# The right Shopify category for every product, picked from the real taxonomy.

Sphen.ai finds products without a category or with a vague one, searches Shopify's own taxonomy for the matching entry, proposes one candidate, and sets it only when you apply.

Canonical: https://sphen.ai/features/product-categories/

## Can Sphen.ai set the Shopify product category?

Yes. For products with a missing or vague standard product category, Sphen.ai searches Shopify's live taxonomy, proposes one matching entry based on title, product type, vendor and image, and sets it when you apply the recommendation. It never invents a category: only real taxonomy entries are proposed.

## What do you see in the app?

- **Category findings in Recommendations**: A missing or broad category shows up as a recommendation on the product with the proposed taxonomy entry and its full path.
- **Grounded in the real taxonomy**: Candidates come from Shopify's taxonomy search. The model only chooses among them, so the proposal is always a category Shopify accepts.
- **Writeback and history**: Apply sets the product's standard category in Shopify. Revert restores the old one from the History tab.

## The problem

A product without a category is a product Shopify's channels cannot place.

- **Channels need it**: Shop, Google and the AI shopping feeds read the standard product category to know what a product is. Missing means filtered out or misfiled.
- **Thousands of options**: Shopify's taxonomy has tens of thousands of entries. Finding the right leaf by hand, product by product, is a week of clicking.
- **Guesses break things**: A made-up category is not a category. Only a real taxonomy entry counts, so a model must never invent one.

## How it works

1. **The audit flags missing categories**: Products with no standard category or only a broad one become an open recommendation.
2. **A candidate from the live taxonomy**: Sphen.ai searches Shopify's taxonomy with the product type, title and an AI-derived query, then picks one real entry from the candidates, looking at the product image when it helps.
3. **You apply it**: Apply sets the standard product category on the product. The history keeps the previous value.

## You stay in control

- Only entries from Shopify's own taxonomy are ever proposed.
- You see the proposed category and can pick another candidate or dismiss.
- The previous category is restored on revert.

## Questions

### Why does the category matter for AI shopping?

Product feeds for OpenAI, Google and other agents carry the standard category. A precise one lets an assistant file your product under the right question.

### What if the proposal is wrong?

Dismiss it or set the category in Shopify yourself. The recommendation is a draft, not a change.

### Does it change product type or tags?

No. Only the standard product category field is written.

### Does the proposal look at the product image?

When the title and type are ambiguous, yes: the image helps pick between candidates. Without an image the choice falls back to text.

### Can I revert a category?

Yes. The History tab in Recommendations lists the change with the previous category and a Revert action.