Manage the Product Catalog

Why catalog structure matters

Your product catalog is the data backbone of your storefront. A well-structured catalog makes products easy to find, keeps pricing and inventory accurate, and gives content authors the building blocks they need for product pages. A poorly structured catalog creates confusion — products in wrong categories, missing variants, inconsistent pricing — that directly impacts revenue.

This guide walks you through creating a catalog structure from scratch: categories, products, variants, prices, and inventory.

What you will do

1. Create a catalog container
2. Add categories to organize products
3. Create products with variants
4. Set up pricing for variants
5. Configure inventory levels

Create a catalog

A catalog is the top-level container for your products. Most sites have one primary catalog, though you can create multiple catalogs for different regions, brands, or seasons.

In the Commerce UI:

1. Navigate to Commerce > Catalog Management
2. Click New Catalog
3. Enter a name (e.g., “Main Catalog”) and a default language
4. Set the catalog as active to make it available on the storefront

Cross-Product Integration

Commerce

In Commerce Customized, you can also create catalogs through the API when you need to automate catalog provisioning or import from external systems.

Create a catalog via API

C# (.NET)

csharp Copy

using Mediachase.Commerce.Catalog;
using Mediachase.Commerce.Catalog.Dto;

var catalogDto = new CatalogDto();
var catalogRow = catalogDto.Catalog.NewCatalogRow();
catalogRow.Name = "Main Catalog";
catalogRow.StartDate = DateTime.UtcNow;
catalogRow.EndDate = DateTime.UtcNow.AddYears(10);
catalogRow.IsActive = true;
catalogRow.DefaultLanguage = "en";
catalogRow.SortOrder = 0;
catalogRow.IsPrimary = true;

catalogDto.Catalog.AddCatalogRow(catalogRow);
CatalogContext.Current.SaveCatalog(catalogDto);

Add categories

Categories organize products into a browsable hierarchy. Think of them as the navigation structure of your storefront.

Planning your category structure:

Approach	Example	Best for
By product type	Shoes > Running > Trail	Broad catalogs with diverse product types
By use case	Outdoor > Hiking > Essentials	Experience-driven brands
By audience	Men > Footwear, Women > Footwear	Fashion and apparel

Keep your hierarchy no deeper than three or four levels. Deeply nested categories make navigation harder and dilute SEO value.

In the Commerce UI:

1. Right-click your catalog in the tree
2. Select New Category
3. Enter a name and URL segment
4. Add a description and category image (these appear on category landing pages)
5. Set the sort order to control display position

Create a category in code

C# (.NET)

csharp Copy

using EPiServer;
using EPiServer.Commerce.Catalog.ContentTypes;
using EPiServer.Core;
using EPiServer.DataAccess;
using EPiServer.Security;

public void CreateCategory(
    IContentRepository repo,
    ContentReference parentLink)
{
    var category = repo.GetDefault<NodeContent>(parentLink);
    category.Name = "Running Shoes";
    category.DisplayName = "Running Shoes";
    category.Code = "running-shoes";
    
    repo.Save(category, SaveAction.Publish, AccessLevel.NoAccess);
}

Create products and variants

Products represent what you sell. Variants represent the specific options a customer chooses (size, color, configuration).

The relationship:

• A product holds shared information: name, description, images, brand
• A variant holds purchasable specifics: SKU, size, color, weight, individual images

A customer never buys a “product” — they buy a variant. A “Classic Running Shoe” product might have 12 variants (3 colors x 4 sizes).

In the Commerce UI:

1. Navigate to the category where the product belongs
2. Click New Product
3. Fill in the product name, code, and description
4. Save the product
5. Under the product, click New Variant for each purchasable option
6. For each variant, set the SKU code, and any distinguishing properties (size, color)

Create a product with variants

C# (.NET)

csharp Copy

public void CreateProductWithVariants(
    IContentRepository repo,
    ContentReference categoryLink)
{
    // Create the product
    var product = repo.GetDefault<ProductContent>(categoryLink);
    product.Name = "Trail Runner Pro";
    product.Code = "trail-runner-pro";
    product.DisplayName = "Trail Runner Pro";
    var productRef = repo.Save(product,
        SaveAction.Publish, AccessLevel.NoAccess);

