Categories

Categories organize products into a hierarchy that buyers can browse. A path such as Home, Lighting, Table lamps describes where a product belongs in your navigation.

Build a useful tree

A root category has no parent. A child category refers to its parent by ID. Choose a depth that helps a buyer narrow their choice; a category with one child and no useful distinction usually adds another click without helping discovery.

Products can belong to more than one category. Decide explicitly which nodes should list a product. Do not assume assigning a leaf also assigns every ancestor.

Membership and presentation

Set category membership through the product update input. Use category product reordering for deliberate merchandising order. Read current membership before submitting a reorder, and use the operation’s documented input semantics. A concurrent synchronization may have added or removed products since the page loaded.

Use the category ID for durable relationships and its slug for a managed storefront URL. If you change a slug used in URLs, handle redirects in your storefront.

Storefront behavior

Load category metadata for headings and navigation, then load products with the same store and price context as other product lists. Membership does not override a product’s publication or availability rules. An empty category can mean that none of its products is visible in the current context.

Use collections for a campaign that should not alter the browse hierarchy. Follow Organize a catalog to create both structures.