Categories Between Woo and ERP
Categories Between Woo and ERP maps your store's product categories onto ERP stock categories. The two systems categorise differently — WooCommerce allows many categories per product, ERP allows one per stock item — so the mapping is a deliberate step rather than a straight copy.
Detailed Documentation: Syncing WooCommerce Categories with ERP
Categorising products organises your inventory. WooCommerce supports multiple categories per item for flexible search and filtering in the storefront; ERP allows one category per stock item, which keeps item selection dropdowns short and quick to use.
Key Differences Between WooCommerce and ERP Categories
| WooCommerce | ERP | |
|---|---|---|
| Categories per product | Many. | One. |
| Purpose | Display and filtering for shoppers. | Narrowing item dropdowns for staff. |
| Implication | A product can appear in several places. | Each stock item needs one deliberate choice. |
Syncing WooCommerce Categories with ERP
The Sync Categories feature pulls store categories into the ERP and lets you map them to ERP categories, keeping classification consistent across both platforms.
Steps to Sync WooCommerce Categories with ERP
- Check API configuration. The REST API customer key, secret key and store URL must be set — see Configurations.
- Press Sync Categories. Store categories are imported and listed, but not yet connected to ERP categories.
- Map each category. Click Edit beside a WooCommerce category and choose a matching ERP category from the dropdown. If none exists, the + at the end of the dropdown creates one.
- Save the mapping.
Category mapping best practices
You do not need to map every store category. Create broad ERP groupings instead — a store with "Men's Shoes" and "Women's Shoes" is usually better served by a single ERP category called "Shoes", because the ERP category exists to shorten dropdowns, not to merchandise.
Connecting Categories to Stock Items in ERP
Once categories are synced and mapped, items imported from WooCommerce need connecting to them. Because ERP allows one category per stock item, this is done per item:
- Open the stock items list and select a product needing a category.
- Set its ERP category.
- Save.
Doing the mapping before the first item sync saves repeating this for every product.
Things to Keep in Mind
| Point | Why |
|---|---|
| Only one ERP category per item | Unlike WooCommerce, ERP supports one category per stock item. Pick the most relevant one for your item management structure. |
| New categories can be created during mapping | If the ERP category does not exist, create it from the mapping screen without leaving it. |
| No need to map all categories | Focus on major groupings rather than mirroring the storefront, or the ERP category structure becomes unusable. |
Troubleshooting API Connections
Syncing problems are almost always API configuration. Check that:
- The WooCommerce REST API key and secret key are correctly entered in the ERP.
- The WooCommerce URL is correct and reachable from your ERP.
Related pages
- Woo Items — the products being categorised
- Item Categories — the ERP categories
- Configurations — the API keys sync needs