---
title: Kickstart your catalog | Shopware Community Hub
description: >-
  This course guides you in structuring your Shopware catalog, creating
  categories, and optimizing product visibility for a seamless shopping
  experience.
canonical_url: 'https://hub.shopware.com/learn/unit/user-kickstart-your-catalog'
---

# Kickstart your catalog

<LearningObjectives>

- Understand the importance of a well-organized product catalog and category structure.
- Differentiate between catalogues, categories, and category trees in an online shop.
- Navigate to the Categories section within Shopware administration.
- Create and organize categories and subcategories for products.
- Activate categories to make them visible in the storefront navigation.
- Explore category settings including General, Products, Layout, and SEO tabs.
- Practice building a multi-level category tree to enhance customer navigation.

</LearningObjectives>

<YoutubeEmbed link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQEOhvqVxG8"/>

# Kickstart your catalog with a real-world scenario

Imagine you have your very own online music shop - **Strum & Co.** specializing in guitars. You have an amazing collection of products, as shown here:

![messy_catalogue](./assets/messy_catalogue.mp4)

However, when customers visit your website, they struggle to find what they need. The product list shows varieties of guitars mixed with cleaning products and other accessories — it's a mess!

Frustrated customers start leaving your store, and you miss out on potential sales.

<ArticleQuestionnaire>
  <ArticleQuestionnaireQuestion>So, what's missing here?</ArticleQuestionnaireQuestion>
  <ArticleQuestionnaireAnswer>Experienced customers</ArticleQuestionnaireAnswer>
  <ArticleQuestionnaireAnswer correct>A well-organized catalog and clear categories for better shopping experience.</ArticleQuestionnaireAnswer>
  <ArticleQuestionnaireAnswer>Collection of products</ArticleQuestionnaireAnswer>
</ArticleQuestionnaire>

Let's solve this together by setting up a structured catalog and creating categories that make your online music shop intuitive, professional, and easy to navigate.

## Understanding catalogues and categories

Before we get hands-on, let's clarify a few important terms:

1. **Catalog**: A catalog is a structured list of products. It forms the backbone of your online store, ensuring products are organized and accessible.
2. **Category**: A category is a way to group related products together. For example, *Guitars*, *Bass Guitars*, and *Accessories* are all logical categories.
3. **Category tree**: A category tree is a hierarchical structure of categories. It starts with broader categories and breaks them down into smaller, specific sub-categories. For instance:

```text
- Instruments
   - Electric Guitars
   - Acoustic Guitars
- Accessories
   - Guitar Stands
   - Guitar Picks
   - Guitar Care Products
```

Now, let's see where these elements are located in your Shopware administration panel and start building your catalog structure step by step.

## Exploring categories in the Shopware admin

- Go to the **Catalogues** section in your Shopware admin (on the left-hand side).
- Select **Categories**.

![Menu categories](./assets/menu_categories.jpg)

Now, you'll find an overview of all categories and landing pages. For now, we'll focus on **categories**.

Here, you'll see two key elements:

- **Home**: The main entry point for your storefront's primary navigation.
- **Landing pages**: These can be theme pages, on which marketing can be done, or other pages, on which your customers can land during their visit to your shop.

## Creating your first category

Let's get practical !

Follow these steps to create your first set of categories for your online music shop:

<ShopdevInstance plugin="lp15" step="DoNotDisplay" plan="rise" />

1. Navigate to the **Home** category in the admin.
2. Click on the three dots next to **Home** and select **New subcategory**.
3. Add the following categories:
   - **Instruments**
   - **Accessories**

   > Quick Tip: Press *Enter* to quickly create another category on the same level and *Esc* to finalize the structure.

4. Under **Instruments**, create sub-categories:
   - **Electric Guitars**
   - **Acoustic Guitars**
5. Under **Accessories**, create sub-categories:
   - **Guitar Stands**
   - **Guitar Picks**
   - **Guitar Care Products**

Once your categories are created, they'll appear in the category tree as shown below:

![Inactive categories5](./assets/inactive_category.jpg)

## Scenario checkpoint: Test your progress

Let's see what we've built so far! Refresh your storefront and inspect the navigation. You should see the following structure:

![Categories in storefront](./assets/category_storefront.jpg)

<ArticleQuestionnaire>
  <ArticleQuestionnaireQuestion>Are the categories visible in the Storefront?</ArticleQuestionnaireQuestion>
  <ArticleQuestionnaireAnswer>Yes.</ArticleQuestionnaireAnswer>
  <ArticleQuestionnaireAnswer correct>No.</ArticleQuestionnaireAnswer>
</ArticleQuestionnaire>

Yes, you wouldn't be able to see any as, by default, the new categories are inactive. Here's how to activate them:

### Activating categories

1. Click on the first category **Instruments**.
2. In the **General** tab, toggle the **Active** button next to the category name.
3. Click **Save**.
4. Repeat this for the other categories as well.

You will see a green dot next to active categories in the category tree.

![Categories in storefront](./assets/active_category.jpg)

Now refresh your Storefront to see the changes.

![Categories in storefront](./assets/category_storefront.jpg)

<Callout title="Tip" type="info">

If the categories don’t appear in the storefront after activation, try clearing the app cache. To do this, go to *Settings -> Caches & Indexes* and run both *Refresh cache* and *Clear cache*.

</Callout>

## Exploring the category module

Now that your basic structure is ready, let's dive deeper into the category configuration. Open any category, and you'll see four tabs:

1. **General**: This holds basic settings such as name, activation state, tags, category type, and other settings.
2. **Products**: Products can be added to categories by manually selecting them from the list or by dynamic product groups, which we will later examine.
3. **Layout**: For a better shopping experience, choose layouts that suit your business case (e.g., large images for guitars).
4. **SEO**: Configure SEO settings for better search visibility of category products.

Feel free to experiment with these options. It's all part of mastering your catalog!

## Activity: Create a category tree

Now it's your turn! Expand on the existing structure to include the following sub-categories:

```text
- Instruments
    - Electric Guitars
        - Telecasters
        - Stratocasters
    - Acoustic Guitars
    - Electric Basses
        - 4-String
        - 5-String
- Accessories
    - Guitar Stands
    - Guitar Picks
    - Guitar Straps
    - Guitar Care Products
```

### Hints to complete

1. Create new sub-categories and activate them.
2. Refresh your storefront and inspect the navigation.

If you're unsure about other settings like dynamic product groups or category types, no worries - we'll cover those in detail in the upcoming units. In the meantime, you can get a quick overview by checking the [Categories](https://docs.shopware.com/en/shopware-6-en/catalogues/categories) section of the Shopware documentation.

## Final thoughts

You've now built a solid category structure for your online music shop! Proper organization ensures a smoother shopping experience, helping customers find what they're looking for faster, which drives more sales for you.

Ready to explore further? Let's see what happens next.