Categories

To add or edit a Category, follow these steps:

1. Go to Products > Categories in the IRP Admin left navigation menu.
2. To add a new Category, click the Add New Category button at the top of the page.
   To edit an existing Category, click the Edit button at the right side of the Category that you want to edit. Alternatively, click the Add New Category button at the top of the CategoriesEdit.aspx page.
3. You can enter or edit the following details for a Category. Select the Category Information and SEO tabs on this page to open the corresponding sections. Data that you enter on previous tabs will be saved during the session but you must click the Insert Category or Update Category button to save the details indefinitely.

   Category Information Tab

   Setting	Description
   Basic Category Details
   Category ID	The unique IRP identifier for this Category. This is generated automatically when you add a Category.
   Active	Active Categories will be visible to customers on the front end of the website. Inactive Categories will not be visible to customers. Note that Category must be included in the Category structure to be visible on the front end of the website.
   Name	The name of the Category that will appear on the front end of the website. Click the Translate link and you can translate the name into any active language in your system. You can also select a gender for the name, if appropriate (masculine, feminine or no gender).
   Level	The level at which this Category appears. The lowest-level Categories will be product-level Categories. Please see the main Categories article for further information on Category levels.
   Models	(This value will be present only when editing a Category and will be generated automatically). The number of active models in this product-level category.
   Listing Type	(This setting will be present only when you select ‘Sub-Department (3)’ for the previous ‘Level’ setting). This overrides the application setting for Level 3 Categories (Set Sub Department Listing Type), allowing you to show either the full list of products underneath a category, or an image-based list of sub categories. You can opt to keep the application setting value by selecting ‘Use Application Setting’. Here is an example (with placeholders for images) of a category displaying the sub categories:
   Category Description Top
   Description Top	Top Category Descriptions appear at the top of the Categories.aspx page. Note that you can show the top description either independently from, or at the same time as, the description at the bottom of the page.
   Category Description
   Description	Category descriptions appear at the bottom of the Categories.aspx page, below the Models of the Category and beside the Category image (if added). Note that you can show the description either independently from, or at the same time as, the description at the top of the page.
   Auto Generate Short Description	Check to automatically generate the short description for this Category based on its long description. Note that there is an Application Setting (in the 'Models Page' grouping) called 'Short Description Max Length' - if the value of this Setting is set to anything greater than 250, it will be automatically set to 250 as that is the maximum allowed length for a Category Short Description.
   Additional Information
   You can use this section to provide, for example, ingredient details, additional product information, or for any reason you desire. This will be shown in the same area as the product description and any other sections you have configured such as Reviews, Q&A, Price Match Requests, etc. See the Models and Kits topics for more information.
   Additional Information 1 Tab Title	The title that you enter here will be used as the title of the Additional Information 1 tab/section (depending on the display style Application Settings you have configured) for any Models under this Category. This title overrides the Small Translation title (ID 2664) and is overridden by any Model-specific Additional Information 1 titles. You can 'Translate' the title into any active language in your system.
   Additional Information 2 Tab Title	The title that you enter here will be used as the title of the Additional Information 2 tab/section (depending on the display style Application Settings you have configured) for any Models under this Category. This title overrides the Small Translation title (ID 2665) and is overridden by any Model-specific Additional Information 2 titles. You can 'Translate' the title into any active language in your system.
   Image
   Upload New Image	Browse to locate and upload a new image for his category. This logo will be resized automatically and inserted in the relevant Category Image sub-folders in the File Management section.
   Other Information
   Postage Weight (g)	The overriding Postage Weight of Products within this product-level Category. If you set a value here, it will be overridden by any Postage Weight values set at a Stock level.
   Postage Weight Volumetric (g)	The overriding Volumetric Postage Weight of Products within this product-level Category. If you set a value here, it will be overriden by any Volumetric Postage Weight values set at a Stock level.
   Enable Price Match for Category	Customers can request Price Matches for Models in this Category. The Price Match functionality will not be available for Models in this Category if you disable this option.
   Show Category in Site Map	Determines whether Category appears in the Site Map. Only product-level Categories will be visible on the Site Map.
   Display Image Zoom Hover Box	Displays a zoom box when images of Models in this Category are hovered over. This zoom box will appear on the front end Models page, for example: Note: See also How to Manage Model Images in Carousels and Pop-Ups.
   Is Gift Wrappable	Check this box if the item should be available for gift wrapping. This can also be configured at the model and stock level. For more details, see How to Manage Gift Wrapping.
   Amazon Pay Restricted	Determines whether Models within this Category are available for purchase via Amazon Payments. Restrictions apply to the items that can be paid using Amazon Payments (e.g. weapons). – Select 'Yes' if Models in this Category cannot be purchased via Amazon Payments. – Select 'No' if Models in this Category can be purchased via Amazon Payments and to override any Brand rules. – Leave as 'Inherit' if this item should adhere to any Brand Rules there may be for Models within the Category.
