*How-to › Product setup*

# How to Organize Your Catalog

Help shoppers find things. You build categories, menus and manufacturers, place each product, then set how the store sorts, filters and pages. 9 parts.

Quick links

- [How the catalog is organized](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-organize-your-catalog/#how-it-works)
- [Step 1. Create your categories](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-organize-your-catalog/#categories)
- [Step 2. Choose how each category fills](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-organize-your-catalog/#fill)
- [Step 3. Build your menus](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-organize-your-catalog/#menus)
- [Step 4. Add manufacturers](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-organize-your-catalog/#manufacturers)
- [Step 5. Place each product](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-organize-your-catalog/#place)
- [Step 6. Set how shoppers sort, filter and page](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-organize-your-catalog/#sorting)
- [Test it as a shopper](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-organize-your-catalog/#test)
- [If it does not work](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-organize-your-catalog/#troubleshooting)

**Where to find it:** WP Admin › EasyCart › Products › Categories

*Before you start*

## What you are building

What each tool is for and what you need.

### How the catalog is organized

Categories, menus, manufacturers, and what each is for

**What you need.** WP EasyCart. Categories, menus, manufacturers, featured products, badges and price ranges are in the free plugin, and so are the category ideas worked out from your catalog. Categories that fill themselves from rules or ideas, and limiting a product to one role (Who can see it), are PRO. There is a free trial if you want to try them.

**Categories** are how your catalog is grouped: Shoes, Bags, Sale. A category can sit inside another, and a product can be in as many as you like.
**Menus** are how shoppers are invited to browse. They have three levels and they are separate from categories, so you can promote a seasonal route without moving anything.
**Manufacturers** are brands. Each one gets a page of its own products.

On top of these sit smaller tools: featured products on a product page, badges on listings, the sort order, price ranges, and how many products show per page.

The steps: set up categories, choose how they fill, add menus and manufacturers, place each product, then set how shoppers filter and page through the results.

*Set it up*

## Six steps

Create categories, choose how they fill, build menus and manufacturers, place each product and set sorting and filters.

### Step 1. Create your categories

Products › Categories › Add category

Go to **EasyCart › Products › Categories** and press **Add category**. **New category** opens. Give it a **Name**, a **Parent** ( leave it empty for the top level, or pick a category to nest it under ) and its **Visibility**, then answer **How do products get into it?** ( step 2 ). Press **Create & edit** to open the category, where you fill in:

**Parent category**. Subcategories appear under their parent in menus and the store sidebar. A product can belong to a parent and a child at the same time.
**URL slug**, under SEO & URL. Renaming a category later does not change its slug on its own.
**Description**. Tell shoppers what they will find. It also helps search.
**Category image** (square, at least 600 by 600) and **Featured banner** (about 1600 by 500), which themes use as the category header.
**Featured**. Shows the category in featured-category widgets and on the store landing page.
**Visibility**: *Active* or *Hidden*. A hidden category keeps its products, but the page is private and not listed.
**Store order**. A higher number shows first.

To put your featured categories above the product grid, open Settings › Products, Store page, and turn on **Featured categories first**.

![Products › Categories, with Add category and Categories that fill themselves above the list.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/categories-tree-607.jpg)

> **💡 Note:** Hide a category rather than delete it. Hiding keeps its products, its URL and its structure. Deleting is possible from the editor, with a choice of what happens to subcategories and products, and Undo for 30 days.

### Step 2. Choose how each category fills

I’ll pick them, or Fill it automatically

**How do products get into it?** has two answers, in New category and again in the editor’s **Products** card.

**I’ll pick them.** Type a product name or SKU and add it, or press **Browse products…**. Good for staff picks or a collection you curate, and every new product needs adding by hand. You can also pick categories on the product itself, in the Organization card of the editor’s summary column.

**Fill it automatically (PRO).** Set rules once and products join and leave on their own as their price, stock, sales or date change. The quickest start is an idea: **Ideas for your store** are worked out from your products and the last 90 days of orders, such as **New arrivals**, **Best sellers**, **On sale**, **Under** a price, **Gifts under** a price in the holiday season, **Customer favourites**, **Almost gone** or a brand, each with how many products it holds today. The same ideas sit above the categories list under **Categories that fill themselves**. Pick one and its name and rules fill in.

