Product category

A product category is a way to group products by type. Product categories are used both internally, by marketplaces / retailers to manage their products, and externally, to help end customers find the item they are looking for.

The full hierarchy is often called a product taxonomy.

Category levels

Product categories are usually a hierarchy with multiple levels, for instance:

• Level 1: Fashion
• Level 2: Tops
• Level 3: T-shirts

On e-commerce websites, this hierarchy is often displayed as a breadcrumb: “Fashion > Tops > T-shirts”.

Product categories in carbon accounting

In carbon accounting, product categories can be used to map assumptions. For example, a given product category can be assigned a specific end-of-life scenario.

For this reason, some carbon accounting companies such as Aito come with their own product categories, structured in a way that aligns with the product carbon footprint.

For instance, a marketplace / retailer might have the following product categories:

• Media > DVD > Action
• Media > DVD > Comedy
• Media > DVD > Drama

In carbon accounting, the level-3 granularity does not affect the footprint: DVDs are all made of polycarbonate with a thin reflective metal layer. The carbon accounting product category would therefore be “Media > DVD”.

Since a carbon accounting provider’s product categories differ from those of the marketplace or retailer, categories must be mapped:

The reverse also happens. A category such as “Electronics > Accessories” can contain both charging cables and headphones, whose footprints differ widely. In such a case, a product category-based carbon footprint would have a low accuracy.

Standard product taxonomies

Some product categorizations are shared standards rather than one company’s own choice. The Google product taxonomy is a fixed hierarchy of categories, each with a numeric ID, used to classify products listed on Google Merchant Center. Google distinguishes it from the product type, which merchants define freely to categorize products on their own website. The GS1 Global Product Classification (GPC) is a four-level hierarchy (segment, family, class and brick) that suppliers and buyers use to classify products in the same way. When a marketplace or retailer already uses one of these standards, the standard category can serve as an intermediate step when mapping to carbon accounting product categories.

Sources

• Google (n.d.). Google product category [google_product_category]. Google Merchant Center Help.
• Google (n.d.). How to fix: Invalid product category. Google Merchant Center Help.
• GS1 Netherlands (2024). GS1 Global Product Classification (GPC) in a nutshell.