Product Categories

Categories organise your product catalog into a browsable hierarchy. The web store uses categories for top-level navigation and facet filters. Categories also map to Meta taxonomy for catalog optimisation.

Category Structure

Categories are hierarchical — a category can have a parent category, creating a two-level structure (parent → subcategory). The web store shows top-level categories in the main navigation and subcategories within each section.

• Top-level category: no parent assigned. Appears as a main navigation item in the web store (e.g., Dairy, Bakery, Beverages).
• Subcategory: has a parent assigned. Appears as a filter within the parent category (e.g., Dairy → Milk, Cheese, Butter).
• Assign a product to the most specific category available (the subcategory, not the parent). The parent's breadcrumb is inferred automatically.

Creating a Category

1. Go to Catalog → Categories.
2. Click Add Category.
3. Enter a Name. This is shown in the web store navigation.
4. Optionally set a Parent Category to create a subcategory.
5. Optionally set a Sort Order to control the display sequence in navigation. Lower numbers appear first.
6. Save.

Assigning Products to Categories

• Set the category on a product via Product → Edit → Category.
• Only one category can be set per product. Choose the most specific subcategory.
• The category is also included in bulk imports — add a category column with the category name (or parent/subcategory path, e.g. Dairy / Milk).

AI Auto-Categorise

Auto-Categorise uses SIA to suggest a category for every product that has no category assigned. This is useful after a bulk import or when setting up a new catalog.

1. Go to Catalog → Categories and click Auto-Categorise.
2. SIA analyses each uncategorised product's name, description, and brand to suggest a category from your existing category list.
3. Review the suggestions in the results list. Each suggestion shows the product name and the proposed category with a confidence indicator.
4. Approve individual suggestions or select all and confirm. Auto-categorise never applies categories without your approval.

Infer Taxonomy from Catalog

Infer Taxonomy goes one step further — it analyses your entire product catalog and proposes a complete category hierarchy from scratch, rather than mapping to existing categories.

1. Click Infer Taxonomy in the Categories section.
2. SIA analyses all products and proposes a category tree with parent and subcategory names.
3. Review the proposed taxonomy. Edit names or restructure the hierarchy before confirming.
4. Click Confirm Taxonomy. Socialone creates the categories and assigns products to them. Existing categories that match the proposed names are reused; new ones are created.

Meta Taxonomy Mapping

Each product can also carry a Meta / Facebook product category for catalog ad targeting. This is a separate field from the Socialone category and uses Meta's global product taxonomy IDs. Set it on the product's Advanced / Meta Fields section.

Common Blockers

• Category not in web store navigation: only categories with at least one published product appear in the web store. Assign and publish a product to make the category visible.
• Auto-categorise not changing products: auto-categorise only suggests — it does not apply without confirmation. Review the suggestions list and confirm the ones you want.
• Cannot delete a category: reassign all products to another category first, then delete the empty one.

Related Docs

• Create & Edit Products
• Bulk Import Products
• Products on Web Store