Product categories

Categories group your products — Clothing, Books, Downloads — so buyers find what they are looking for in your shop. A product belongs to one category at most; products without a category stay for sale as usual.

1. Create a category

Go to Shop → Categories → New category. Every category has:

• Name in each language you sell in.
• Description (optional) — shown at the top of the category page, per language.
• Slug (optional) — the last part of the category's address: your-org.cleartix.io/shop/category/clothing. Leave it empty and it is made from the name; use lowercase letters, digits and dashes. Each slug can only be used once in your organisation.
• Active — switch it off to hide the category from the shop. Its products stay for sale and show as uncategorised.

The list shows how many products each category holds. Use the arrows to change the order: it is the order of the filter buttons and category tiles in your shop.

2. Assign products

Open a product under Shop → Products and pick its Category in the product form (or No category). On the product list, the Category filter shows only the products of one category — or the ones without a category — so you can check quickly what still needs sorting.

3. How buyers see categories

How the shop presents categories is set under Shop → Shop settings → Category layout: filter buttons above one product list, or a separate page per category. See Your shop page. Product pages show a breadcrumb back to their category.

You can also embed one or more categories on your own website with a shop widget.

4. Editing and deleting

Changing the name or description updates the shop right away. Changing the slug changes the address of the category page: links you shared with the old address stop working. Deleting a category never deletes products — they simply become uncategorised.

Via the API

GET /api/v1/product-categories lists your categories with their product count, POST/PATCH/DELETE /api/v1/product-categories/{id} create, edit and delete them, and products carry a categoryId you can set on POST/PATCH /api/v1/products. AI assistants manage categories through the MCP server. See API & webhooks.

Examples

• A theatre company sorts its shop into Programme books, Merchandise and Recordings.
• A choir with three products keeps them uncategorised — the shop stays one simple list.