CMS Architecture for E-commerce

Why e-commerce sites need structured CMS content

Even if your products live in Shopify or WooCommerce, your marketing content — lookbooks, size guides, blog posts, and brand pages — should live in a CMS. This separation keeps your product catalog clean and your marketing flexible.

Recommended collections

Products

If managing products in your CMS (not a separate e-commerce platform):

• Name (text, required)
• Price (number, required)
• Description (rich text)
• Images (multi-image) — product gallery.
• Category (reference) — link to categories collection.
• SKU (text) — stock keeping unit.
• In stock (boolean)
• Featured (boolean)
• Sale price (number) — optional, for discounts.
• Weight (number) — for shipping calculations.
• Tags (multi-select) — for filtering.
• Variants (rich text or multi-reference) — sizes, colors.

Categories

• Name (text, required)
• Description (text)
• Image (image) — category hero image.
• Parent category (reference) — for nested categories (self-referencing).
• Order (number) — display order.

Reviews

• Product (reference, required) — which product this reviews.
• Rating (number, required) — 1-5 stars.
• Title (text)
• Body (text)
• Reviewer name (text)
• Date (date)
• Verified (boolean) — whether the reviewer purchased the product.

Lookbooks / Collections (seasonal)

• Title (text, required)
• Description (rich text)
• Featured image (image)
• Products (multi-reference) — curated product selection.
• Season (select) — spring, summer, fall, winter.
• Published (boolean)

Size guides

• Title (text, required)
• Category (reference) — which product category this applies to.
• Content (rich text) — the sizing chart and instructions.
• Image (image) — visual size guide.

Key relationships

• Products → Category (single reference)
• Reviews → Product (single reference)
• Lookbooks → Products (multi-reference)
• Size guides → Category (single reference)
• Products → Tags (multi-select)

Tips for e-commerce CMS

1. Multi-image is essential — products need galleries. Use multi-image, not references to a separate images collection.
2. Use number fields for prices — not text. This enables sorting, filtering, and calculations.
3. Boolean fields for states — "in stock", "featured", "on sale" should be booleans for easy filtering.
4. Categories need hierarchy — use a self-referencing field (parent category) for nested navigation.
5. Separate content from products — blog posts, lookbooks, and brand pages should be separate collections, not crammed into the product catalog.