Or build your own: choose whether products must match **all** or **any** of the rules, then add rules such as *Price is less than 25*, *Manufacturer is Acme* or *Units sold in the last 90 days, at least 5*. Rules can look at title, SKU, price, list price, on sale, units sold, average rating, in stock, tracks stock, stock quantity, weight, manufacturer, category, option set, the kind of product it was made as, date added, active, downloadable and subscription. The rules read as a sentence above them, and the preview counts the products that match right now. They are checked again whenever a product is saved and once an hour.

**Also keep products I add by hand** lets the rules do the bulk while you add exceptions.

Use rules for anything that should stay current: New arrivals, Under 25, a brand. Use hand-picking for a curated shelf. Without PRO, the ideas still show and you can create the category and pick its products yourself.

![New category with the New arrivals idea chosen: its rules, read as a sentence, and the 12 products that match right now.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/categories-ideas-new-category-607.jpg)

![The Products card in the category editor, set to Fill it automatically, with the products that match now.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/categories-membership-607.jpg)

> **⚠️ Careful:** On a category that fills itself, hand-picked products that do not match the rules leave when you save, unless Also keep products I add by hand is on. Turn it on if you want exceptions.

### Step 3. Build your menus

Products › Menus, three levels deep

Go to **EasyCart › Products › Menus** and press **Add menu**. Open it and press **Add sub-menu** to nest one below it. A menu holds sub-menus, and those hold sub-sub-menus. That is three levels.

Menus hold products directly. In the menu editor, type a product name or SKU to add it. Each product can sit in up to three menu locations, and adding fills the product’s first empty one. A menu also takes a description and keywords.

A menu will not fill itself as your catalog changes. For groupings that should stay current, use a category that fills itself.

**Show a menu on a page.** In the WP EasyCart block, choose Store and pick a menu, sub-menu or sub-sub-menu. In a shortcode these are `menuid`, `submenuid` and `subsubmenuid`. The [Gutenberg blocks guide](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/design-your-store-with-gutenberg-blocks/) shows the block.

### Step 4. Add manufacturers

Products › Manufacturers

If shoppers think in brands, go to **EasyCart › Products › Manufacturers** and press **Add manufacturer**. Create it with a name, then open it to set a featured image and its URL slug. Press **Assign products** to add many products in one go, which is quicker than doing it product by product when a new brand arrives.

On a product, **Manufacturer** is in the Organization card of the summary column, where **New manufacturer** adds one without leaving the product. In Settings › Products, **Product page**, click **Manufacturer** under **What the page shows** to name the brand on the product page. Under **Store page**, add **Manufacturer links** to **What the sidebar offers** to let shoppers filter by brand.

If you sell only your own products, skip manufacturers. An empty structure is one more list to maintain.

### Step 5. Place each product

The summary column, Storefront and Design

Open a product. Everything below waits for the editor’s **Save**.

**In the summary column.** The right-hand column stays in view whichever section you work in. Its **Organization** card holds **Categories** (type to add one, or create it on the spot; **Manage** opens the categories list), **Manufacturer** and **Show on the store page**, which lists it on the main store page. Above it, the **Status** card has **Who can see it** (PRO), which hides the product from everyone outside one role.

**In the Storefront section.** **Sort order and specials** has **Show in the specials widget** and **Sort position**, its place in the default order: a lower number shows first, and products with the same number are ordered by price, lowest first. **Store menus** places it in up to three menu locations, each a Menu Level 1, 2 and 3; the second and third wait behind **Add another menu location**. **Featured products** picks up to four related products to cross-sell on its page.

**Badges, in the Design section.** **Badge** puts a promo tag on the product card: Round Tag, Square Tag, Diagonal Tag or Classy Tag, or No Tag. Type the **Badge text**, such as *New* or *Sale*, and pick the **Badge color** and **Badge text color**. A preview shows the badge. **Hover effect** and **Picture effect** change how its picture reacts to the pointer.

![The Organization card in the summary column: Categories, Manufacturer and Show on the store page.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/organize-catalog-03-summary-organization-604.jpg)

![The Design section with a Round Tag badge reading New, and its preview.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/organize-catalog-03-design-badge-604.jpg)

### Step 6. Set how shoppers sort, filter and page

Sort menu, price points and products per page

All of this is under **Store page** in **Settings › Products**, with a small store page beside it that changes as you do.

