Setting the right Google Product Category (google_product_category) in Merchant Center

One of the toughest tasks of configuring Merchant Center feeds correcly is setting the right google_product_category attribute. Google have 5595 categories in their taxonomy and mapping these to your own categories is usually next to impossible. Till now this all was done by half-working tools and scripts which often fail because they can't correctly map your local category with the correct category in Google Merchant Center. 

This makes initial configuration very cumbersome and time consuming. Imagine going through 5595 records and manually setting matching category from a dropdown with another 1000+ categories. 

AI to the rescue

We decided to solve this issue once and for all or at least save up to 90% of the initial configuration and mapping required. By using advanced AI technologies, MCAPI will automatically map your existing categories to those that best match from Google Merchant Center categories. In edge cases, when mapping completely fails or there isn't enough threshold for mapping to occur, you can still adjust things manually but this would only for a few cases.

Here is a breakdown of how MCAPI is assigning your products to the right category.

• When you import your products or save a product in your system, MCAPI receives the full path for your category e.g. Products > Tools > Miter Saws 
• Behind the scenes, by using AI technologies, the MCAPI system will try to find which Google Category best matches your own category and if such is found, it will create a link between your categoru and the best matching category. In our example, this would resolve to: Hardware > Tools > Saws > Miter Saws
• From then on, whenever you update a product from Products > Tools > Miter Saws, the system will use Hardware > Tools > Saws > Miter Saws as google_product_category
• In edge cases, when the system fails to determine the correct categor and/or assign different category, you can manually edit the link between your category and the best matching google category.
• AI automation usually saves up to 90% of this manual work.