How to set up categories on website

[annawalton59]

I have a gift basket business and I want to organize the baskets on my website by category. This has been the number one request and advice given to me. I once asked Square about having a categories area for items, and this was about 6 months ago. I was told they don't have that feature yet. I want to have a tab on the side that lists categories such as coffee and tea, breakfast, military, and when customers click on a category, all the baskets under that category will be displayed with the price and buy option.  I might not be understanding how they work. I thought about making a tabs at the top of my website for categories, but it would be too long to show all the categories b/c its so broad. I tried going to the help area/FAQ to figure this out, but I'm still lost. This is the only thing I haven't mastered. Can someone explain to me in easy steps how to make item categories visible on the website?

[frances_a]

Hello @annawalton59 👋

We offer the feature you are looking for! 

It was revamped recently, so the option to add them did move, but it's still possible to add categories. 

You can find out how to create and edit categories in this article. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Thank you ✨

[annawalton59]

Awesome, but question,  right now the only way to see the categories is by clicking "filters" if look at right screenshot you click filters then you see whats on the left the different categories. If you look back at the right screenshot, the top menu where you see about us blog etc, is there a way to add categories than a dropdown of the different categories vs only getting to them buy clicking on filters.

[RobynR]

@annawalton59, We're here to help, but we need more information to understand your question fully. Please provide additional details to clarify your inquiry.

[annawalton59]

I can't really clarify it any clearer if you go to most retail shops at the top of the page where you have home, about us etc, there would be another tab for categories the there's a drop down list of the categories. I'm not sure if I missed a step, but on my website on the screenshot,  you see the filters button, you have to click that, and then you see categories like food , tea etc. I consider the other things filters but not the categories themselves

[annawalton59]

Overall I want them to be able to choose categories in the navigation bar, and not my clicking the filters button 

[Katie_SQ · Accepted solution]

Hi @annawalton59,

You can have your categories display without having to press the Filter button by turning off the Sort and filter toggle from your Site Editor:

1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and go to Sales channels > Online > Website > Edit site.
2. Click the Page dropdown menu and select the Shop All page.
3. Click on the Item list section in the editing panel to open the settings, then toggle off Sort and filter.
4. Click Publish.

If you’d like to add your Shop All page and categories as sub-navigation links to your navigation:

1. To add a navigation link, click on the Navigation Bar, select Edit Links > + Add navigation link.
2. Select Shop All from the drop-down menu and enter a name for the link.
3. Tick the box that says Automatically link categories to your catalog to include links for your categories nested beneath Shop All in the navigation. If you make changes to your categories, they will be reflected here.

I hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions. 😊

[annawalton59]

THANKS, Thats exactly what I was looking for. Just one question, well rather a suggestion. If you look at the screenshot where I can preview it I have the shop by category at the top of the page, it shows all the images of all the baskets. Should it be like that? I want them to click the category then the baskets in that category to come up, which they do I just don't know that all the baskets should here also. How do I remove the images from there? I tried deleting the images from that section only (because they are still on the main homepage, but then it tells me it will delete them from everywhere) how can I do this. I hope I'm making sense.

[Katie_SQ]

Hey @annawalton59 😊

When you click "Shop by Category" in your navigation bar, it takes you to your Shop All page. This page initially displays images of all your items for sale, and visitors can then click on a category on the left-hand side to shop by category if they choose. While the Shop All page allows shopping by category, it is designed to show all items for sale when you first navigate to the page. Deleting those images/items won’t remove them from this page; it will just delete the items entirely.

If you’d like to have each category listed underneath “Shop by Category” in your navigation bar, this would allow visitors to hover over “Shop by Category”, click on one of those categories, and be taken straight to that category section. If that’s something you’d be interested in, follow the steps below:

1. To add a navigation link, click on the Navigation Bar, select Edit Links > + Add navigation link.
2. Select Shop All from the drop-down menu and enter a name for the link.
3. Tick the box that says Automatically link categories to your catalog to include links for your categories nested beneath Shop All in the navigation. If you make changes to your categories, they will be reflected here.

If you have any other questions, please let us know!

[annawalton59]

Yes I had wanted the dropdown list of categories under shop by category  I followed you prompts and it still just took me to the browse by category page w/o showing the list when hovering over shop by category. After I followed your prompts it was weird. In the website preview I would hover over shop by category and it would show the categories in the dropdown and take you straight to the categories like you said. But then, after I hit publish it was different it would show in the navigation bar shop by category, then the categories in the navigation bar as well so I just left it how it originally was.

[annawalton59]

I just left it as it was