommerce/product_categories directly).
3. The Categories screen loads as a split layout: left is the create / edit form, right is the existing categories table.

Steps — Create a category

1. Write the Name

The Name field is what shoppers and search engines see as the category name — the H1 on the archive page, the item in your top navigation if you're showing categories there, and the pill in the Products list.

Write a name that's short and obvious. Apparel beats Clothing and Apparel Products. Digital beats Digital Downloads and E-Products. If you need more context, put it in the Description.

2. Write the Slug (or let it auto-fill)

The Slug field is the URL path — /product_category/<slug>. It auto-fills from your Name (lowercased, spaces replaced with hyphens). You can overwrite it for shorter URLs — /product_category/apparel is better than /product_category/apparel-and-clothing.

Use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only. Don't change the Slug after launch — existing links break.

3. Write the Description

The Description is a short paragraph about the category — shown on the category archive page under the Name. One sentence is fine. "Apparel and wearable products" is a perfectly good description. Longer is fine too — if your category has a story or a provenance, tell it here.

4. Attach a Thumbnail (optional)

Click Choose Image next to Thumbnail. Your Media Library opens. Pick a hero image for this category. The Thumbnail is shown on the category archive page by themes that support it, and on the category card in product browse grids. Use a horizontal image for best results.

5. Click Add new category

The Add new category button sits at the bottom of the left form. Click it. The form submits, clears, and the new category appears as a row in the right table. A success message confirms.

Steps — Edit a category

6. Click Edit on the row

In the right table, each row has three actions: View / Edit / Delete. Click Edit. The left form switches to Update mode: the header changes to "Update category" and the fields fill with the category's current values.

7. Make your changes and click Update

Change any field. Click Update category at the bottom of the left form. The table refreshes with the new values; a success message confirms.

To cancel mid-edit, click the Cancel link that appears next to the Update button — the form returns to Add mode without saving.

Steps — Delete a category

8. Confirm no products use the category

Before deleting, open Products → All Products. Check every product that has this category assigned. Reassign them to a different category (or leave them unassigned if you want them to appear uncategorized on the public site).

9. Click Delete on the row

In the Categories table, click Delete on the row you want to remove. A confirmation prompt asks if you're sure. Confirm. The row disappears; a success message shows.

Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone. The category archive at /product_category/<slug> immediately starts returning a "Not found" page.

Steps — Search for a category

10. Type in the search box

A search field sits in the Categories table header. Type a category name. The list narrows to matching rows. Clear the search box to see everything again.

What success looks like

• After clicking Add new category, the new category appears in the right table with its name, description, slug, and creation time.
• A success message reading "Category has been successfully created!" appears at the top of the screen.
• Opening /product_category/<slug> in a new tab shows the archive page with the category Name as the H1 and your Description below it. Any products tagged to this category appear as a grid of product cards.
• Editing a category immediately updates the public archive page (hard-refresh if you still see the old values).
• Deleting a category removes the row from this screen and returns a "Not found" page at the archive URL on the public site.

What to do if it does not work

• Add new category reports a validation error. Name must be 2 to 50 characters. Slug, if you provide one, must be 3 to 100 characters and use only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. Description, if you provide one, must be at least 3 characters.
• My thumbnail isn't showing on the public archive page. Theme-dependent — not every storefront template displays the category thumbnail. Check your theme settings or contact your store operator.
• Deleting a category left products without a visible category label. Those products still exist; they just have no category assigned. Open each product's edit page and pick a replacement category from the sidebar.
• I typed a slug that's already in use. Slugs must be unique across categories. If you get an error, pick a different slug (add a year, a suffix, or rephrase).
• The URL of my renamed category changed and broke inbound links. Renaming a category doesn't change its Slug unless you explicitly changed the Slug field. If you changed the Slug, change it back to the original and use Name for the display change. If the old URL is lost, you can set up a Redirect from the old /product_category/<old-slug> to the new one under Redirects.

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