Understanding Your Website Navigation & Categorisation

A clear, intuitive navigation structure is crucial for guiding your shoppers to the products and information they need. This article outlines how AB Commerce enables retailers to manage and customise their main navigation, sub-categories, and header/footer menus, ensuring an effective browsing experience for customers.

Before you make any changes to your website navigation or categorisation, we strongly recommend speaking with the Magico team first.
Our team can advise you on the best approach to structuring your categories, sub-categories, and menu items. This ensures your changes align with eCommerce best practices and enhance your customer journey rather than disrupt it.

🧭 Main Navigation Overview

Your website’s main navigation is displayed as a horizontal menu bar at the top of each page. It is typically made up of product categories such as Electrical, Men’s Shoes, Gifts, etc. These categories are essential for helping users quickly find the types of products they’re looking for.

During the onboarding process, our team will work with you to plan and define your site’s navigation structure, ensuring it’s intuitive and aligned with your business goals. 

We’ll also assist in setting up this structure on your website.

📁 Categories & Sub-Categories Setup

To set up or manage your main navigation categories and sub-categories, follow these core principles:

1. Use Department Groups

Categories are structured using “department groups” (e.g., “Paint”, “Ladies Shoes”) that determine what appears in the top navigation. 

2. Assign Display Order

Each category has a Sort Order which determines its position from left to right across the top of your site. Sub-categories can also be ordered in this way.

3. Enable as ‘Main Menubar’

Ensure the category is categorised as Main Menubar  if you want it to appear in the main menu.

4. Sub-Categories Structure

These appear as dropdowns under their main category. You can:

• Create as many sub-categories as needed. (Note : Adding too many sub-categories can overwhelm customers, make navigation confusing, and negatively impact the user experience. Focus on clarity and logical grouping instead of excessive granularity )
• Nest categories into multi-level hierarchies (e.g., Paint > Interior > Ceiling). (Note : we only recommend this for very large catalogues)

Tip: Sub-categories can have their own landing pages, including banners and custom content blocks.

How to Add These Menus:

1. Navigate to Catalogue> Categories and Navigation in the admin panel.
2. Choose Product Catalogue and Navigation
3. Choose Add New Page /Category and include:
   • A Title
   • Show Product List
   • Is Active
   • Parent Category
   • Sort order.

📌 Setting Up Header and Footer Menus

Beyond product categories, AB Commerce allows you to create both the header and footer menus. These are ideal for linking to non-product pages such as:

• About Us
• Delivery & Returns
• Contact
• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policy

How to Add These Menus:

1. Navigate to Catalogue> Categories and Navigation in the admin panel.
2. Choose either Header Menubar or Footer Menubar.
3. Choose Add New Page and include:
   • A Title
   • Is Active
   • Parent Category
   • Sort order.

Header menus are ideal for pages like Blog, Book Appointment
Footer menus typically contain about us, legal, policy, and informational links.

🛠 Best Practices for Navigation

• Keep it simple: Too many top-level items can overwhelm users.
• Group logically: Make sure categories follow a shopper’s mental model.
• Use clear labels: Avoid jargon or overly generic terms.
• Highlight promotions: Add seasonal or promotional categories as needed.
• Monitor performance: Use analytics to track which categories are most used and make adjustments accordingly.

🔄 Keeping Your Navigation Up to Date

Regularly review your navigation setup:

• Remove outdated categories.
• Update links to reflect current offers.
• Adjust structure based on stock changes or seasonal trends.

AB Commerce also supports bulk editing tools for easier large-scale updates

Before you embark on any navigation changes we strongly recommend that you speak to the Magico team first !