Organizing a catalog hierarchy

Use the Category Listing page to view and manage categories, subcategories, products, and items within a catalog hierarchy.

Before you begin

  1. Open commerce lab tools. Navigate to Business Tools.
  2. Select or create an active workspace.
  3. Create a merchandised catalog from a base catalog.

About this task

The Category Listing page displays two types of categories: Inherited categories and custom categories.
Inherited categories
Inherited categories are imported from the associated base catalog. These categories are available for merchandising but cannot be renamed, deleted, or moved within the hierarchy. You can assign products and items to inherited categories.
Custom categories
Custom categories are created within the merchandised catalog to meet channel-specific merchandising requirements. You can create, edit, delete, and organize custom categories in the hierarchy. A custom category can be nested under another custom category or under an inherited category.
Note: You cannot delete a custom category that contains child categories. Remove or reassign the child categories before deleting the parent category.
Key differences:
Inherited category Custom category
Imported from the associated base catalog Created in the merchandised catalog
Read-only Editable
cannot be renamed or deleted Can be renamed and deleted
cannot be moved within the hierarchy Can be organized anywhere in the hierarchy
Available to all merchandised catalogs that use the base catalog Available only in the merchandised catalog where it is created
Can contain custom child categories Can be nested under inherited or custom categories
Note: You cannot create, edit, delete, or assign categories or products when the merchandised catalog is in the Complete stage.

Merchandised catalog stage inheritance

Newly created merchandised categories inherit the stage of the merchandised catalog.

For example, if the merchandised catalog is in the Collaborate stage, newly created merchandised categories are also created in the Collaborate stage.

When you change the merchandised catalog stage from Draft to Collaborate, all existing draft merchandised categories are automatically updated to the Collaborate stage.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to Business Tools > Catalog > Merchandising Dashboard.
  2. Open the merchandised catalog and navigate to Category Listing.
  3. On the Category Listing page, you can perform the following tasks:
    TasksActions
    Search Use Search by category name to find a category.
    View

    Select a category name to view the All products listing page.
    Assign Select Assign to assign the catalog hierarchy.
    Edit
    Note: You can edit custom categories only.
    Select the Edit icon from the Actions menu.
    Remember: You cannot edit Category name.
    Delete
    Note: Deleting a custom category is permanent.
    Select the Delete icon from the Actions menu.
    Remember: You can delete only custom categories that have no assigned products or child categories. You cannot delete inherited or published categories.
    Create Category
    Note: You can create custom categories only. The Create Category button is not visible when the merchandised catalog is in the Complete stage.
    Select Create category.
    Digital assets
    • Enter Digital Assets URL in the URL Path.
    • Select a Usage from the dropdown options. The available dropdown options are:

      No Usage

      Images

      Thumbnail

      Swatch Image

      Full-size Image

      Thumbnail angle

      Full-size angle

      Media

      Document

      User Manual

      Warranty

      Other
    Parent category Select parent category.
    Multi-language Input Select Multi-language Input. The number of selected languages appears in the upper-right corner.
  4. Advance the merchandised catalog from Draft to Approve by selecting the following sequence:
    Move to Collaborate (In Progress) > Move to Complete (In Review) > Approve (Ready to Publish).
    Important: The Move to Collaborate, Move to Complete, and Approve actions are available only when you use the Default Catalog Workflow template. If you use the Auto-Approved Workflow template, these actions are not displayed.
    Note: If you select Reject, the merchandised catalog approval request is rejected. The merchandised catalog stage changes from Complete (In Review) to Collaborate (In Progress).