**The sort menu.** **Lists open sorted by** is what shoppers see first: Default order (the order you set in admin, from Sort position), price, title, newest, oldest, best rated or most viewed. **Sort menu** lets shoppers reorder the list, and **Sort choices shoppers get** picks which orders the menu offers.

**Products per page.** **Split products into pages** and **Let shoppers pick a page size** sit under the sort menu. **Change** beside the page sizes opens **Page sizes shoppers pick from**, where the star marks the size shoppers start on. Keep the list short. Three or four sizes is plenty.

**The sidebar.** **Filter sidebar** puts a column of filters on the left or right, or slides it in. **What the sidebar offers** picks them: **Search box**, **Category links**, **Manufacturer links**, **Price**, options such as size, **Category groups** and a Clear filters link. Turn on what shoppers use.

**Price ranges.** With **Price** in the sidebar, **Price ranges** shows yours with **Change**, or **Add price ranges** when there are none. The dialog holds the buckets: *Under* a price, *Between* two prices and *Over* a price. A normal ladder is one Under, several Between and one Over, meeting edge to edge. **Suggest buckets from my prices** starts one for you. It counts the active products in each bucket and warns about gaps and overlaps.

![Store page in Settings › Products: the sort menu, page sizes, and what the filter sidebar offers.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/how-to-organize-your-catalog-sorting-607.jpg)

*Check it and keep it running*

## Good to know

Testing it as a shopper, and what to check when a product is missing.

### Test it as a shopper

Walk your own store

Open your store page in a private window.

**1.** Open a category. Its products should be the ones you expect, in the order you set.
**2.** Open a subcategory from the sidebar or menu.
**3.** Open a manufacturer page. It should list only that brand.
**4.** Pick a price range. The count beside it should match the results.
**5.** Find a product with a badge, and one with featured products on its page.
**6.** Change the page size and the sort order.

Then look for dead ends: an empty category, or a product in no category, is a page nobody reaches.

### If it does not work

Why a product is missing from a page

**A product is missing from a category.** Check the product is Active in the store, and that the category is set to Active, not Hidden. For a category that fills itself, save the product again or wait up to an hour. With Also keep products I add by hand off, hand-picked products that do not match the rules leave when you save the category.

**A category idea is missing.** An idea shows only when it would hold at least three products today, and never when you already have a category of that name or with those rules. Gifts under a price shows from November 1 to December 24.

**A price range shows zero.** Products in the gap between two buckets belong to neither. The Price ranges dialog reports gaps and overlaps. Fix them and save.

**The price filter does not appear.** Add Price to What the sidebar offers, with the Filter sidebar on. It needs at least one bucket.

**The default order looks like it is sorted by price.** Sort position is 0 on every product, so price decides. Give products different numbers, or pick another default sort order.

**A menu is stale.** Menus do not update on their own. Use a category that fills itself for lists that should.

Still stuck? Open a ticket at [wpeasycart.com/my-account](https://wpeasycart.com/my-account).

*Keep going*

## Related panels

- [Categories](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/categories/): Every panel in the category editor.
- [Menus](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/menu-management/): Menus, sub-menus and sub-sub-menus.
- [Manufacturers](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/manufacturers/): Manufacturers and their pages.
- [Storefront](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/product-organization/): The Storefront section of the product editor.
- [Design](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/product-design/): Badges and image effects in the Design section.
- [Products](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/product-settings/): Store page: sorting, page sizes, price ranges and the filter sidebar.

## Ready to run your store on WP EasyCart?

Everything in this guide works with the free plugin. PRO and Premium add subscriptions, memberships, wholesale pricing and more. Try every PRO feature free for 14 days.

[Start your free trial](https://www.wpeasycart.com/wp-easycart-professional-14-no-risk-trial/) · [See what is included](https://www.wpeasycart.com/wordpress-shopping-cart-pricing/)

![The WP EasyCart admin: orders and offers](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/cta-wpeasycart-pro-v2.jpg)

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Source: https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-organize-your-catalog/ ( updated 2026-11-06 )