Categories

Welcome

In this module, you will gain proficiency in managing categories within the admin console.

After completing this module, you should be able to:

• Understand the impact of categories on your website

• Recognize how dynamic categories automate the organization of large catalogs, enhancing efficiency and discovery

• Configure categories and dynamic categories effectively

• Assess how customers perceive and access categories on your website

Catalog configuration

Configuring your catalog includes the required and optional setup steps shown below.

Categories and Dynamic Categories

Categories are predefined groups for organizing products, while dynamic categories automatically adjust based on set criteria to efficiently manage and organize large catalogs. If you're a manufacturer selling industrial tools, you might have a category for 'Power Tools' with subcategories like 'Cordless Drills' and 'Impact Wrenches.'

Read the article below to learn about Categories and Dynamic Categories in Optimizely Configured Commerce.

How do I benefit from Categories?

Categories provide customers with an organizational structure that helps them find products with ease. The organizational structure set up within categories also impacts the way that Google indexes your site and therefore directly impacts search engine optimization.

Since your customers will use the category structure you apply to find the products they want to purchase, you'll need to consider the category structure (aka taxonomy) that makes sense to them. There are a few ways to accomplish this:

1. If your ERP already has an established catalog structure with product categories , syncing them with Configured Commerce ensures consistency and reduces manual work.
2. If you have a Configured Commerce site that has established product categories and you know that your customers are already able to navigate that structure, consider placing new products into these established categories.
3. If you are setting a new Configured Commerce site and you don't know what categories will resonate with your customers, try running a card sorting exercise with them. To card sort, write some category names on one set of index cards. On a separate set of index cards, write some product types (e.g. roofing nailer) and ask your participants to place the products with the categories that make the most sense to them. Look for repeating patterns in the way that people associate products with categories and use this information to set up your Configured Commerce categories. If you ask people that are your actual customers to card sort, you are more likely to glean usable data that will result in an intuitive navigation structure.

Here's how Categories feature benefits different roles:

• Merchandiser: Categories provide the means whereby customers will find each product. As a merchandiser, you can use what you know about how your customers commonly find the products they buy in order to set up the categories and subcategories that will make the most sense to them. Thus you can manage a large inventory of products with minimum effort. You can also leverage categories to cross-sell and upsell related products.
• Researcher/Buyer: As a researcher or buyer, you can use categories to look at all available product groupings and quickly find specific types of products. This will give you an overall feel for what is offered and is often the fastest way to narrow down vendors. You can also compare features, prices, and specifications of similar products, leading to informed purchasing decisions.

Create and Import Categories

Create a Category

Categories usually populate through the ERP, but let's practice a few related category activities, just in case you have a need to manually update your categories.

Visit the link below to see how to create a category manually in Optimizely Configured Commerce.

Import Categories

Using the import template is a quick way to take existing category data and bring it into Optimizely Configured Commerce. The template is pre-populated with data columns which represent the many category fields in Configured Commerce.

Before importing categories to Configured Commerce, you need to download the category template from the admin console.

Visit the link below to see how to download the category template and import it into Configured Commerce.

Storefront view

Watch this video to see how your customers could view categories in a website.

Display a featured image on a category page

Categories do not automatically contain featured images, but you can configure them for categories. Featured images appear on child and stand-alone categories only; they do not appear on parent categories.

Visit the link below to see how to display a featured image on a category page.

Storefront view

Watch this video to see how your customers could view category page images in a website.

Sort products within a category

Category Product Sorting in Optimizely Configured Commerce lets you see a comprehensive view of a website's hierarchy and set sort priority for products in each category. B2B buyers often expect custom sorting, such as by SKU, availability, or bulk pricing, and sorting can be adjusted to align with their typical purchasing behaviors.

If you set sort priority, products are sorted descending by the highest value within a category. If you do not set sort priority, products are ascending alphabetically.

Visit the link below to see how to set product sort priority.

Storefront view

The products assigned to a category will display in the category page of your site in the order you choose, which can vary between sites. If you do not set a priority, products will display in alphabetical order.

Create a Dynamic Category

Dynamic Categories use rules to determine if products are or are not displayed on its category page. The Rules Engine cycles through of a set of rules and statements resolving as either True or False, then returns the appropriate values to the Dynamic Category.

Visit the link below to see how to create and implement a new dynamic category.

Storefront view

In the storefront, Dynamic Categories and regular Categories look the same to your customers. They only differ in how they retrieve and display products.

Try it

It’s time to play in the Configured Commerce sandbox!

The following practice exercises take place in the Knowledge & Learning training site. Before jumping in, please log in to the Training site using the following credentials:

• Username: TrainingUser
• Password: Opticon1!#

After logging in, do the following:

1. Create a new category.
2. Display a featured image on your category page.
3. Assign some products to that category.
4. Sort the products within the category using Category Product Sorting.
5. Create another category.
6. Use dynamic rules to assign products to that category.
7. Delete the categories you just created.

Wrap up

Congratulations! You have completed the Categories module. You should now be able to:

• Understand the impact of categories on your website
• Recognize the influence of dynamic products on discovery
• Configure categories and dynamic categories effectively
• Assess how customers perceive and access categories on your website

Learn more

While we covered a lot, there's always more to learn about categories and how to work with them!

Check out the link below for an up-to-date collection of helpful guides and technical documentation.