Products/Catagories

[craftybeader]

I have my catagories  simply as necklaces, bracelets,earrings etc Would it be better then to subdivide these, say into prom, wedding..polymer clay..classic..crystal or is it sufficient just to use those keywords in each catagory?
Cheers  Val

[PewDrop]

This is a matter for debate, if you leave them as they are, shoppers will see other items that might be of interest that they were not looking for in the first place. (like ASDA do, they make you walk through their shop before you get to the Pizza counter)
On the other hand a shopper that is looking for a prom item might get annoyed at having to wade through a lot of unrelated items to get what they want and leave your site.
For a retail site probably a main category with one or two levels of subs is a compromise.
I am interested to hear what others think.

[Rainee Bows]

There is no reason why you cannot run 2 sets of categories in the one list and link items appearing in both categories , youre running a zencart if i remember rightly , create the extra categories and then find the product you want to appear in it ....


at the end of the listing in admin on the right hand side should be a copy icon , slick copy and select linked , and yoou have copied that product into the other category , you would also then gain the front page category title for your SEO ......  ;o) , as well as a nice little category description for the search engines , it gives people another way to shop too :o)



Rainee x

[emmabadger]

This is something I also am struggling with, I have 3 base products - Handcreams, footcream and then scrubs but then I have a variety of fragrances and slightly differing properties of each. I have created a product for every single one then used my variations to specify the different sizes or container (IE jar or pump). So then like you I didn't know whether to keep my categories simple, Handcare, Footcare, Bodycare etc or use it for specific fragrances or oils people may be looking for?? Am I on the right lines or making things complicated?

[Rainee Bows]

what platform are you running from ?

makes it a little easier to answer the query if i know the limitations of what the software can and cant do without extra code required :o)

Rainee x

[emmabadger]

Do you mean like WordPress? I am so clueless lol, I have signed up with Bryon. I also have a Mr Site, site but think I will move that over if I can figure out what the hell i'm doing 

[Rainee Bows]

Ahhh right then its a wordpress , if you stick to the basic category structure you can tag each with the colours , if you are selective and dont use too many tags you can display them at the side of your site using a widget area in admin you will then have 2 menues effectively


Rainee x

[yammascrafts]

Oo-er that just flew right over my head Rainee. I was thinking the same for my cards as just Cards is a very broad subject as there are so many or could be so many sub catagories. I've still got to decide how to set the cards catagory up as I prefer to make cards to order for each customer, rather than having loads of standard ones just lying around ready to customise for an order so I think I'm going to do a sample card for each type (male, female, kids, wedding, sympathy, birthday, anniversary, christmas, easter, etc, etc....the list goes on) as a taster so to speak and just have some blurb somewhere saying that all cards are made to order and the pictures are just a guide. So much to think about and my brain is soooo small 

[emmabadger]

Thank you that's great 

[craftybeader]

Thanks for your replies everyone. methinx I could have the main jewellery categories then maybe subs for day wear/special occasion and prom/gemstone etcetera etcetera...

[scotserve]

Emma Yamma - In the wordpress shop you can have the products show up in different categories - Create your category structure first then when adding products simply tick all the categories you want the products displayed in. Your categories can also be tiered so a category can be a subcategory of another.
The best bit is it is not written in stone - its dead easy to swap around and change if the structure gets too messy - you need to try and swap your sellers hat for a buyers hat and think how you would like to view if you were the buyer or get some friends to tell you ( get ones that are not butt kissers) 

[Twisted.Trinkets]

Oooh nice explanation Bryon. I actually got my head around that!