Integration · Store platform
Google product category on Shopify
Shopify keeps two category fields: its own Product category, from Shopify’s taxonomy, and Google Shopping / Google Product Category, from Google’s. They are separate columns in the product CSV, and filling one does not fill the other. The reliable way to set the Google value for many products is to generate the IDs in bulk and import only the column you mean to change.
What this comes down to
Product categoryis Shopify’s taxonomy;Google Shopping / Google Product Categoryis Google’s. Both are in Shopify’s CSV template.- Products created by CSV import or by an app can end up uncategorized in Shopify.
- A blank value in a non-required column of an import CSV overwrites the existing value with blank.
- Shopify publishes a Shopify-to-Google mapping, but not every Shopify category has a Google equivalent in it.
The short version
- Export your productsIn Shopify admin, go to Products and export the products you want to categorise as a CSV file.
- Run the file through the Bulk MapperUpload the CSV to SellerSort’s Bulk Mapper, map Title, Body (HTML), Vendor and Type, and check the free 10-row preview.
- Review the uncertain rowsRun the file, then read needs-review.csv — the rows below the confidence threshold, with the runner-up beside each.
- Write the IDs backImport a CSV containing the Handle column and the Google Shopping / Google Product Category column only, every row filled, so no other value is blanked.
Two columns, two taxonomies
Open a Shopify product export and you will find both. Product category holds a value from Shopify’s own product taxonomy, which Shopify can suggest for you from the product’s details. Google Shopping / Google Product Category holds a value from the Google product taxonomy. They answer the same question in two vocabularies, and neither is filled from the other in the CSV.
Shopify’s own help says every product should be assigned a Shopify category and that a product can save as uncategorized, which it notes can happen when products are created with CSV or an app. Its Google & YouTube channel documentation says that without a product category Google assigns one automatically, “but you might encounter errors.”
No Shopify documentation says the Google & YouTube channel converts Shopify’s category into a google_product_category value, so this page does not claim it does. If you need the Google value to be a specific category, set it explicitly.
Shopify’s published mapping, and its gaps
Shopify maintains an open product-taxonomy repository that includes a one-way mapping from Shopify categories to Google’s 2021-09-21 taxonomy. It is a useful starting point and it is honest about its limits: it lists Shopify categories that have no Google mapping. For those, and for products still uncategorized in Shopify, the Google value has to come from the product itself.
That is what the Bulk Mapper does: it reads the title, description, vendor and product type of every row and returns a Google category ID with a confidence score, whether or not the Shopify category is set.
The re-import trap
Shopify states that if a non-required column in an import CSV is blank, the matching value in the product list is overwritten as blank. Re-importing a full export after editing only a few cells can therefore erase categories — Shopify’s or Google’s — on rows where the cell happened to be empty.
The safe pattern is to import a file that contains the identifying column and only the columns you intend to change, with every row filled. The step-by-step version is in Shopify product category vs Google product category.
The alternative: a supplemental feed
If you would rather not touch the store at all, send the categories to Merchant Center in a supplemental data source. The rows must use the product IDs Merchant Center shows for your products — which the channel app generates, and which are not the same as your Shopify handles — so export the IDs from Merchant Center first and run that file through the Bulk Mapper. Its supplemental-feed.csv has exactly the two columns needed: id and google_product_category.
Questions
Does setting the Shopify product category set the Google category?
Not in the CSV: they are separate columns from separate taxonomies. Shopify publishes a Shopify-to-Google mapping, but no Shopify document says the Google & YouTube channel applies it to google_product_category, so set the Google value explicitly when it matters.
Why did my Google categories disappear after an import?
Shopify overwrites a value with blank when the matching non-required column in the import file is blank. Import only the columns you are changing, with every row filled.
Can I use a supplemental feed instead of editing Shopify?
Yes. Upload a file of product ID and google_product_category to Merchant Center as a supplemental data source. Use the product IDs Merchant Center shows, not Shopify handles.
Sources
Read next
- Shopify product category vs Google product category: how they relate to your feedsShopify has its own product taxonomy and it is not the same tree as Google's. Here is how the two map, and exactly where the mapping breaks.
- How to override Google's automatic product category with a supplemental feedWhat a supplemental feed can and cannot change, when Google accepts a category override, and the exact two columns to submit in the file.
- google_product_categoryAn optional product-feed attribute that places a product in Google’s fixed product taxonomy, sent as a numeric category ID or as the full category path.
- Supplemental data sourceA Merchant Center data source that adds or overrides attributes on products already in a primary source, matched by product ID; it cannot add or remove products.
- Google product category on WooCommerceCore WooCommerce has no Google feed. The category is extension meta: invisible to category editors, reachable by CSV round-trip.
- Google product category in Meta catalogsMeta’s catalog reads the same attribute against Google’s taxonomy file, so one correct value serves both channels.