   Exclude From Finance	This setting defines whether all products in this category should be excluded from Finance. If you select 'Yes' then customers who have items from this category in their basket will not be able to select finance options at checkout. (Note that you can also set this value at the brand level. You can use override settings on models (ModelsEdit.aspx) and stock (StockEdit.aspx) which, by default, are set to inherit the brand/category value but can be explicitly set to be excluded from finance.)
   Default Sort By	If provided, this sort option will be used on the Categories.aspx page when this category is selected, overriding the Application Setting called 'Sort By Default Categories Page' (in the 'Product Listing' grouping). It will also be used on the BrandCategories page, taking precedence over both the Application Setting called 'Sort By Default Brand Category Page' (also in the 'Product Listing' grouping) and the 'Default Sort By' of the Brand. Select from the following options in the drop-down list: Inherit: The default sort order will inherit the value of the 'Sort By Default Categories Page' Application Setting. Sales Rank: The default sort order will be best selling products. Price: The default sort order will be price (low to high). Price DESC: The default sort order will be price (high to low). Discount: The default sort order will be discount (low to high). Discount DESC: The default sort order will be discount (high to low). Brand: The default sort order will be product (A - Z). Brand DESC: The default sort order will be product (Z - A). Category: The default sort order will be category (A - Z). Category DESC: The default sort order will be category (Z - A). Rating DESC: The default sort order will be customer reviews. Newest DESC: The default sort order will be newest. Default: The default sort order will be governed by the value of the model-specific setting called Default Sort Order (in the 'Other Model Information' section of the ModelsEdit.aspx page). That setting allows you to precisely control the positioning of individual models on listings pages. (If any model has a blank 'Default Sort Order' value, the sorting will fall back on the sales rank but any models that do have a 'Default Sort Order' value will display above those that don't.) See How To Add or Edit a Model for more details).
   Desktop Model Images Display Style	If provided, this value will be used as the model images desktop display style for models in this category. Select 'inherit' to use the default Application Setting value. Note that this value can be overridden at the model level.
   Product Listing Colour Swatch Attribute	This determines which attribute represents colours (as used by the colour swatch functionality) for all products in this category. This value inherits from the 'Product Listing Colour Swatch Attribute ID' Application Setting value (in the 'Product Listing' grouping) when a specific attribute is not selected. Note that this value can also be overridden at the model level, thus allowing different models/categories to use different attributes for their swatches. The drop-down list of available attributes is populated from all available 'Is Colour' attributes (see Attributes).
   Advanced Information
   Average Profit Margin (%)	The Average Profit Margin percentage for Products in this Category.
   Commission Group	This value sets the Commission Group that this category belongs to (for example, this could be used for Affiliate Window (SWIN) tracking). The string values that you enter here should correspond to the string values set within Affiliate Window to flag different commission rates for specific Categories. NOTE that you can override the 'DEFAULT' Commission Group for Affiliate Window when a voucher has been used on the order by setting the text in the Application Setting called 'Affiliate Marketing Voucher Commission Group'. If there is already an existing category Commission Group and it falls into the scenario where it will use this Application Setting, it will combine both by using this text followed by a '-', followed by the category-specific Commission Group ('ApplicationSettingText-CategoryCommissionGroupText').
   WebGains Affiliate Marketing Event ID	This is the WebGains Affiliate Marketing Event ID associated with this Category. If this is left blank, the following values will be used instead: – The value of the 'Web Gains Affiliate Marketing Override Event ID' Shipping Country Setting. If this is empty, then: – The value of the 'Webgains Affiliate Marketing Default Event ID' Application Setting will be used. WebGains Affiliate Marketing “connects you with the right customers fast ... [they] match brands with the best editorial and publishing partners to put clients ahead of the pack and boost sales.” You enable this feature using the 'Enable Webgains Affiliate Marketing' Application Setting which then renders tracking scripts on all landing pages. The WebGains conversion script is also placed on all relevant order confirmation pages. For more information, search for 'WebGains' within the Application Settings help topic and also see the Shipping Countries help topic.
   Category External	A secondary/external name for the Category. For example, the Category Mountain Bikes may be referred to as MTB by retailers or suppliers. This value is used in integrations where secondary names are used.
   Harmonisation System Code	The HS Code or Commodity Code that applies to this category of products. Commodity codes classify goods for import and export. These can be input at the category, model or stock level in the IRP. If populated, they can be to sent in integrations to Shipping Carriers for inclusion in shipping labels or electronic customs declarations.
   Customs Description Of Goods	For customs purposes, enter the appropriate Description Of Goods for this category. Note that this setting is also available at the Model level. This data will be used to auto-populate the 'Description of Goods' text box on the OrdersAutoDispatch.aspx page by compiling the distinct values into a comma-separated value so that Admin users do not need to manually enter the Description of Goods at dispatch time. See Auto Dispatch Orders for more information.
   Inactive Redirect Type	If the Category is inactive, you can put the following redirects in place: No Redirect — No redirect occurs. Redirect To ID — A search is performed based on the Inactive Redirect Parameter. You should enter a different Category ID for the Inactive Redirect Parameter. Redirect To Search — A search is performed based on the Inactive Redirect Parameter.
   Inactive Redirect Parameter	The value used for redirects when Redirect To ID or Redirect To Search is selected for Inactive Redirect Type.

