Organizing your catalogue
Categories, collections, tags, global taxonomy, and sales channels — how products get grouped, found, and routed to the right place once they're modelled.
Modelling decides what a product is. Organizing decides where it shows up and how people find it. Keep them separate: a product's type and stock are facts; its categories and collections are presentation, and you can change them freely without touching the model.
Categories vs. collections vs. taxonomy
Three grouping tools, three jobs. People most often confuse the first two.
| Tool | What it is | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
Category | Your shop's main structure. A product has one home category. | Primary navigation: Appetizers / Mains / Desserts, or Shirts / Trousers / Shoes. |
Collection | A flexible grouping a product can belong to many of — static or rule-driven. | Merchandising: New Arrivals, Summer Sale, Staff Picks, Under 20. |
Taxonomy | A global, standard classification code. | Marketplace and feed export, cross-business search. Not your shop's navigation. |
So a product sits in one category (its home), any number of collections, and optionally one global taxonomy code. Don't stretch categories to do merchandising — that's what collections are for.
Static vs. rule-driven collections
A collection can list products explicitly (you drag them in), or define rules that include matching products automatically.
Rules are conditions on product attributes — tags, category, type, price, vendor, condition, allergens, even nested custom data — combined with and / or, using operators like equals, contains, greater than, starts with, is one of, and pattern matching.
Use rule-driven collections for anything that should stay current without manual upkeep:
- "Under 20" → price is less than 20
- "Vegan" → tag contains vegan
- "New this month" → created within the last 30 days
The collection re-evaluates as products change, so new matching products appear automatically and ones that no longer match drop out.
Tags
Tags are free-form labels — featured, bestseller, gluten-free, summer. They're cheap, flexible, and they power both search and rule-driven collections. Tag generously: most "shop by X" groupings are just a rule over a tag.
Sales channels
Channels control where a product (and a collection) is sold: in-store point of sale, the online storefront, QR ordering, marketplace, and messaging or delivery surfaces. A product can be online-only, in-store-only, or everywhere. Set channels to match where you actually sell each item, rather than exposing everything everywhere.
SEO and display
- SEO title and description — how a product page appears in search engines.
- Display mode — whether a product shows as a compact card in a grid, or warrants its own full page.
A clean setup
- Put every product in exactly one category matching your main navigation.
- Use collections (prefer rule-driven) for every "shop by" and promotional grouping.
- Tag generously so collections and search have signal.
- Set channels per product to its real selling surfaces.
- Set a taxonomy code only if you export to marketplaces or feeds.
Examples
Clothing shop. Categories: Women / Men / Kids → Tops / Bottoms / Shoes. Collections: "New In" (created in last 30 days), "Sale" (discounted), "Under 50" (price < 50), "Linen" (tag). Channels: online + in-store.
Café. Categories: Drinks / Food / Beans & Merch. Collections: "Vegan" (tag), "Seasonal". Drinks on QR + POS; beans and mugs also online.
Salon. Categories group services (Hair / Nails / Skin) and a Products category for retail. Collection "Bridal packages" (a curated set of bundles). Services on online booking + in-store; retail everywhere.
Multi-brand marketplace seller. Use the global taxonomy on each product so items export cleanly to shopping feeds, while your own categories drive the storefront navigation.
Mistakes to avoid
- Categories as merchandising. "Sale" and "New" are collections, not categories.
- Manual collections that go stale. Prefer rules so they stay current.
- Everything on every channel. Set channels deliberately; an in-store-only item shouldn't appear online.
Common questions
Can a product be in two categories? A product has one home category. For additional groupings, use collections — a product can be in as many as you like.
Do collections affect price or stock? No. They're purely presentation — grouping and surfacing. Price and stock live on the product and its variants.
What's taxonomy for if I have categories? Categories are your navigation. Taxonomy is a global standard used when exporting to marketplaces and shopping feeds. Most single-storefront merchants can ignore it.
I'm an agent. How should I auto-organize a bulk import? Assign each product a home category from its type/name, create rule-driven collections over tags and price for common "shop by" groupings, and set channels from where the merchant says each item sells. Use explicit collection membership only for hand-curated sets.
Next: Worked scenarios to see complete businesses modelled end to end.
Bundles & build-your-own
Selling several things as one line: fixed packages the merchant assembles (bundles) vs. let-the-customer-choose (build-your-own / composites). When to use each and how each is priced.
Overview
Dozens of real businesses modelled end to end, grouped by family. Pick the group closest to the business — each page shows what moves, the exact setup, and the trap to avoid.