Mastering Category Features in Adobe Commerce and BigCommerce

In this article, we discuss the differences between Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento 2) and BigCommerce in relation to category features. You will see how each system behaves so you can determine which is a better fit for your needs.

Category Features

Category filters

Helping customers find the right products is a critical part of the purchase journey. One common technique is to present a sidebar (or top bar) with product filters.

Adobe Commerce

Layered navigation is enabled per category by enabling the "Is Anchor" attribute. Attributes are enabled for use on the layered navigation. Adobe Commerce identifies available attribute values for display.

BigCommerce

Values are configured per storefront with the ability to adjust per category. By default, if an attribute is marked as for display, it is visible everywhere. Administrators can set the order for the attribute list. Custom fields are available to be used as product filters.

Content integration

Presenting content is critical for both helping customers digest the products on a page and improve SEO.

Adobe Commerce

There are several levers aside from the product name (which can be translated per store view). Administrators can add content to a PageBuilder-enabled description field. There is also inputs for an image and a CMS block.

BigCommerce

While there is a description and image field on the category page, a feature we love is the integration of Page Builder into the entire page. The screenshot below shows the default areas for Page Builder widgets—and a developer can easily add more.

Anchor child product aggregation

A potential feature would be to aggregate all child category products into a parent category. While this sounds like a good idea on paper, it isn't. Presenting too many products to a customer only creates confusion.

That said, some ecommerce experiences have been designed around this idea, thus it is included.

Adobe Commerce

The setting to enable layered navigation for a category also aggregates child category products into the current parent. This may be a disadvantage to some ecommerce managers.

BigCommerce

This is controllable under channel settings. The default is to "Show products from child category if the current category is empty".

Sort order controls

Adobe Commerce

Any attribute can be used for sorting. Available sort orders can be selected per category. Of course, position is the default.

BigCommerce

Administrators can specify the default sort order. Custom values are not able to be sorted.

Default product sort

Making sure products are in the right order can be important (although we would argue that more attention should be paid to presenting the right options, segmenting off the others). Thus, being able to sort products is helpful, but not critical.

Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce has the Visual Merchandiser feature—allowing administrators to drag/drop products, easily placing them into the desired order. One annoying aspect is there is no filtering capability. If simple products (assigned to parent configurable products) are in the category, ordering these products is an exercise in patience.

BigCommerce

There is no native mechanism to adjust product order in a category via the admin panel. This can be done via the Sort Order API. However, we recommend against relying on sort order and instead focusing on small-ish categories. Note that BigCommerce does allow sorting by Featured Products.

Auto-assembled categories

Some products can be automatically added into categories. Think of "browse by brand".

Adobe Commerce

The Visual Merchandiser feature includes this as another capability. Administrators can easily create (and sort) any bespoke list. Note that a new category with rules must be created for each attribute option value (Bosch, Milwaukee, Dewalt, etc). This is actually ideal as SEO best-practices dictate that content should be added to each page.

BigCommerce

Administrators can automate product lists associated with particular brands. While this is slightly limiting, the reality is that brands are the most prominent use case. Each brand can have a logo, URL, template, etc. Pages are Page Builder enabled for rich content.

Canonical

The rel="canonical" tag points search engines to the primary path. This is important because some ecommerce platforms present the same content on multiple paths.

Adobe Commerce

This is less of an issue for categories as it is for products. Products are displayed on at least three paths. The canonical features is disabled by default and reference products back to the root URL (no category). Thus, when visitors arrive on the product page from a search engine, they see no breadcrumbs.

BigCommerce

Canonical tags are enabled by default. Categories and products are supported. Products are shown in the root path. However, these products show a breadcrumb, even in the root path. This is a nice feature.

Number of products per category

Many stores reduce the default number of products visible to a customer. However, some customers wish to see all products in that category.

Adobe Commerce

There is an abundance of control over this feature. Administrators can select the number of products visible in the grid view or the list view.

BigCommerce

Administrators can select the number of products displayed in the theme configuration. SwiftOtter can make this selectable.

Category Permissions

Configuring whether or not a category is visible by customer group is helpful in a B2B or wholesaler context.

Adobe Commerce

This is a native and robust feature. Administrators can limit access based on the website scope and customer group (on the category page). They can prevent category browsing, showing product prices or adding to the cart (all useful for B2B).

BigCommerce

Administrators can limit category access by a storefront and customer group (done in the customer group area). Administrators must manage a list associated with the default customer group and separate lists related to the privileged customer groups. In other words, to add a new globally-visible category, the administrator has to navigate to every customer group and enable this category.