Product Categories

1. Business Scenario

The current CRM product categorization primarily serves internal product management. Its classification logic is often not intuitive for Distributors, channel partners, and Terminals, which reduces product selection efficiency.

To address this, we introduce the “Mall Categories” feature. It adopts the category-management approach used by mainstream e-commerce platforms and lets companies define customer-friendly, easy-to-understand mall categories. This improves selection efficiency and encourages channel ordering.

2. Feature Configuration

2.1 Enable the Mall Categories Plugin

After enabling the Mall Categories feature for a subset of users, the “Mall Categories” plugin appears under Configuration Guide > Business Plugins.

1) Click Enable Now to initialize Mall Categories.

2) Initialization creates new objects such as Mall Category and Mall Category–Product Association. Click Settings to open the Mall Categories menu.

2.2 Category Management

2.2.1 Create a Mall Category

Create mall categories manually. New categories are hidden by default. After you assign associated products, set the “Is Visible” field to Yes to make the category visible.

2.2.2 Associate Products with Mall Categories

The feature supports two association modes: SKU and SPU.

If your organization has not enabled the Products object, Mall Categories will associate with the Products object. If you have enabled the Goods/Items object (product variants mode), Mall Categories will associate with Goods/Items. When you associate a Good/Item, all its variant Products automatically inherit the Mall Category.

In addition to associating Products/Goods from the Mall Category record, you can also select a Mall Category directly on the Product/Goods record.

2.2.3 Import from Product Categories

Besides creating Mall Categories manually, you can import them from existing CRM Product Categories. When importing, you can choose to include associated products.

2.3 Channel Portal Menu Configuration

After configuring Mall Categories, you must add the New Mall menu in the Channel Portal.

Note: v960 currently supports only the Web platform.

3. User Operations

Ordering users place orders in the New Mall. The New Mall displays product information according to Mall Categories.

In addition to the Enterprise Portal, Mall Categories are also supported in the Site Portal. For details, see: https://help.fxiaoke.com/b2b6/de6c/8b20/a394/90c1

4. Additional Notes

4.1 Mall Categories vs. Mall Classifications

Mall Categories and the previous Mall Classifications serve similar purposes, but Mall Categories are more flexible: they support multiple malls, each category can be associated with products, and a single product can belong to multiple Mall Categories. Consider Mall Categories as an upgraded version of Mall Classifications; we recommend adopting Mall Categories.

For organizations already using Mall Classifications, we recommend upgrading to Mall Categories.

4.2 FAQ

1. Mall Categories is currently a staged rollout feature. You can apply for staged access after 2025/07/12.
2. Multi-mall support: ShareOrder initializes as one Store Management record and migrates to the multi-mall framework. ShareOrder and the Parts Mall both support Mall Categories.
3. When Goods/Items mode is enabled, Mall Categories will associate with the corresponding Goods/Items, and the Mall Category field on Product records becomes read-only.