Categories
A category is a group you put similar products into, for example Beverages, Fruits, or Bakery Bread. Categories help your customers find what they want, because they can browse your store by group instead of scrolling through every product.
The Categories page is where you create and manage these groups. Open it from Products → Categories in the dashboard sidebar. Each row shows one category, how many products are in it, and whether it's turned on.
The toolbar
The buttons at the top of the page let you find and organize your categories:
- Search Categories. Type a name to quickly find a category.
- Sort. Change the order the categories are shown in.
- Filter. Show only the categories you want to see.
- Add New Category. Create a brand-new category (explained below).
Sort
Sort decides the order your categories appear in. Click it, pick what to sort by, then pick a direction:
- Sort by: when the category was created (Categories (Created At)), its Name (A–Z), or how many products it has (Product Count).
- Direction: Ascending (low to high, or A–Z) or Descending (high to low, or Z–A).
Filter
Filter hides the categories you don't want to see right now, so the list is easier to work with. Click it and choose from two options:
- Has products: show All Categories, only Categories with products, or only Categories without products (handy for spotting empty categories).
- Status: show All categories, only Active ones (visible to customers), or only Inactive ones (hidden).
The category list
Every category is a row in the table with four columns:
- Category. The category's picture and name.
- Products. How many products are in this category.
- Status. A switch that turns the category on or off. When it's off, the category is hidden from your store.
- Action. The Edit button opens the category to change it. The small
arrow next to it opens a menu with:
- Add subcategory. Create a smaller category inside this one.
- Delete. Remove the category for good.
Adding a category
Click Add New Category to open the Add Category dialog.
Name the category
Enter a Category Name (required). This is the name shown to customers.
Add an image
Give the category an image in one of two ways:
- Upload your own. Click Add image, drag and drop a file, or click to add. Uploaded assets can be filtered by All, Category, Product, or Theme.
- Generate with AI. Click Generate with AI, then:
- Aspect ratio. Choose the shape of the image: 1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 4:3, or 3:4.
- Prompt. Orderain pre-fills a detailed prompt based on your category name (for example a photorealistic, white-background product image for a Shirt category). You can edit the prompt or use the microphone to dictate one.
- Send the prompt. While it runs you'll see Painting your image…, and the finished image appears in the assets grid. Select it to use it.
Create the category
Click Add to create the category, or Cancel to close without saving.
Editing, nesting, and deleting
For any category in the list, use the dropdown (the arrow next to Edit) for these actions:
- Edit. Click Edit to update the category's name, image, or status.
- Add subcategory. Create a category nested under this one, so you can organize products into a hierarchy.
- Delete. Remove the category.
Adding a subcategory
A subcategory is a smaller category that lives inside a bigger one, so you can organize your products into groups within groups (for example a Necklaces category with Gold and Silver subcategories inside it).
Choosing Add subcategory from the Edit menu opens the Add Sub Category dialog. It works exactly the same as adding a category:
- Subcategory Name (required). The name your customers will see.
- Image. Add a picture by clicking Add image (upload your own or drag and drop a file), or use Generate with AI to create one. You can filter the available images by All, Category, Product, or Theme.
Click Add to save the subcategory, or Cancel to close without saving.