Categories & Collections
Medusa gives you two distinct ways to group products: categories for hierarchical navigation and collections for curated merchandising. Both are managed from the admin panel under Products.
Categories
Categories build your store's navigational taxonomy â the tree structure customers browse. They support unlimited nesting: top-level categories (e.g. "Clothing") contain sub-categories ("Men's", "Women's"), which contain sub-sub-categories ("T-Shirts", "Jackets"), and so on.
Creating a category
Go to Products â Categories and click + Add category.
Assigning products to a category
Open any product, scroll to the Organize section, and pick categories from the dropdown. A product can belong to multiple categories simultaneously.
Categories are best for navigation structure â the hierarchy your customers use to browse. Keep the tree to 3 levels maximum to avoid overwhelming storefront menus.
Reordering categories
On the Categories list, drag category rows up or down to control the display order in your storefront navigation. Child categories can also be reordered within their parent.
Collections
Collections are flat, manually curated groups â think "New Arrivals", "Staff Picks", "Summer Sale", or "Gift Ideas Under KSh 2,000". They do not nest. A product can belong to many collections at once.
Creating a collection
Go to Products â Collections and click + Add collection.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | Display name shown on the storefront (e.g. "New Arrivals") |
| Handle | URL slug, auto-generated. Edit it to match your preferred URL structure. |
| Metadata | Optional key-value pairs for storefront customisation (e.g. banner_image: url). |
Adding products to a collection
Open a collection and use the Add products button to search and select from your catalogue. You can also assign a collection from within an individual product's Organize section.
Collections are perfect for time-limited campaigns. Create a "Nairobi Pop-Up Sale" collection, add products, feature it on the homepage, then remove products when the sale ends â without touching categories or product records.
When to use each
| Use case | Use |
|---|---|
| Storefront navigation tree | Categories |
| Seasonal promotions | Collections |
| Featured product shelf | Collections |
| SEO-structured browsing pages | Categories |
| Curated gift guides | Collections |
| Permanent product taxonomy | Categories |