Product Categories and Organization – Pulse Commerce Help Center

Learn how to create and manage product categories to organize your inventory. Categories help you structure your product catalog for easier management and, if you use a storefront, provide navigation and browsing options for customers. This guide covers both basic category organization and advanced storefront display features.

For OMS-Only Merchants: If you're using Pulse as a backend Order Management System without a storefront, you only need to focus on creating categories for organization. You can skip the storefront display sections (Short/Long Descriptions, Display Formats, Navigation Images, SEO settings).

🗂️ Creating and Managing Categories

Create a New Category

1Navigate to Products → Category Editor

2Click Add New Category

3In the Category Editor, enter the Name for your category

4Check the Visible checkbox to make the category visible on storefront

5(Optional - Storefront only) Complete additional fields if using a storefront:

Short Description: Brief description displayed in category lists
Long Description: Detailed description on category page
Category Footer: Content displayed at bottom of category page
Page Title: Text displayed in browser title bar
Display Category Format: Choose Format 1-5 (see Display Formats section)
Navigation Images: Upload images for category navigation

6Click Add New to create the category

Note: After creating a category, you can access the Intelligent SEO tab to add meta tags and SEO settings for storefront optimization.

Create Subcategories

Subcategories help you organize products hierarchically (e.g., Electronics → Laptops → Gaming Laptops).

1In Category Editor, click on the parent category name

2Click Add New Subcategory

3Complete the same fields as creating a regular category

4Click Add New

Tip: You can create multiple levels of subcategories to match your product taxonomy (e.g., Clothing → Men's → Shirts → T-Shirts).

Edit or Delete Categories

To edit a category:

1In Category Editor, locate the category

2Click Edit in the Actions column

3Make your changes

4Click Update

To delete a category:

1Select the checkbox next to the category name

2Click Delete in the Actions column

3Confirm the deletion

Important: Before deleting a category, reassign products to other categories or they may become difficult to find in your catalog.

Change Category Sort Order

Control the order categories appear in lists and navigation:

1In Category Editor, locate the Sort Order column

2Enter a numeric value for each category (lower numbers appear first)

3Click Update at the bottom of the page

Tip: Use increments of 10 (10, 20, 30) to make it easier to insert new categories between existing ones later.

🔗 Assigning Products to Categories

Assign Products to Categories

Products can be assigned to up to 20 categories each.

1Navigate to Products → Product Catalog Manager

2Search for the product and click Edit

3In the Product Editor, scroll to the Categories section

4Click Add New

5In the Add/Edit Category popup, select the category from the dropdown

6Enter a Sort Order number (controls product order within the category)

7Click Save

8Repeat steps 4-8 to add the product to additional categories

9Click Update to save all changes

Edit Category Assignments

1In the Product Editor, hover over an existing category assignment

2Click the Edit icon

3Modify the category, sort order, or featured status

4Click Save

Remove Category Assignments

1In the Product Editor, hover over the category assignment

2Click the X (Delete) icon

3Confirm the deletion in the popup

4Click Update to save changes

Bulk Category Assignment via Import/Export

For assigning many products to categories at once, use the Product Import/Export feature:

1Navigate to Import Export → Product Export

2Export products with the Category column included

3Edit the CSV file using this format:

Category Format:
Category1;SubCat1;SubSubCat1^Yes^1|Category2;SubCat2^No^2

Format breakdown:

Semicolon (;) separates category levels
Caret (^) separates category hierarchy from settings
Yes/No indicates Category Featured status for storefront display
Number is the sort order within that category
Pipe (|) separates multiple category assignments

4Save the CSV file

5Import via Import Export → Product Import

Important: Products can be assigned to a maximum of 20 categories. Imports attempting more than 20 category assignments per product will be rejected. At least one category assignment is mandatory for each product.

🎨 Storefront Category Display Features

For OMS-Only Merchants: This entire section applies only to storefront display. If you're not using a Pulse storefront, you can skip this section.

