Organizing Product Categories for Fast Checkout

Tag your products with categories like Produce, Baked Goods, or Meat for catalog organization — and understand how the checkout grid itself is actually organized today.

1. Assigning a Category to One Product

In the product form (mobile Config > Products, or the Web Portal's Products page), tap/click the Category field:

  1. A picker opens showing your existing categories — type to search them.
  2. Tap an existing category to assign it, or type a new name and tap + Create "..." to create and assign it in one step. If what you type exactly matches an existing category (regardless of case — "produce" matches "Produce"), it reuses that one instead of creating a near-duplicate.
  3. Choose None at any time to leave the product uncategorized.

New categories created this way (or via bulk upload) are shared across both platforms — a category created on mobile shows up in the Web Portal's picker and vice versa.

2. Assigning Categories in Bulk

For a whole catalog at once, use the Web Portal's Bulk Upload Products flow (Products page > Bulk Upload Products): download the CSV template, fill in a category column for each row (any text you like), and upload. A category is created automatically the first time you use its name, and rows matching an existing category name (case-insensitive) are grouped under it — no duplicates. See the bulk product/sale upload article for the full walkthrough.

3. How the Checkout Grid Is Actually Organized

The register's product grid isn't currently grouped or sectioned by category — categories are a catalog-organization tool, not (yet) a checkout-navigation one. Instead, the grid shows your active products together, ordered with your most recently sold/used items first (then alphabetically), and offers a search bar at the top so a seller can type a product name or barcode to jump straight to it. A few other things also help speed up finding items during a rush:

  • Products marked 🔥 or ❄️ get a small badge on the tile when they're trending unusually hot or cold for the current session.
  • Sale items show a SALE badge with the discounted price on the tile.
  • Scanning a barcode (see the barcode scanning article) jumps straight to adding that product, bypassing the grid entirely.

Frequently Asked Questions

If categories don't group the checkout grid, what are they for today?

Organizing and filtering your catalog — the Web Portal's Products page has a category filter dropdown alongside the status filter, and categories keep a large catalog easier to review and bulk-edit even though the register itself doesn't currently sort or section by category.

Will category-based grid grouping be added?

Not something this article can promise — check with Membrzs Support for the current roadmap.

Can I rename or delete a category?

Not from either app today — categories can only be created and assigned. Reach out via Config > Contact Support if you need one cleaned up.

Is there any other way to speed up finding products at checkout?

Yes — the search bar (by name or barcode) and camera barcode scanning are the fastest ways to jump to a specific product today.