    // Create variants under the product
    var sizes = new[] { "8", "9", "10", "11" };
    var colors = new[] { "Black", "Blue" };

    foreach (var color in colors)
    {
        foreach (var size in sizes)
        {
            var variant = repo.GetDefault<VariationContent>(
                productRef);
            variant.Name = $"Trail Runner Pro - {color} {size}";
            variant.Code = $"TRP-{color[0]}-{size}";
            
            repo.Save(variant,
                SaveAction.Publish, AccessLevel.NoAccess);
        }
    }
}

Set up pricing

Pricing in Commerce is separate from the product definition. This separation allows multiple prices per variant based on currency, customer group, quantity, and date range.

In the Commerce UI:

1. Open a variant
2. Navigate to the Pricing tab
3. Click Add Price
4. Set the currency, amount, and optionally:
   • Customer group for tiered pricing (e.g., “Wholesale” at 30% discount)
   • Minimum quantity for volume discounts
   • Valid from / Valid to for time-limited promotions

Set prices for a variant

C# (.NET)

csharp Copy

using Mediachase.Commerce;
using Mediachase.Commerce.Pricing;

public void SetPricing(
    IPriceDetailService priceService,
    string variantCode)
{
    var prices = new List<IPriceDetailValue>
    {
        new PriceDetailValue
        {
            CatalogKey = new CatalogKey(variantCode),
            MarketId = new MarketId("US"),
            CustomerPricing = CustomerPricing.AllCustomers,
            MinQuantity = 0,
            UnitPrice = new Money(129.99m, Currency.USD),
            ValidFrom = DateTime.UtcNow,
            ValidUntil = null
        },
        new PriceDetailValue
        {
            CatalogKey = new CatalogKey(variantCode),
            MarketId = new MarketId("US"),
            CustomerPricing = new CustomerPricing(
                CustomerPricing.PriceType.PriceGroup,
                "Wholesale"),
            MinQuantity = 10,
            UnitPrice = new Money(89.99m, Currency.USD),
            ValidFrom = DateTime.UtcNow,
            ValidUntil = null
        }
    };

    priceService.Save(prices);
}

Pricing best practices:

• Always set a default “all customers” price as the baseline
• Use date-bounded prices for promotions instead of manually changing prices
• Test pricing changes in a staging environment before publishing to production

Configure inventory

Inventory tracks how many units of each variant are available, per warehouse.

In the Commerce UI:

1. Open a variant
2. Navigate to the Inventory tab
3. Select a warehouse
4. Enter the available quantity, reorder minimum, and backorder settings

Set inventory levels

C# (.NET)

csharp Copy

using Mediachase.Commerce.InventoryService;

public void SetInventory(
    IInventoryService inventoryService,
    string variantCode,
    string warehouseCode)
{
    var inventory = new InventoryRecord
    {
        CatalogEntryCode = variantCode,
        WarehouseCode = warehouseCode,
        PurchaseAvailableQuantity = 150,
        PurchaseAvailableUtc = DateTime.UtcNow,
        BackorderAvailableQuantity = 50,
        BackorderAvailableUtc =
            DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(14),
        IsTracked = true
    };

    inventoryService.Save(new[] { inventory });
}

Setting	Purpose
Purchase available quantity	Units currently in stock and ready to ship
Backorder quantity	Units available for backorder when stock is depleted
Backorder available date	When backordered items are expected to be available
Is tracked	Whether Commerce decrements inventory on purchase (set to false for digital goods)

Common issues

Issue	Cause	Fix
Product not appearing on storefront	Product or variant not published	Publish both the product and its variants
Price showing as $0	No price entry for the active market/currency	Add a price for the correct market and currency
”Out of stock” when inventory exists	Variant linked to wrong warehouse	Verify warehouse assignment matches market configuration
Category page is empty	Products added to wrong category node	Move products to the correct category in the catalog tree

Related content

Continue your journey with these related pages.

📖Understand the concepts

• Optimizely Commerce

🔧Follow a guide

• Configure Checkout
• Commerce with CMS Integration