How to add a category in PrestaShop and launch a new collection in it
You add a category in PrestaShop under Catalog → Categories with the add new category button. You enter a name, choose the parent category, fill in the description and data for Google, and switch off display while you prepare it. Then you assign products, check everything in the store, and enable the category when the collection is ready.
Author: The TellMyShop team. A guide for PrestaShop store owners: the cause, the manual fix and the same work in a chat conversation.
Last updated: · 6 min read
What does launching a new collection look like?
Usually like this: a supplier sends a hundred new products for spring, the import goes into a general New Arrivals category, and the Spring 2027 category doesn't exist yet. You need to create it, add subcategories under it, move the products, write descriptions and set the order. And all that without customers seeing an empty or unfinished category.
Monday, 21:15. The Spring 2027 category is ready, and so are the Dresses and Jackets subcategories. All that's left is assigning products. You open a product, tick the category, change the default category, save, go back to the list. At the hundredth product you notice that three from the start went into Jackets instead of Dresses.
Then there are the things that are easy to forget: the category description, meta data for Google, the menu image, the product order and a link from the menu or the home page. If any of them is missing, the collection works, but customers land on a category with no text, and Google shows just the name.
So it is worth splitting the work into two parts: creating the category, which you do once and carefully, and assigning products, which is repetitive.
How to add a category in the admin, step by step
The form is the same in PrestaShop 8 and 9. The category management documentation describes it.
- Go to Catalog → Categories.
- If you're creating a subcategory, open the parent category first. PrestaShop will set it as the parent.
- Click add new category.
- Enter the name in every store language.
- Switch off display if the collection isn't ready yet.
- Fill in the description, the cover image and the thumbnail, if your theme shows them.
- Enter the meta title and meta description, and check the friendly URL.
- Check which customer groups have access to the category. Usually you leave all of them.
- Save, and repeat for the other subcategories.
Which fields to fill in straight away and which can wait:
| Field | Purpose | When to fill it in |
|---|---|---|
| Name | menu, category heading, breadcrumbs | straight away |
| Parent category | position in the tree | straight away |
| Displayed | whether customers see the category | off until checked |
| Description | text for customers and for Google | before enabling |
| Meta title and meta description | the result in Google | before enabling |
| Friendly URL | the category's address | straight away, then don't change it |
| Cover image and thumbnail | how the category and menu look | when you have the photos |
| Group access | who can see the category | straight away, usually everyone |
Settle the friendly URL at the start. Changing the URL after the category is in Google requires a redirect. Developers will find the list of category fields in the Category domain description in the developer documentation.
How to assign products to the new category
On each product page, or in batches. The difference between the default category and additional ones matters. The default category decides the breadcrumbs, often the product URL, and where the product “lives”. Additional categories make the product appear in other categories too.
With a seasonal collection you have two routes:
- The collection as an additional category. The product stays in Dresses, and the Spring 2027 collection simply shows it as well. After the season you remove the assignment and nothing breaks.
- The collection as the default category. The product moves permanently. Be careful with URLs if they include the category.
We write more about this in the post on a product in several categories. Moving products that are already in the store is covered in the guide on how to move products to another category.
In its guide for online stores, Google advises making every page reachable through navigation: from the menu to the category, from the category to subcategories and products. The Search Engine Land article on Google's e-commerce guide summarises this. A new category with no links pointing to it will be hard to find. If you can't see it in the menu after enabling it, read why a category doesn't show in the menu.
How to set up a collection with the chat
You describe the collection as you would to a colleague. Your chat (Claude or ChatGPT) suggests the tree, names and short texts, and then sorts the products by their names, features and descriptions. New categories are created disabled, so customers won't see them until you enable them.
You: Create the Spring 2027 collection with the subcategories Dresses, Jackets and Accessories. Put the products whose reference starts with SS27 into it, as an additional category. The categories should stay hidden until I've checked them.
Your chat: I found 96 products with the SS27 reference. I suggest:
I can't assign 3 products from their names and features, so I'll list them separately. The products' default categories stay unchanged.
You: Fine. Put those 3 in Accessories.
Your chat: I'll save the categories first, then the assignments in two batches. I'll show each step in a preview and save it after your ‘yes’.
Card status: waiting for your “yes”new version: Spring 2027 (disabled), under the Home category
new version: Spring 2027 → Dresses (disabled): 41 products
new version: Spring 2027 → Jackets (disabled): 33 products
new version: Spring 2027 → Accessories (disabled): 19 products
The numbers in the example are illustrative. Once you've checked everything in the admin, you ask the chat to enable the categories or enable them yourself. The chat can also write descriptions and meta data for the new categories. We explain how to do that well in the post on the PrestaShop category description.
In the free TellMyShop Free version, the chat reads the category tree and the products in the new delivery and prepares a plan for the collection, but saves nothing. In TellMyShop Pro, creating categories, assigning products, the order within a category and descriptions work as soon as the licence is activated, with no switches. Every step goes into the change history and you can undo most of them with one instruction.
Example requests: launching a new collection and new categories with products moved into them. Plans and prices are on the pricing page.
Questions and answers
How do I add a subcategory in PrestaShop?
Go to Catalog → Categories, open the parent category and only then click to add a new category. PrestaShop then sets the parent category for you. You can also add a category from anywhere and choose the parent in the form's tree.
Can I prepare a new category before customers see it?
Yes. In the category form, switch off the displayed option. The category exists, you can assign products to it and write a description, but customers can't see it. You switch it on when everything is ready.
Does moving a category change product URLs?
It can. If your friendly URL settings include the category in the product URL, changing the default category or moving the category changes the URL. In that case it is worth redirecting the old URLs so no 404 errors appear.
Why doesn't the new category show in the menu?
Because the menu in the Classic theme has its own list of items. A new category isn't added to it automatically, unless the menu shows the whole branch you created it in. Check the menu module settings and whether the category is enabled.
How many category levels should a store have?
Enough for a customer to reach a product in a few clicks. Two or three levels are enough for most stores. A deep tree with three products per category makes shopping harder and scatters content that Google could show.
PrestaShop is a registered trademark of PrestaShop SA. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic PBC. ChatGPT and OpenAI are trademarks of OpenAI. TellMyShop is not affiliated with these companies.