Products | Categories

Categories in Orbit allow you to organise products into clear groups so customers can browse your store more easily. You can create categories manually by selecting products yourself, or automatically by setting conditions that products must match.

Accessing Categories

To access Categories:

• From the left-hand menu, go to Products.

• Select Categories.

If no categories have been created yet, you will see the empty category page.

Click Create category to create your first category.

Creating a New Category

When creating a category, Orbit will take you to the New Category page.

At the top-right of the page, you will see the following options:

• Preview — Allows you to preview the category before publishing.

• Save draft — Saves the category without making it live.

• Publish — Publishes the category to your storefront.

Basics

The Basics section is where you add the main category information.

1. Title

Enter the name of the category.

This title will be used to identify the category in Orbit and can also be shown on the storefront.

2. Description

Use the description field to explain what the category contains.

3. Category Image

You can add an image to represent the category on your storefront.

The category image helps customers visually understand what the category is about.

4. Category Type

Orbit allows you to create two types of categories:

• Manual Category — Products are added to the category one by one.

• Automated Category — Products are added automatically when they match the conditions you set.

Manual Category

A manual category gives you full control over which products are included.

To create a manual category:

• Select Manual Category.

• Complete the title, description, and image fields if required.

• Go to the Products section.

• Click Browse.

• Select the products you want to add to the category.

• Save or publish the category.

Manual categories are useful when you want to carefully choose specific products, such as a featured collection, seasonal edit, or promotional category.

Automated Category

An automated category adds products based on rules or conditions.

To create an automated category:

1. Select Automated Category.

2. Complete the category details.

3. Go to the Conditions section.

4. Choose whether products must match:

• All conditions

• Any condition

5. Add one or more conditions.

6. Save or publish the category.

All conditions

Select All conditions if a product must meet every condition before it is added to the category.

For example:

1. Product Name contains Orbit

2. Tag is equal to BAND10

In this case, only products that match both conditions will be added.

Any condition

Select Any condition if a product can match any one of the conditions to be added to the category.

This is useful when you want to include products from several possible groups.

Adding Conditions

Each condition is made up of three parts:

• Field — The product detail Orbit should check, such as Product Name or Tag.

• Operator — The rule used to compare the field, such as contains or is equal to.

• Value — The value Orbit should look for.

To add another condition, click + Add another condition.

To remove a condition, click the delete icon next to the condition.

Products Section

The Products section shows the products currently included in the category.

For manual categories, you can click Browse to add products.

You can also:

• Search within selected products.

• Sort products, for example by Name A–Z.

• Review which products have been added.

If no products have been added yet, Orbit will show a message advising that no products are currently included.

5. Search Engine Listing

The Search engine listing section allows you to control how the category may appear in search engine results.

You can update:

• Page title — The SEO title for the category page.

• Meta description — A short description for search engines.

• URL and handle — The category URL shown on your storefront.

A clear page title, meta description, and URL handle can help customers and search engines understand what the category page is about.

Saving and Publishing

Once the category is complete, you can choose one of the following actions:

• Preview — Check how the category looks before publishing.

• Save draft — Save the category without making it live.

• Publish — Make the category live on your storefront.

Why Categories are important

Categories make your storefront easier to navigate and help customers find the products they are looking for faster. They also allow you to group similar products together, improve the browsing experience, and create SEO-friendly category pages that can appear in search engines.

If you have any questions, please contact us at support@orbitcommerce.net