# How to Display WooCommerce Product Categories on Your Shop Page: A Beginner’s Guide
So you’ve got a thriving WooCommerce store, but your shop page feels a little…bare? Customers need help navigating your products, and a clear display of your product categories is the key. This guide will walk you through several ways to showcase your categories, from simple to more advanced techniques, making your shop page more user-friendly and boosting your sales.
Why Display Product Categories on Your Shop Page?
Imagine walking into a department store without any signage. Overwhelming, right? The same applies to your online store. Clearly displayed product categories:
- Improve User Experience (UX): Customers can quickly find what they’re looking for.
- Boost Sales: Easier Check out this post: How Do You Add Ratings To Your Woocommerce navigation leads to more browsing and purchases.
- Enhance Site Structure: Organized categories improve your website’s overall structure and SEO.
- Reduce Bounce Rate: Customers are less likely to leave your site frustrated if they can find what they need.
- Go to your WooCommerce settings.
- Look for options related to shop page display or product category display.
- Most themes allow you to adjust the number of products shown per page and the layout.
- WooCommerce Product Categories: This plugin often offers features beyond basic display, allowing for customization of appearance and functionality.
- Category Display Widget: A widget that lets you showcase categories in different areas of your shop page or website.
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Method 1: Using the Default WooCommerce Functionality (Easiest Method)
WooCommerce often displays categories subtly, sometimes even automatically. However, this might not be prominent enough. Let’s enhance it. The simplest approach is ensuring your theme supports category display on the shop page. Most well-designed themes do this Check out this post: Woocommerce How To Override Css out-of-the-box.
Check your theme:
If you don’t see explicit category options, check your theme’s documentation.
Method 2: Using a WooCommerce Plugin (More Control)
For greater control over how categories are displayed, a plugin is your best bet. Several free and paid plugins offer custom category display options. Some popular choices include:
How to Use a Plugin:
1. Install and Activate: Go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Add New, search for your chosen plugin, install, and activate it.
2. Configure Settings: The plugin will have its own settings page where you can customize aspects like the layout, number of categories shown, and even the visual style.
Method 3: Customizing Your Theme’s `archive-product.php` File (Advanced Method)
This method requires some coding knowledge. If you’re comfortable with PHP, you can directly modify your theme’s files. This offers ultimate control, but Read more about How To View Trash Order Woocommerce incorrect modifications can break your site, so always back up your files before making any changes.
The primary file you’ll likely need to edit is `archive-product.php` (this is the file that controls the shop page display in most themes). You’ll need to find the loop that displays your products and add code to display categories more prominently.
Here’s a simplified example (this is highly theme-dependent, adapt to your theme’s structure):
<?php // ... existing code ...
// Display categories before the product loop
$product_categories = get_terms( ‘product_cat’ );
if ( $product_categories ) {
echo ‘
echo ‘
Our Product Categories
‘;
foreach ( $product_categories as $category ) {
echo ‘term_id, ‘product_cat’ ) . ‘”>’ . $category->name . ‘‘;
}
echo ‘
‘;
}
// … existing product loop …
?>
This code retrieves product categories and displays them as links before the product loop. Remember to style this using CSS in your theme’s `style.css` file for a polished look. This example provides a basic structure, and specific implementation details will depend on your theme.
Conclusion: Choose the Right Method for You
Choosing the best method depends on your technical skills and desired level of control. For most users, starting with the default WooCommerce functionality or a user-friendly plugin is the recommended approach. Only proceed with custom theme editing if you’re comfortable working with PHP and understand the risks involved. Remember to always back up your website before making any code changes. By implementing one of these methods, you can significantly improve your WooCommerce shop page’s organization and usability, leading to a better customer experience and ultimately, increased sales.
