Collections and Categories
Group Your Products the Way Shoppers Look for Them
Shoppers browse by what they want: "new arrivals", "earrings", "under ₹999". Collections and categories let you shape your catalogue around them, and Mercayo keeps every old link working when you rename one.
- In every plan
- Free for 14 days
Kosha is a demo store on Mercayo. Its products, orders and customers are sample data.
In short
What It Does
Mercayo has two ways to group products, and each product can be in many of both:
- Collections are groups for merchandising: Bestsellers, New Arrivals, Diwali Gifts, Under ₹999. Pick the products by hand (up to 2,000) and order them by dragging or with a sort order, or let rules fill the collection (see catalogue tools).
- Categories are a tree for what things are: Jewellery → Earrings → Studs. Drag a category onto another to nest it (arrows on a phone); the order and nesting save at once. A category can hold up to 5,000 products.
Both share one editor: title, description, whether it is shown, its web address (made from the title until you change it), a picture, its products, and search-engine words with a preview of how it appears in search results.
Old addresses keep working. When you rename a collection or category and its address changes, the old address answers with a permanent redirect to the new one, so links in ads, messages and search results never break. Menus point at collections and categories themselves, so they follow a new address on their own.
Deleting is safe: the dialog names the menus that point at it and the discounts that use it, and a category with sub-categories cannot be deleted until they are moved.
Each collection and category has its own listing page in your store, with the filters, sorting and cards of your product lists.
The Editor
Collections and categories share one editor:
- Details: the title, a description, and whether it is shown in the store.
- Web address: made from the title until you change it.
- Picture: used on tiles and in menus.
- Products: pick and drag them into order (a collection), or see the products filed under it (a category).
- Parent: where a category sits in the tree.
- Search engines: the title and description shown in search results, with a preview of how they look.
How Shoppers Use Them
Every collection and category has its own page with your listing layout, filters with counts, sorting and LOAD MORE. Categories also power the sub-category chips on a listing and the category filter, and both can be placed in menus, mega menu panels and home page sections.
For your store
Why It Matters
How a catalogue is grouped decides how quickly a shopper finds the right product. Categories give your store a clear structure for menus and filters; collections let you tell a story for a season, a sale or a gift occasion, without moving anything.
And because old links redirect by themselves, you can tidy names and addresses whenever you like without losing the shoppers who arrive from an old link.
Good structure also helps search engines: each category and collection page has its own address, title and description, so "silver earrings" or "phone cases for iPhone 16" can be found as a page of its own.
Step by step
How It Works
Build Your Category Tree
In Products → Categories, add categories and drag them into place. Give each a picture and search words.
Create Collections
In Products → Collections, add a collection, pick its products, and drag them into the order you want.
Put Them in Your Menus
Add collections and categories to your header menu or mega menu in Menus. See menus.
Rename Without Fear
Change a title or address any time; the old address redirects to the new one.
Your shoppers
What Your Shoppers See
A clear menu of categories and collections, each with its own page of products, filters and sorting, and links that never lead to a dead page.
Settings
Settings You Control
Each one is in your admin. A new store starts with the value shown.
Nothing to set up: it works the same way in every store.
Mercayo
Mercayo's Controls
Who may change collections and categories is decided by your staff roles and checked by the database. Mercayo has no settings of its own here.
Limits today
Good to Know Before You Start
- Collections by rules are described on catalogue tools; a rules collection cannot be edited by hand.
- Up to 2,000 products in one collection and 5,000 in one category.
- A category with sub-categories must be emptied of them before it can be deleted.
Questions
About Collections and Categories
Can a product be in several categories?
Yes. A product can sit in several categories and several collections; filters and menus use them all.
What happens to discounts when I delete a collection?
The delete dialog names the discounts that use it, and their scope shrinks to what is left. Menus pointing at it drop the item.
Can I put a category in the mega menu with a picture?
Yes. Menus point at categories and collections themselves, with pictures in mega menu panels, and follow a new address by themselves.
What is the difference between a collection and a category?
A category says what a product is and forms a tree used for menus and filters. A collection is a hand-picked group for a story, a season or a sale. A product can be in many of each.
What happens to old links when I rename one?
The old address answers with a permanent redirect to the new one, so ads and search results keep working.
Can I order the products in a collection?
Yes, by dragging, or by one of the sort orders.
Do categories have their own pages?
Yes, each has its own listing page with filters, sorting, a picture and its own search-engine words.
Related
Related Features
- Collections and FiltersEvery list of products gets filters with exact counts, quick chips, sorts, badges and LOAD MORE, the same on collections, categories, sale and search.
- Menus and Mega MenuBuild header, phone and footer menus up to three levels deep, with pictures, tags and icons, and a mega menu panel on computers.
- ProductsA fast product list with a health strip, saved views and bulk changes you can undo, and an editor for options, variants, photos, descriptions and SEO.
- URL RedirectsSend old addresses to new ones by hand or from a Shopify-style CSV, and get automatic redirects whenever a product or page changes its address.
More in Admin on Your Phone: Orders · Products · Inventory · Import and Export · Order Alerts · Customers · Admin on Your Phone · Search and Command Palette · Setup Guide and Launch · Sample Data · Contact Inbox · Notification Credits · Plans and Billing · Draft Orders · Catalogue Tools · Media Library · Locations, Barcodes and Stock Counts · Installable Admin
Try It on Your Own Store
Every feature is in every plan, free for 14 days.