Goal: Convert your Google Shopping categories stored in metafields to Shopify's standard product category field (product taxonomy), with automatic handling of category name differences between Google and Shopify.
Video walkthrough: Watch the 3‑minute video
Prerequisites:
You have Altera installed on your Shopify store
Products with Google Shopping categories stored as metafields
Understanding that Google and Shopify use different naming conventions for some categories
Understanding the Conversion Challenges
When converting Google Shopping categories to Shopify product taxonomy, there are three key differences to account for:
Different field formats: Google Shopping categories are stored in metafields, while Shopify uses a standard product category field
Different category names: Google and Shopify have slightly different names for some categories (e.g., "Fish Supplies" in Google vs. "Fish & Aquatic Supplies" in Shopify)
Language variations: Google Shopping categories vary between locales (e.g., UK English vs. US English)
Altera automatically handles all these conversions for you.
Step 1 - Export Your Products with Metafields
In Altera, go to Export and select Products.
In the field selection, choose:
General category (for ID and Handle fields)
Metafields and SEO category (to include the Google Shopping category metafield)
Click Export to download your products data.
Step 2 - Prepare Your Spreadsheet
Open the downloaded spreadsheet and delete all columns except:
ID column (required to identify which product to update)
Metafield: mm-google-shopping.google_product_category [string] column
You can optionally keep the Handle or Title columns to make it easier to identify products, but they're not required.
Step 3 - Rename the Category Column
Rename your Google Shopping category metafield column header to simply:
Category
This tells Altera to map the data to Shopify's standard product taxonomy field.
Save your spreadsheet with the updated column name.
Step 4 - Import Your Updated Data
Return to Altera and go to Import. Upload your modified spreadsheet and select Products.
Review the import preview and click Run Import to update your product categories.
Outcome
Your products now have Shopify product categories set based on your Google Shopping data. Altera automatically converted any category names that differ between Google and Shopify's product taxonomy systems.
You can verify the changes by:
Opening any product in your Shopify admin and checking the Product category field
Viewing your products list and confirming categories are properly displayed
How Altera Handles Category Conversion
When you upload your spreadsheet with the category column:
Altera analyzes each Google Shopping category value
It automatically maps Google category names to the equivalent Shopify product taxonomy categories
For categories that don't have an exact match, it finds the closest matching Shopify category
Language variations (UK English, US English, etc.) are handled automatically
This ensures your product taxonomy is correctly migrated without manual category matching.
Example Spreadsheet Format
ID | category |
789456123 | Animals & Pet Supplies > Pet Supplies > Fish Supplies > Aquariums |
123789456 | Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Shirts & Tops |
456123789 | Home & Garden > Kitchen & Dining > Cookware & Bakeware |
After import, these will be automatically converted to match Shopify's product taxonomy naming conventions where necessary.