   
   

   SEO Tab

   Setting	Description
   SEO Page Data
   The values entered in this section will be used to populate the meta tags: Title, Description and Keywords (specialized HTML tags that contain data about the contents of a website or webpage) for the corresponding Category. The order in which translated Category text is used is: Translation SEO > Translation Name > English SEO > English Name. SEO consultants can tailor the information contained here to increase search engine rankings, etc. All values are limited to 250 characters and you can translate them into available languages.
   Title	This will appear in the title bar or current tab of your web browser when on the Category page.
   Description	This brief description will appear under the URL when returned by a search engine. It should contain information on the Store and Category.
   Keywords	This should contain keywords that are relevant to the Store and Category, each separated by a comma. These will be indexed as meta data which will help potential customers to find your site using search engines.
   Trade SEO Page Data
   (Applicable only if you have the Trade site enabled.) These settings fulfil the same function as those for the standard desktop site.



4. When you have entered or edited all the details, click the Insert Category or Update Category button.
5. You can now enter information on the remaining tabs:

   Setting	Description
   Shipping Restrictions Tab
   Add Shipping Restrictions
   Brand	Select a Brand for this Shipping Country Product Restriction, select a Country (or Countries, by holding down the Shift key) and then click the 'Add Restrictions' button. All restrictions will be shown in the 'Current Shipping Restrictions' section in the lower part of the screen.
   Current Shipping Restrictions
   This section will be available only if there exist current Shipping Restrictions.
   Tax Operations
   Remove Country Specific Tax Rates	Remove any Country-specific VAT Rates for this Category. The Default VAT Rate will be applied to Products within this Category. Please note, you must click the Remove button to remove Country specific VAT Rates.
   Apply Tax Rate to ALL Countries (%)	Set the VAT Rate across ALL Countries for this Category. Please note, after entering a value, you must click the Apply button to apply the VAT Rate to all Countries.
   Tax Rate (%)	The VAT Rate for your Default Shipping Country.
   Attributes
   Select Attributes	This allows you to define which Attributes can be applied to Stock Items within this Category. The Attributes available to you are the ones previously configured in the Attributes section of IRP Admin. To make a selection, click the name of the Attribute and then click the Link Attributes button. The Linked Attributes will then be displayed in the 'Attributes Linked to this Category' grid of the CategoriesEdit.aspx page. Note that – currently – you cannot set the Attribute 'Display Order' on individual categories. You can set the Display Order only globally across all categories/products. To do this, use the Attributes section in IRP Admin.
   Default Option Selector	(Visible only if you have Linked Attributes.) Set what the default Option Selector should be for this category. You can choose the default 'Option Text' or 'Attribute Values'. If you select 'Attribute Values' you can then use the Add button to select which Attributes will apply when inserting new models from this category on the ModelsEdit.aspx page. Note: See the Models help topic for more information about setting the Option Selector. Also see the Attributes help topic for information about setting the optional 'Selector Text' for an Attribute.
   Relations
   Non-Parent Sub-Departments	Highlight the Non-Parent Categories you wish to add as a Parent and click the Add >>> button. This will add these Categories to the Parent Categories list for this Category, creating a Parent Relationship. This can be reverted by highlighting the Parent Categories you wish to remove, and clicking the Remove <<< button.
   Parent Sub-Departments	Please note, this section will only be available if this Category is capable of having a Parent/Child relationship with another Category as defined in the main Categories article. Highlight the Non-Child Categories you wish to add as a Child and click the Add >>> button. This will add these Categories to the Child Categories list for this Category, creating a Parent Relationship. You can revert this by highlighting the Parent Categories you wish to remove, and clicking the Remove <<< button.
   Child Display Ordering	If this Category is capable of having a Parent/Child relationship with another Category, you can use this section to alter the order in which the child categories are displayed. Note that if you want to manually order the display you need to enable the Application Setting ‘Allow Bottom Level Category Ordering’ — if you don’t enable this setting, Bottom Level Categories will be ordered alphabetically by default. If you make changes here, make sure you return to the Department Information tab and click the Update button.
   Marketplaces
   Marketplace	Select the appropriate marketplace from the drop-down list.
   Brand	Select the Brand that this marketplace Inclusion / Exclusion Rule applies to. Select 'All Brands' for a Category-only Rule.
   Inclusion Status	Select whether this Brand-Category Inclusion / Exclusion Rule should Exclude or Include Products. By default all active Brand products are included in the marketplace integration. The default inclusion for this Brand's products is overridden by the rules displayed below. – Models by default inherit their inclusion/exclusion from brand-category rules. – Each stock item inherits its inclusion/exclusion from its parent model. This inheritance can be overridden at both a model and stock level, i.e. a model can be specifically included/excluded ignoring brand-category rules.
   Brand-Category Inclusion / Exclusion Rules
   This section will be available only if there are existing Brand-Category Inclusion / Exclusion Rules
   Percentage Stock Allocation
   Stock Allocation (%)	This value is the percentage of stock belonging to this category that will be available for sale for each marketplace included in your integration. This applies to all products in this category where a stock-specific percentage has not been provided. If no value is provided then all stock will be included.
   Mappings
   (This tab will be visible for Level 4 categories and only if you have configured any Category Mappings for Feeds. You can edit the Mappings using this tab. If you do, be sure to click the Update Category Mappings button.

