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Catalog management refers to management of product categories which is a separate topic to product information management (PIM). Best way to think about catalog management is classification of products, where categories act as groups for products with some defining features. For example if we consider fashion products we may encounter top level classifications such as "Men", "Women" and "Kids" with each one further refined. Women category could contain "dresses", "tops" and so on and each one of these can be further subclassed to fulfil business requirements. Classification does not necessarily have to represent a feature of the products contained within it. For example category "sale" can represent a mix of products that need to be classified as items on sale. Thus a product can be classified as say "Women / Dress" but also as a "Sale" item. Products in YC can have multiple category assignments thus it is possible to list (or rather classify) product under several categories.
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Essentially YC allows building hierarchy as your business requires so that categories can be used as classification of products that the business sells. This classification is not however necessarily what the customers on the website sees, because the "shop catalog" (i.e. customer facing catalog) is defined by shop catalog assignments.
When shops are being configured categories from master catalog are picked to become top level categories in the shop. If chosen category has sub categories the shop that assigns it will automatically inherit that branch of hierarchy. Thus it is possible to "pick & mix" various branches from the master catalog which then collectively become shop specific catalog. If you have multiple shops and one sells only electronics then third level categories "pc", "laptops" and "tables" can be directly assigned thus making only that part of master catalog available in that specific shop. Say another shop sells "Electronics" and "Fashion" only then second level category can be assigned (excluding "Home & Garden" products). More complex example when a shop sells "PC" from "Supplier A" and "Fashion" products from "Supplier B".
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Benefits of this approach is that once products are added to any category they become available to all shops provided those shops have stock and define a selling price for products contained in those categories.
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With this setup master catalog hierarchy is configured in accordance to category structure of "shop C". However each category declares linking categories to vendors. This allows all products loaded by vendors into categories "shop A" and "shop B" to be available in "pc" category as well. All "shop A" and "shop B" categories need to be assigned to "shop A" and "shop B" shop instances respectively, so that vendors will have access to master catalog and be able to import products and use PIM section.
As can be seen from examples above the master catalog mechanism is very flexible and category hierarchy organisation strategy is heavily dependent on the business requirements. Hence we would like to stress the point that analysing your business and choosing the right strategy for master catalog is very important.
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| Some examples of these concepts can be seen in search and navigation categories section |
Category management
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Once the master catalog hierarchy is established categories can be assigned to shops.
Managing category
Category editor contains a number of tabs providing a focused view of the category data.
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Parent field that defines the position of given category in hierarchy. Note that the parent can be changed thus "moving" category to a different location in hierarchy and keeping all settings.
Code is used by import and is optional, since if left blank it will be auto generated. For catalogs that involve manual management (i.e. not imported from third party systems) It is recommended to create codes manually as this will make referencing categories easier in catalog and product import files.
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- if template is specified use it; otherwise
- if there are products available and product type search template is configured use it; otherwise
- if there are products available then choose product listing rendering; otherwise
- if there are sub categories then choose category listing; otherwise
- simple category rendering.
You can override this mechanism by providing specific template to use by given category (i.e. using rule #1). The following template keys can be used out of the box from the default storefront theme.
| Template | Version | Description | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| products | 3.0.0+ | Default behaviour (category with products), display products listed in this category | ||||||
| category | 3.0.0+ | Default behaviour, display category description in the page's main body | ||||||
| subcats | 3.0.0+ | Default behaviour (category with sub categories), display category description in the page's main body | ||||||
| catcontent |
| Uses category description field as placeholder for content URI. Body of this content is displayed in page's main body |
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| Custom themes can define more templates that can provide alternative behaviours |
SEO
SEO tab provides settings for values such as title and meta tags and URI. URI refers to last part of the URL to category page. By default all categories map to the following pattern:
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| Configuration | Version | Description | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| brands | up to
| flag enables brands filtered navigation block. Brand values are accumulated from products that are assigned to given category (and its sub categories if "search in sub categories" flag is enabled). Note that in versions 3.4.0+ brand value is "proxied" by brand attribute so that it can be added to generate attributes filter navigation block and thus use some of the features such as sorting and alternative naming | ||||||
| price | flag + per currency price range settings enable price filtered navigation block. The configurations are set using "price tiers edit" button. The tiers have to be set for each currency separately. This is not limitation of YC but rather best practices approach. Business marketing department has to set correct ranges for product prices that will be balanced and will be suitable to target customer groups. For example if there are many products grouped with middle tier prices it would make sense to create "up to X" price range, then make granular ranges for middle range prices and then last range to have "more than X". Another reason is there are sometime "gaps" in price ranges thus creating 0 counts, so marketing department may choose to group this range with adjacent one to prevent 0 value ranges. Sometimes it makes sense to create different ranges based currency since currency may refer to geo location customer group with different price perception due to local mentality. Price range counts are accumulated from products prices that are assigned to given category (and its sub categories if "search in sub categories" flag is enabled). | |||||||
| attributes | flag enables attribute filtered navigation blocks that require default category product type to determine which attributes should be part of the navigation. For each attribute a separate navigation block will be created subject to sorting and navigation rules defined by selected product type. Attribute values are accumulated from products that are assigned to given category (and its sub categories if "search in sub categories" flag is enabled). |
Attributes
As stated in the attributes management section attributes allow to add additional data to category object. Some of these represent flags and configurations used on the storefront.
| Attribute | Version | Purpose | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category Description (multiple attributes) | 3.0.0+ | Allows to set long descriptions that are language specific. In default theme this is used by simple category rendering template as body of the page | ||||||
| Quantity of featured items | 3.0.0+ | Number of products in featured item component. In default theme this is used by category featured products template | ||||||
| Quantity of new arrival items | 3.0.0+ | Number of products in new arrivals tab. In default theme this is used by category new arrival tab template | ||||||
| New arrival tag days offset | 3.0.0+ | Number of days in the past for product to be identified as new arrival product if it does not have "newarrival" tag. In default theme this is used by category new arrival tab template to determine which products to show | ||||||
| Items per page CSV | 3.0.0+ | Pagination settings for category with products. In default theme this is used by product lister category template to display options for number of products to be displayed on a single page | ||||||
| Category sort options CSV | 3.0.0+ | Product sorting settings for category with products. In default theme this is used by product lister category template to display options for products sorting for listing or search result | ||||||
| Search include sub categories | 3.0.0+ | Flag that allows to alter search engine behaviour. If this is set to "on" then listing or searching products in this category will also include products from sub categories. | ||||||
| Quantity of category pods in one row on category page | 3.1.0+ | Quantity of product pods in one row to show on category page | ||||||
| Quantity of category pods in one row on category page | 3.1.0+ | Quantity of category pods in one row to show on category page | ||||||
| Filter navigation records limit | 3.2.0+ | Filter navigation records limit per group. Default is 25. If there are less records than limit they are alphabetically sorted, otherwise sorted by most hits descending and over the limit are discarded | ||||||
| Flag to exclude this category from meganav |
| Used by YCE default theme to skip this category when rendering mega nav |