Overview

This guide will explain how to create categories within marketplace.

Configuration

The Categories maintenance user will have access to map all the supplier categories into new custom categories.
To use custom categories functionality, the categories maintenance user will have to log into marketplace first.

As they have logged into Marketplace, they will be presented with the dashboard.
Through the dashboard the user will have access to the “Categories” as shown on the figure below.

By selecting the “Categories” icon a new window will open where we will be able to proceed with the custom categories set up and maintenance.
 
The user will be presented here with a three column scenario as per the figure below.
- User categories: where the new custom categories will be set up.
- Vendor categories: will display the supplier categories added to any new custom category.
- Select vendor categories to add: will display the list of categories loaded into the system through the supplier catalogues.
The system will allow as many categories and subcategories as desired.
 
In order to create the main categories, the user will need to select + next to the first column header “User Categories”.
This will enable a new field which the user can define as a new category.
See the example below for a category called “Beverages”.
 
The next step will be creating the subcategories under beverage by selecting the N (new) icon.
- Select N against Beverages.

If we want to create a second subcategory under “Coffee” to specify what type of coffee the user is looking for and narrow down the search by category when they look for their products, we can do so by following the same procedure as above.
- Select N against “Coffee”

If the user needs to delete or rename a category, this will be done by selecting the D (delete) or E (edit) icons against the category or subcategories that we wish to edit or delete.

We will then have our subcategory ready to add all of the supplier categories that are coffee related or that include coffee on their products.

In the example on the figure below, we have identify that “POD Food supplier” has loaded through their catalogue two separate categories for coffee.
- Coffee Ground
- Coffe instant

On the example below, we have created a subcategory under “Beverages” called “Coffee” and two subcategories under “Coffee” renamed to “Instant Coffee” and “Ground Coffee”.
 
The next steps will be to add the two supplier categories into the newly created custom categories.
These can be added by selecting the custom category that we wish to add the supplier categories to.
Once the custom category is selected, this will appear in the second colunm between brackets().

Then we simply need to select the category from the third column “Select vendor category to add” and these will be added into the second column “Vendor categories” and will disappear from the initial list, leaving only those supplier categories still to be mapped.

In the example below we have added the supplier category “Coffee Ground” into the custom category “Ground Coffee”.
 

User View

What do the customer categories look like for Marketplace users?

Users can access Marketplace and check the custom categories as they go along on their creation by going back to the dashboard page and selecting the “Marketplace” icon.
 
Once logged into Marketplace users will be presented with the menu on the left hand side where they can select the categories menu.

By selecting the categories menu, the users will be presented with a list of the custom categories that have been previously created through the “Categories” icon following the steps previously covered.
 
To access the “Coffee” subcategory we created under the “Beverages” main category as an example, we have followed the following steps:

- Categories > Beverages > Coffee
 
The next steps, will be selecting “Coffee” to allow us find the second level of subcategories previously created that will allow the user find an specific type of product.

On this example we are looking for “Ground Coffee” products as previously set on the custom categories.