Product categories

Product categories are labels that are assigned to products or to collections of products. Product categories are used to indicate the tax obligations and exemptions that apply to a purchase. Product categories are selected from Shopify's Standard Product Taxonomy, which is a predefined and standardized list.

Product categories are also useful for managing your products, and can be used for the following tasks:

filtering your product list
creating automatic collections
selling on channels that require a standardized product type, such as Facebook
adding category metafields that can be connected to your variants

Automatic product category suggestions

When you create a product and enter a name, description, and add images for the product, this information is used to generate a product category suggestion powered by Shopify Magic. You can use the suggested category or you can choose a category that is as specific as possible for your product.

Shopify Magic also adds category metafields and values that are relevant to your product based on the product details. You can keep those category metafields and add other available category metafields to your product.

This category is only a suggestion, and shouldn't be considered tax advice. It's important that you verify the accuracy of the product category before you accept it, and to speak to a tax professional if necessary.

You can access and review suggested product categories in your Shopify admin. You can also access a list of all products that you need to manually select a product category for.

All products should be assigned a Shopify product category. If a category isn't assigned, then your product saves as Uncategorized. This could also happen when a product is created with CSV or an app. If you don't want your product to be Uncategorized, then you can add a product category to the product.

Choosing and managing product categories

You can apply product categories to your products in any of the following ways:

Select or update a product category individually

You can add or update a product category for any product at any time. You can use the Product category filter to filter your products list to display only Uncategorized products, and then update them manually.

Learn more about adding or updating a product category for individual products.

Select or approve product categories in bulk

On the United States regional tax page, a yellow Pending review prompt to "Categorize products for more accurate tax" is displayed when you have products that don't have product categories applied to them, or if you have suggestions for product categories that need to be reviewed.

This method opens the bulk editor and automatically includes only products with suggested categories in need of approval, products with no listed categories, or products that have been categorized as Uncategorized.

Steps:

From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Taxes and duties.
In the Regional settings section, click United States.
In the Tax rate management section, click Uncategorized products.
In the bulk editor, add or confirm the product categories for all listed products:
- If a suggestion is provided and is correct, then click ✓ to Accept suggestion and approve the suggested product category.
- If a suggestion is provided but it's incorrect, then click ⊗ to indicate that It's something else. Then, search for and select the correct product category.
- If a suggestion isn't provided, or it's listed as Uncategorized, then click the Product category cell and search for and select a product category.
Optional: For all categorized products, additional default Category metafields columns are automatically added to the bulk editor. Click each metafield column and complete the additional product information as prompted.
When all products have been categorized, click Save.

Select a product category by using a CSV file

You can import product categories using a CSV product import. To verify that your product category values matches Shopify's predefined list, refer to Shopify's Standard Product Taxonomy.

You can download and view a sample product CSV file to use as a template.

Migrating existing product categories

The release of Shopify's Standard Product Taxonomy means that some of the product categories that you previously used might have been modified or replaced.

If a category you previously used has changed, then a category is suggested that best matches your product's details. If there is no category, then your product saves as uncategorized. This could also happen if a product is created with CSV or an app.

It's important to review these recommendations and any products that are uncategorized to ensure they match with your products. When you review your products, you can complete either of the following actions:

Accept the recommended category: If the suggested category is accurate for your product, then you can accept the suggestion.
Explore new categories: If the suggested category isn't the right fit, if your product is uncategorized, or if you want to explore other categories, then you can review the Category drop-down menu from the product page in your Shopify admin. You can also review Shopify's Standard Product Taxonomy to find a more suitable category to apply to your product.

Learn more about what categories have changed in Shopify's Standard Product Taxonomy.

Tax calculation by using product categories

After you categorize your products, the categories are used to automatically determine your tax obligations when selling into a particular region. Using product categories increases the accuracy of tax calculations, and reduces the need for tax overrides.

For example, suppose that you sell t-shirts. In New York, clothing and footwear under $110 USD are exempt from New York City and New York State sales tax. If the correct product categories are set for your products, then these taxes aren't charged when you sell your products to customers in New York. If the rules that govern these products change in the future, then the way tax is calculated for your products is automatically updated, with no action required from you.

If you set a product category for a product that has an override in place, then the override takes precedence over product category tax calculations. This includes collection-based tax overrides. Consider removing any product tax overrides that conflict with your product categories. However, if you're aware of tax rules that aren't calculated by product categories, then keep your product tax overrides.

You're not required to use product categories. However, if you choose not to apply product categories to your products, then you need to use tax overrides and manually update them.

Limitations

There are some situations in which product categories can't be used to calculate taxes:

Industry-specific or product-specific taxes that result in a separate tax line item, such as e-waste fees.
Taxes that are based on volume, weight, ingredients, or size, such as excise taxes.
Variants of a single product can't have different product categories.
Bundled goods that are created as a single product have a single product category.
Product categories don't sync between Shopify and marketplaces, such as Meta or Google.
Product categories aren't applied to orders that don't qualify for Shopify Tax.
Products and categories with tax overrides.

Testing tax calculated by using product categories

Because there isn't a way to preview specific tax rates, it's best to create draft orders to validate that your products are taxed as expected. If the resulting tax calculation isn't what you expect, then review the product code to ensure that it's accurate. For help setting your product categories, contact Shopify Support. If you're not sure that you've set the correct product categories, then contact a tax professional.