# Categories

> Categories group your products so shoppers can browse them, like Coffee, Equipment or Gift sets. Create them in Categories, nest them by dragging, and add products to them from each product's Organisation card.

Help Centre / Products - Updated 29 October 2026

Categories are how shoppers browse your shop: Coffee, Equipment, Gift sets. Each category gets its own page in your shop listing its products, and a category can sit inside another one, like Grinders and Brewers inside Equipment.

A product can be in as many categories as you like.

## Step 1: Create a category

1. Go to **Categories**.
2. Click **Add Category**.
3. Type a **Name**, for example `Coffee`.
4. Leave **Slug** empty to make one from the name, like `coffee`. It is the end of the category's web address.
5. Optionally, add a **Picture**. Without one, the category uses the picture of its first product.
6. To put it inside another category, pick it under **Parent category**. Leave it on **None (top level)** for a main category.
7. Leave **Active** on. An inactive category is hidden from your shop.
8. Click **Create**.

To add a subcategory straight under an existing one, hover over the category in the list and click the **+** button (**Add subcategory**).

![The New category drawer with Gift sets as the name, an empty slug, and Parent category set to None (top level)](https://v3.shoprocket.io/img/help/categories/new-category-drawer.webp)

## Step 2: Add products to the category

You put a product in a category from the product itself.

1. Go to **Products** and open the product, for example `House Blend Beans`.
2. In the **Organisation** card on the right, click **Add to categories…** and tick each category it belongs in.
3. Click **Save**.

Putting a product in a subcategory includes it in the category above too, so a product in Brewers also lists under Equipment. The picker shows this as **Included through Brewers**.

## Step 3: Arrange your categories

Drag a category by its handle on the left to move it up or down. Drag it to the right, under another category, to make it a subcategory, or to the left to move it up a level. Its subcategories move with it.

Nothing changes until you click **Save order** in the bar at the top.

## Editing and hiding a category

Click a category's name, or the pencil next to it, to edit it. If you change the **Slug** of an existing category, its old address redirects to the new one automatically.

Each row shows how many products the category holds and whether it is **Active** or **Hidden**. To take a category out of your shop without deleting it, switch **Active** off and click **Save**.

To set the order of the products inside a category, open it and click **Arrange products** (the number after it is how many products the category holds). If you have unsaved changes to the category, save them first. See [Arrange products](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/arrange-products.md).

## Deleting a category

Hover over the category, click the bin, then click it again when it shows **Confirm?**. The products in it are not deleted: they are only taken out of that category. Any subcategories move up to the deleted category's parent.

## Related

- [Arrange products](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/arrange-products.md)
- [Product tabs](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/product-tabs.md)
- [Attributes and product filters](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/attributes-and-product-filters.md)
- [Your hosted shop](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/your-hosted-shop.md)
- [Add your first product](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/add-your-first-product.md)

[Open Categories in your dashboard](https://app-v3.shoprocket.io/go/categories)

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- HTML version: https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/categories
- Language: English (en)
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