Find this feature

From the Main Menu of your Site Manager, click Departments (in the Products column).

Introduction

When a customer visits your site, a department listing, product directory, or featured department section (depending on the layout you selected) will help them find products.

Every product that you add to your store must be categorized by assigning it to at least one child department.  In turn, each child department is listed in a parent department.

In the example to the right, most departments are parent departments.  The ones listed under Kitchen are child departments which belong to the Kitchen parent department.

Notes

• You cannot add a product to a parent department, only a child department
• A child department must be listed in a parent department
• You can move child departments from one parent to another parent
• A product can be in more than one child department at a time
• You can move products from one child department to another child department

Department Page Functions

You can perform many functions from the Department Page screen.  You can add new departments, delete existing departments, rename departments, add or change meta tags, and more.

This topic covers all of these functions except for adding a new department.  See the Add a Department article to learn how to add departments.

General Settings

Best Sellers listed per department

Use this setting to determine how many “best seller” items to feature in each department.  As your customer selects a department to look at, the best sellers will be featured on the bottom.

This setting will only display products that have sold best on your store, in a particular department.  If you do not have sales in a particular department, there will be no “best sellers” for that department.

List departments alphabetically on shopping site

Changing this setting only affects the way departments list on your storefront.  It does not change the way departments list in your Site Manager.

Check this box to sort your parent departments alphabetically, and de-selecting the setting to sort the parent departments by department Id.

List departments alphabetically on site manager

Changing this setting only affects the way departments list in your site manager.  It does not change the way departments list on your storefront

Check this box to sort your parent departments alphabetically, and de-selecting the setting to sort the parent departments by department Id.

Finding Departments

Search departments by name

This function allows you to find departments by searching by their names.

Enter a full or partial list of the department you want to find, and then click Search.

Department navigation

Below the list of departments are your department information and navigation tools.

The information will tell you how many departments you have, and how many pages they are on.

For example:  62 Departments.

Each page displays 15 departments.  To flip through these pages, use < to page back, and > to page forward.

<< and >> will skip to the first or last page of departments.

If you know the page number you wish to turn to, enter the number in the box and then click Go.

Changing and Renaming Departments

To change a department, click Edit in the Action column for a particular department.

To learn how to make changes to a department, see the Edit Department article.

Deleting Departments

To remove a department, click Delete next to the department you wish to remove.

To delete a department, first move all of the products to another department (or delete all of the products), and then click Delete for that department.

You can delete a child department with products in it.  When you do this, the Site Manager will list which products will be deleted, and ask you to confirm deletion.

Tips on Departments

Use descriptive department names which tell your Shopper what they will find in the department

When not sorted alphabetically, departments are sorted by the department Id

Once you create a department, the only thing you can’t change about the department is the department Id

As you create new departments, number parent departments with round numbers (like 500 or 3000) and child departments right after them (like 505, 510, or 3005, 3010).  This makes the departments easier for you to manage after they are created.