Creating Product Categories and Subcategories
You may sell a suite of different products, which means you’re managing different product categories, or your clients are buying different products from you. Also, you may wish to set up special promotions (e.g., winter sales) or other promotional activities that require you to manage certain products in your inventory in a specific way.
Setting up your product categories is integral to structuring your B2B portal’s backend, as it will help you populate your store faster and more effectively. This article will walk you through how you can create product categories and subcategories on your B2B eCommerce platform.
Creating Categories and Subcategories
Step 1. Go to the Product Categories menu on your Admin Dashboard.
Step 2. Click on the “New Category” button.
Step 3. On the “New category” page that opens up, fill in the necessary information, and click “Save.”
Specifically:
| Name | Add the category’s name |
| Parent category | Define the type of category you want to create. If this is a parent category, do not select a parent category from the drop-down menu. If this is a subcategory, choose its parent category it is assigned to from the drop-down menu |
| Description | Add a description for the category/subcategory, if applicable. Remember that you can adjust your text using the available formatting options  |
| Active | Check this option if the category is active. Deselect it to make it inactive |
| Discount | Set the discount percentage that applies to this category/subcategory, if applicable |
| Update discount in subcategories too | Check this box to apply the discount to the category’s subcategories too. Otherwise, leave it unchecked. Remember that this option appears only when you are editing a parent category |
| Default measurement unit | Select the default measurement unit for the category/subcategory, if applicable. To see how you can create measurement units, read our dedicated article |
Step 4. Click the “Advanced” tab to set an image for the category/subcategory, if applicable.
| Private | Check this box to make the category/subcategory private |
| Customers | Type the name(s) of the customer(s) who can access the category/subcategory on your storefront. This field will appear if you check the “Private” option |
| Privacy groups | Enter the name(s) of the privacy groups that can access the category/subcategory, if applicable. This field will appear if you check the “Private” option |
| Exclude customer(s) from accessing category | Add the name(s) of the customer(s) from whom you wish to hide this category or subcategory, if applicable |
| Subcategories inherit access settings | If this is a parent category, check this option to make its subcategories private. Otherwise, leave this option unchecked |
Remember that you can create as many categories as you wish. In addition, you can manage them through the Product Categories menu by clicking “Manage categories.” Finally, you can arrange categories and subcategories by dragging and dropping them to the desired position within the category hierarchy.
Once you create categories/subcategories, customers can see them on your storefront.
Importing Product Categories
Importing Product CategoriesYou can import and update product categories in bulk by following these steps:
Step 1. Go to Tools >Import Categories and download the sample file.
Step 2. Open the spreadsheet and fill in the necessary information. Specifically:
| name | Enter the name of the category/subcategory |
| description | Add a description for the category/subcategory, if applicable |
| meta_title | Type in the title tag of the category/subcategory, if applicable. Remember that the meta title is the element in the head section of an HTML document that defines the title of each page of a website |
| meta_description | Add the meta description to describe the category/subcategory, if applicable. This is especially useful if your online B2B store is public, as a meta description an HTML element that provides a summary of a web page |
| is active | Enter “1” if the category/subcategory is active on your B2B store, otherwise type “0” |
| discount | Insert the discount percentage that applies to this category/subcategory, if applicable |
| parent_id | If this is a subcategory, enter the parent category’s id. You can find this through the URL of the product category page when you access it on your Admin Panel, that is https:/<accountname.b2bwave.com>/admin/categories/<category id> (e.g., https://wholesaledemo.b2bwave.com/admin/categories/44) |
| parent_name | Add the name of the main product category if this is a subcategory. Otherwise, leave blank |
| image_url | Insert the category/subcategory’s image URL |
Step 3. Go to Tools >Import Categories, click “Choose File,” and “Import” to create product categories. Remember that your file should be in .xlsx format.
NOTE: You can update product categories/subcategories by going to Tools >Import Categories and clicking “Export categories.” Then, follow Steps 2&3, as described above.