Product type
Product type is your own label for what kind of product something is, such as Fitted sheets, kept apart from a channel’s official category.
- product_type
What it means
Product type is the kind of thing a product is, named your way: Fitted sheets, Electric kettles, Single ended baths. Google and Shopify each give it a field of its own, separate from their official category. Your own words never have to fit a channel’s list.
In a Google Merchant Center feed, product_type lets you “define your own taxonomy to match your shop’s navigation”. Google asks for every level of the path, with > between the levels, up to 750 characters.1
In Shopify, Type is a free label in any format, while Product category has to come from the Shopify Standard Product Taxonomy.23 WooCommerce’s Type column is unrelated. It says whether a product is simple or variable, not what kind of product it is.4
Think of it like this
A family calls a room the playroom, while the estate agent’s plan calls it bedroom 3. Both name the same room, and each is right in its own setting.
For example
Google’s own example for a maxi dress is the product type Home > Women > Dresses > Maxi dresses, the shop’s navigation level by level.1 The Google product category for the same dress comes from Google’s list instead: Clothing & Accessories > Clothing > Dresses.5
Why it matters
Product type is where your own category tree reaches the channels. Google says it helps it “better understand” what you sell. You can also organise Shopping campaigns by it, though only the first of up to five values counts there.1 Write it out in full from your master tree, and every channel stays in step.
Not to be confused with
It differs from the Google product category, which must come from Google’s own list and which Google usually assigns itself. Product type is yours to write.5
Sources
- Google Merchant Center Help. Product type [product_type].
- Shopify Help Center. Using CSV files to import and export products.
- Shopify Help Center. Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy.
- WooCommerce documentation. Product CSV Importer and Exporter.
- Google Merchant Center Help. Google product category [google_product_category].