6. After you have entered or edited all the details on the remaining tabs, click the Update Category button.

To merge two or more Categories and all Models contained within into a single Category, follow these steps:

1. Go to Products > Categories in the IRP Admin left navigation menu.
2. Click the Merge Models button at the top right of the page.
3. Select the Destination Category from the drop down. This is the Category that any selected Categories will be merged into. In the example below, we are going to merge all of the separate Outdoor Pursuits Books Categories, into one main 'Books - Outdoor Pursuits' Category.
   
4. After selecting the Destination Category, you must select the Categories which you wish to Merge into the Destination Category.
   
   You can select multiple Categories using the Ctrl or Shift Keys on your Keyboard. Once you have selected all of the Categories that you wish to merge into the Destination Category, click the Add >>> button.
5. If you wish to remove any Categories from the list of Categories to be merged into the Destination Category, highlight them and click the Remove <<< button.
   Otherwise, if you are happy to continue, click the Merge Models from Selected Categories button.
   Please note, merges cannot be undone.
6. If successful, the following message will be displayed:
   
   Otherwise, an error message will be displayed which will explain the issue.

To reorganise your Category Structure, follow these steps:

1. Visit the current Category on the front end of your website. (Alternatively, go to Products > Categories in the IRP left navigation menu, locate the current Category, click the Edit button followed by the ‘View Category Page’ button at the top of the page.)
2. Copy the URL and paste it into a spreadsheet (this is so that you have a reference of the URL that you can later pass on to your PPC provider as described in Step 13 and also so that you can visualise the Category Structure).
3. Go to Products > Categories in the IRP left navigation menu (if you are not already on the page from Step 1).
   NOTE: If you need to create a NEW category or categories in which to rehouse your models, continue with Steps 4-7, otherwise, if you want to use EXISTING categories to rehouse your models, skip to Step 8.
4. Click the ‘Add New Category’ button at the top of the page and add in the new Category Name. Add in any other information that you need to, as described in the How To Add or Edit a Category guide in this section.
5. Save your changes by clicking the ‘Insert Category’ button. By default, the Category should be Active.
6. Configure any of the other tabs that you need to, as described in the How To Add or Edit a Category guide in this section.
7. Again, save your changes by clicking the ‘Update Category’ button.
8. Now you need to rehouse the models into their new categories. To do this, on the main Categories.aspx page click the Reassign Model Categories button at the top of the page — the CategoriesReassignModels.aspx page appears:
   
9. Here you can search for models and, if you expand 'Other Options', filter by the Active status of models. You will see the 'Current Category' listed and a drop-down list of other possible Categories to use in the 'New Category' column. Make your selection for each model that you want to reassign and click the 'Update Model Categories' button to submit your changes.
   You can also click the 'View' button to see what the category looks like on the front end.
   Note that it is a good idea to add the model names to the spreadsheet you used in Step 2, to help you to visualise the Category Structure.
10. Visit the new Category on the front end of your website. (Alternatively, go to Products > Categories in the IRP left navigation menu, locate the new Category, click the Edit button followed by the ‘View Category Page’ button at the top of the page.)
11. Check the banners, heading images and custom content on your desktop and mobile sites to ensure that the new URL is updated where necessary.
12. Copy the new Category URL and paste it into the spreadsheet you used in Step 2.
13. Contact your PPC provider and provide them with the old and new URLs in your spreadsheet so that they can update any PPC campaigns.
14. If the old Category is no longer being used for any other models, you can now make it Inactive (see the How To Add or Edit a Category guide in this section).