Catalog: Products, Categories, Brands
Catalog: Products, Categories, Brands
Your catalog is the heart of ZingaShop: the products you sell, how they are organized into categories, brands and collections, and the attributes, media, tags and reviews that describe them. The catalog is shared across all your storefronts, and each product can be assigned to the storefronts where it should appear.
Products
Every product has a type that determines how it behaves in the cart, at checkout and in fulfillment:
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Simple | A single, standalone product with one purchasable SKU |
| Configurable | A product with variants across one or more options (for example Size and Color) |
| Bundle | Several products sold together as one, with fixed or pick-from-a-set components |
| Digital | A downloadable or entitlement-based product that skips shipping |
| Subscription | A product sold on a recurring plan (see the subscriptions section below) |
| Gift card | A stored-value product that issues a redeemable gift card |
A product carries a status (such as draft or published), an optional product code, a brand, translated names and descriptions (short and long), SEO fields, media, categories, tags, and structured attributes. Products can be assigned to specific storefronts, made visible or hidden per storefront, given a per-storefront price override, and restricted or allowed by country.
Products also support: salient-feature bullet points, a per-product FAQ (shown as an accordion and as structured data for search engines), downloadable files with visibility tiers (public, logged-in, or after-purchase), search keywords/aliases, and recommendation blocks like "customers also bought."
Variants
A configurable product uses one or more variant axes (for example Size, then Color). ZingaShop generates a purchasable variant (SKU) for each combination you keep. Each variant can carry its own SKU, barcode (with type such as EAN-13 or UPC), weight (gross and net), pack quantity/unit for unit pricing, product and packaging dimensions, its own images, and its own prices and stock.
Media
Products and variants support multiple media items: images, video, and 360° views. You order media and choose a primary image, and you can assign media to a specific variant so the gallery updates as the shopper selects options. Media can carry per-language alt text and captions for accessibility and SEO.
Categories
Categories are hierarchical: a category can have a parent, forming a tree (for example Home → Kids → Shoes). Key behaviors:
- Nested paths — categories are addressed by their full path on the storefront, so the same slug (like "accessories") can safely appear under different parents.
- Inheritance — a category shows products assigned directly to it and products from its subcategories. You can exclude a specific product from one category's list, or reorder inherited products, without changing the product's membership elsewhere.
- Content — each category has a translated name, description, a rich page body, an image, and SEO fields, plus an optional visibility restriction by customer group.
A product can belong to any number of categories, with one marked primary.
Brands
Brands are a flat, account-level list. Each brand has a name, slug (used for /brand/<slug> storefront pages), an optional logo and website URL, translated descriptions and SEO fields. Assign a brand to a product to power brand pages and brand filters.
Collections
Collections are curated, hand-picked product lists scoped to a single storefront, each with its own landing page, image, description and rich body. Unlike categories, they are flat and manually ordered. A product can sit in any number of collections and categories independently, making collections ideal for merchandising ("Summer Picks", "Staff Favourites") without touching your taxonomy.
Attributes and attribute sets
Attributes are the dimensions that describe and filter products (color, viscosity, material, and so on). Each attribute has a data type and a display widget (checkbox, swatch, range), and can be marked filterable and/or searchable. Attribute sets bundle attributes into a structured spec form ("Liquid Properties", "Pump Specs") that products opt into, powering faceted filters and product comparison on the storefront.
Product tags
Tags are flat marketing labels (Sale, New, Best Seller, Limited). They appear as filterable chips on the storefront (with /tag/<slug> pages) and as filters and bulk-action targets in the portal. Tags are distinct from attributes, which drive variants and faceted search.
Reviews
Customers can leave product reviews with a rating, title, body, and optional photos. Reviews are moderated: you approve, edit or reply to them, mark verified buyers, and can set the review date. Only approved reviews appear on the storefront, where they also contribute to rating summaries.
Managing the catalog
You build and edit your catalog in the Zingasuite portal at https://console.zingasuite.com. Products, categories, brands, collections, attributes, tags and reviews can also be managed through the public API for bulk imports and integrations, described in the Developer API Reference chapter.