Salesforce B2C Commerce 24.7 > Merchandising Your Site > Catalogs, Categories, and Products > Products > Manage Product Category Assignments

Classification vs. Primary Category

When assigning a product to a category, the primary and classification categories are used to determine what information appears for the product in the storefront.

The classification and primary categories are also used in SEO to determine the URL and the sitemap attributes used for the product.

Classification category–In the storefront catalog, the classification category determines what attributes appear for the product. In the catalog that owns the product. You manage product in this category.
Primary category–The category where the consumer searches for the product. This category is in the storefront catalog, and sets which attributes are used to define the product.

Each product has one classification category and primary category. However, products can be assigned to other categories. If the categories are in the storefront catalog, the products are available for sale in those categories.

Breadcrumbs on the Product Detail Page

The primary category you select for an item determines the breadcrumb for the search result of the product or content detail page. If no primary category is set for a product, the classification is used to determine the category links. This breadcrumb remains the same, no matter what category you view the product in.

For example, if a customer searches for a man's boot, you want the breadcrumb for the result to point to a narrow category such as men’s boots. You don’t want the breadcrume to pint to a broad category, such as shoes, or one that isn't applicable, such as women's shoes. The classification you select determines the attributes shown for the result. If no classification value is set, the attribute value is taken from the primary category.

Product URLs

The order of precedence for a product item URL is:

The product's Page URL attribute.
Then the classification category's Page URL attribute.
Then the primary category's Page URL attribute.
If there are no values supplied for the product's primary or classification category Site URL attribute, the default settings configured in the default URLs are used.

Sitemap Attributes

The order of precedence for Change Frequency and Priority values are:

The page-specific attributes of the item.
Then the classification category of the product.
Then the primary category of the product.
If no category attributes are found, the default settings configured in the catalog feed are used.