How to create multiple product collections

You can create multiple product collections and assign them to different catalogs which can be super useful if any of the following situations apply to you:

You have different product offerings for different customers
You offer special pricing to specific customers
You need to split your product collections into availability by season
You sell a large variety of products and you need to separate them out into different collections to make it easier for customers to shop
You offer different product collections based on sales regions

What's the difference between a catalog and a collection?

A collection is a group of products, whereas a catalog can be made up of one or more collections.

For example, you can have:

One catalog with one collection
One catalog with multiple collections
Multiple catalogs with one collection (this combo is most commonly seen with products that are the same but need different pricing)
Multiple catalogs with multiple collections

Common setups:

You have one collection but want to be able to sell your products in different currencies or prices. In this case, you would create a catalog for each price list but will be using the same collection for each catalog:

You have different collections of products that you only offer to certain customers. In this case, you would create a catalog for each collection or set of collections offered to those specific customers:

You just have a single collection and catalog that everyone shops from:

To learn more about how to create different Price Lists click here.

Note that the default setup is one catalog with one collection. Not everyone will need a setup beyond that but the above options are available if you need them.

How to create a new collection

To get started head to the Catalogs page in your account.

Next, click on the drop-down menu seen at the very top of the page that says Collection and then click Add A New Collection:

Enter a name for your new collection and click save:

After you create new collections you will then be able to toggle the view between them which allows you to access the individual settings for each collection:

TIP: You can toggle a Collection's visibility to "hidden" under General Settings while you work on editing it. That way it's not able to be viewed by anyone until you are ready to share it.

How to add products to your new collection

To get started head to your Products page:

From here you can add products to your new collection by selecting the collection from the drop-down menu next to each item. Note that you have the ability to add products to more than one collection. You will see a checkmark next to each collection that the product belongs to:

To learn more about editing products and assigning them to Collections click here: How to publish products to one or more Collections

How to assign collections to specific catalogs

A catalog can contain multiple collections or just one collection. To get started click on Manage Catalogs as seen in the image below:

From here you can select which collections to include in your catalog:

Note: One collection must be checked per catalog, but you can also select multiple collections to be included.

Below is an example of a catalog that contains two collections:

How to share or assign a catalog to a customer

To make sure a customer is seeing the correct products and pricing you have two options:

You can share a link to the specific catalog with your customer directly
Or you can assign the catalog to the customer on their details page

To share a specific catalog just select it from the drop-down menu and click "Copy" which will allow you to then paste the link into an email or anywhere else you would like to share it:

Note: Your sharable catalog links can be found on the Connect page or on the Catalogs page.

You can also set up which catalog a customer sees on your end. You can do this by selecting a customer from your Customers>Customer Details page and then assigning them a catalog as seen in the image below:

FAQs:

Can you delete a catalog?

Yes, you can delete a catalog using the catalogs editor. Note that deleting a catalog won't affect any of your existing collections. Collections will remain intact even if you delete their parent catalog. This allows you to keep the collection(s) to use in another catalog if you wish.

Can you delete a collection?

Yes and no. While we don't have a delete button for a collection what you can do is remove products from a collection which will essentially unpublish that collection. You can also remove a collection from your catalog(s).

Unpublish products from the collection here:

Then unselect the collection from your catalog(s) here:

Note: If you would like to have a collection fully removed from your account let us know and we can help you with that.

Need help getting set up?

These features are very customizable but can be tricky to get right the first time. Our support team is happy to jump on a Zoom call and set everything up for you, just message us if you would like assistance: team@candidwholesale.com