Categories

Categories are your product hierarchy. When you sync, they become categories on BigCommerce and collections on Shopify. If you're used to Shopify's "collections", they're the same thing here.

Categories nest: a category can have a parent, so you can build a tree such as Apparel → Men's → Shirts. Each category exists once in Fulify and is placed on each store you assign it to, so you edit it in one place and every store gets the change.

Where to find it

Open Categories in the top navigation, or go to /categories.

The categories list

The list shows your categories as a tree:

• Click the arrow on a row to expand or collapse its subcategories. Indentation shows how deep a category sits.
• Each row shows its product count, a visibility eye (solid when visible, crossed out when hidden), and a logo for every store it's assigned to, coloured by sync status.
• Search by name, and sort by Sort Order, Name A-Z, Name Z-A, Newest First, Oldest First or Recently Updated.
• Row actions: Assign to channels, Sync to assigned channels, Edit and Delete.

Channel tabs

Above the list there's an All tab and one tab per connected store. A store's tab shows only the categories assigned to that store, with a count. Click Clear filter to go back to All.

Bulk actions

Select categories with the checkboxes and a bar appears at the bottom of the page:

• Visible and Hidden set storefront visibility on every selected category.
• Sync sends the selected categories to the store whose tab you're on. On the All tab, Sync is greyed out with the hint "Pick a channel tab to sync", so open the store's tab first.
• Channel opens Channel Assignments, with one switch per store.
• Delete.

In bulk Channel Assignments:

• On adds the selected categories to the store, together with their parent categories, so the tree stays intact.
• Off removes them and their subcategories, so nothing is left stranded.
• "3 of 5" means three are already on the store. Switch on to add the other two.

Add a category

1. On the Categories list, click New Category. The form opens at /categories/new.
2. Under Basic Information, enter a Category Name (required), choose a Parent Category (leave it empty for a top-level category) and a Sort Order.
3. Fill in SEO & Marketing, the FAQ Template and Visual & URL Settings (Custom URL Slug and Default Product Sort) as needed.
4. Under Category Settings, choose whether it's an Active category and Visible to customers. New categories start hidden.
5. To create it on your stores straight away, switch on Enable Sync under Channel Sync and pick the stores under Create it on. No store is picked for you.
6. Click Create & Sync Category, or Create Category if sync is off.

With sync off, the category is saved in Fulify only. You can assign it to stores and sync it whenever you're ready.

Edit a category

1. Click the category's name, or its Edit action, to open it at /categories/[id].
2. Change any fields. Changing Parent Category moves the category, and its subcategories, to a new place in the tree.
3. Click Save Changes. Cancel Changes puts everything back to the last saved version.

The header shows the category's parent and the stores it's on, with an Assign button if it isn't on any yet. Fulify asks before you leave with unsaved changes.

Understanding the hierarchy

The Parent Category dropdown controls nesting. It won't let you create a loop, so you can't put a category under one of its own subcategories. Use Sort Order to set the order of categories at the same level.

Field reference

SEO character counts are guides, not hard limits. The counter turns amber as you approach the recommended length (70 for the meta title, for example) and red when you go over, but you can keep typing.

Shopify Collection Mode

This decides how much of the category's Shopify collection Fulify manages:

BigCommerce ignores this setting and uses its own category tree.

Category image

The upload checks your image against the stores the category syncs to and tells you if one of them won't accept the format or size. WebP is accepted. On Shopify, the image has to be reachable when the collection syncs. If Shopify can't fetch it, the collection doesn't sync, so upload the image again or remove it, then sync.

Custom URL Slug

A new category's URL is generated from its name. After that it's fixed: renaming the category doesn't change its URL, so existing links keep working. Click Reset to generate it again from the current name.

Default Shipping Profile

If you use ShipperHQ, products in this category pick up this profile when they don't have their own. A product's own profile and its brand's profile both take precedence. See ShipperHQ.

Assign categories to stores and sync them

There are several ways to get categories onto a store:

• One category: open it and use Manage Channels in its Channel Assignments section, or the Assign to channels row action on the list. Then click Sync next to a store, or use the row's Sync to assigned channels action to push to all of them. If you have unsaved edits, Sync saves them first so the store gets what's on your screen.
• Selected categories: select them, then use Channel and Sync in the bulk bar.
• Everything at once: click Sync All at the top of the list and choose a store under Sync all categories to. This sends every category assigned to that store.

Sync All and bulk Sync run in the background. A progress banner shows how many categories have synced and failed, and you can close the tab or keep working while it runs. Parents are always sent before their subcategories. Category syncs run one at a time, so a second one waits until the first finishes. Clicking Sync All again for a store that's already syncing just shows you the run in progress. Selected categories that aren't assigned to the store you picked are skipped and counted.

For how category IDs work per store, and what happens to an existing Shopify collection, see Brands and categories on your stores.

Delete a category

1. Choose the category's Delete action, or select several and click Delete in the bulk bar.
2. If the category has subcategories, they're moved up one level rather than deleted. Confirm with Move & Delete.
3. If the category is on any store, a Category Synced to Channels warning names them. Click Delete from Fulify to go ahead.

Deleting removes the category from Fulify and unlinks it from your stores. The category itself stays on the store, so remove it there too if you no longer want it.

Bulk import

To create a lot of categories at once, or bring them in from a connected store, use Import from Store on the empty Categories page, or go to Settings → Import.

Related

• Manage brands
• Brands and categories on your stores
• Edit a product
• Sync products to a channel