Category Display Formats

Pulse Commerce supports 5 different category display formats that control how products and categories appear on your storefront:

Format 1 - Sequential Display:

Displays category with long description
Shows subcategories with short descriptions
Featured products displayed first, then normal products
Bold line separates featured from normal products

Format 2 - Similar to Format 1:

Main category with long description
Subcategories with short descriptions
Featured products first, then normal products

Format 3 - Amazon-style Layout:

Systematic category and subcategory display with borders
Category-specific search box
Featured products followed by normal products

Format 4 - Branded Headers:

Allows different header sections for each category
Display customized logos and page headers per category
Option to open category in new window

Format 5 - Guided Navigation:

Associated with Guided Navigation add-on module
Robust filtering technology for faster product discovery
Works with Enterprise Search for enhanced user experience

Tip: Hover over each format option in the Category Editor to see visual examples before selecting.

Additional Storefront Settings

Configure how categories appear in navigation and search results through these settings:

Navigation Layout Settings:

Navigate to Settings → Navigation Layout to configure:

Top navigation menu structure
Left navigation display options
Category menu positioning

Guided Navigation Settings:

Navigate to Settings → Guided Navigation for advanced filtering options (requires add-on module).

Display Settings:

Navigate to Settings → General Settings → Display Settings to configure:

Number of products per category page
Category thumbnail settings
Hide subcategories option

Rebuild Category Navigation

After making category changes, rebuild the storefront navigation to display updates:

1Navigate to Products → Category Editor

2Scroll to the bottom of the page

3In the Rebuild Top-Down Category Navigation section, click Rebuild Site Top Menu

Important: Category changes (adding, deleting, renaming, reordering) won't appear on your storefront until you rebuild the site top menu. Make this a habit after any category modifications.

📤 Bulk Category Management (Import/Export)

Export Categories

1Navigate to Import Export → Category Export

2Configure export options (if available)

3Click Export

4Download the CSV file containing all category data

Import Categories

Use Category Import to create or update multiple categories at once:

1Prepare your CSV file using the exported template format

2Navigate to Import Export → Category Import

3Click Choose File and select your CSV

4Review import settings

5Click Import

See also: For detailed category import instructions including field formats and examples, see our Category Import Guide.

View Products in a Category

Quickly see all products assigned to a specific category:

1In Category Editor, locate the category

2Click Products in the Actions column

3The Product Catalog Manager opens filtered to show only products in that category

Tip: This filtered view is helpful for bulk editing products within a specific category or verifying product assignments.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to create categories if I'm only using Pulse for backend order management?

While not required, we strongly recommend creating categories even for OMS-only use. Categories help organize your product catalog for easier inventory management, reporting, and finding products quickly in the admin panel. You can ignore all the storefront-specific fields (descriptions, display formats, images, SEO) and simply create category names for organizational purposes.

How many categories can a single product be assigned to?

A product can be assigned to up to 20 categories. This allows flexible product organization - for example, a red women's t-shirt could be in "Women's Clothing," "T-Shirts," "Red Items," and "Sale Items" simultaneously. Use the Product Import/Export feature for bulk category assignments.

What's the difference between categories and product groups?

Categories are used for organizing your entire product catalog and creating storefront navigation structure. They're hierarchical (categories and subcategories) and every product should be assigned to at least one category. Product Groups are storefront-only display features for showing related products together on a single page without affecting your core catalog structure. See our Product Groups for Storefront Display guide for details.

Why don't my category changes appear on the storefront?

After making any category changes (adding, deleting, renaming, or reordering categories), you must rebuild the site top menu for changes to appear on your storefront. Go to Products → Category Editor, scroll to the bottom, and click "Rebuild Site Top Menu" in the Rebuild Top-Down Category Navigation section.

Can I create unlimited subcategory levels?

Yes, Pulse Commerce supports multiple levels of subcategories (e.g., Apparel → Women's → Outerwear → Jackets → Winter Jackets). However, from a usability perspective, we recommend limiting to 3-4 levels deep to avoid overly complex navigation that can confuse customers.

What is the MarkUp field used for in the Category Editor?

The MarkUp field sets a percentage used to calculate sales prices for products in that category if actual sales prices aren't specified. The calculation is: cost + (cost × markup). For example, if a product costs $10 and the category markup is 0.1 (10%), the sale price will be $11. This is useful for automatically pricing products when you primarily track cost rather than retail price.