Taxonomy & Sectors

Every merchant in the catalog is classified into a sector and assigned product categories from a structured taxonomy. This classification drives catalog browsing, sector landing pages, agent search, and the taxonomy block in skill.json and SKILL.md.

How classification works

When a domain is scanned, an AI classifier determines:

1. Sector — the primary business category (e.g., electronics, apparel-accessories, food-services)
2. Tier — the market position (e.g., value, premium, luxury)
3. Product categories — specific subcategories from the Google Product Taxonomy that describe what the merchant sells

All three are assigned automatically during scanning. Merchants who claim their brand can review and correct these values.

The 27 sectors

The sector system is built on top of the Google Product Taxonomy — the most widely adopted product classification standard, used by Google Shopping, Facebook Commerce, and most feed management tools.

21 sectors map directly to Google Product Taxonomy root categories. 6 additional sectors cover industries that Google's product-focused taxonomy doesn't address.

Google Product Taxonomy sectors (21)

Custom sectors (6)

Luxury is not a sector assignment

Luxury appears in the catalog navigation alongside other sectors, but it works differently. A luxury brand is assigned to its actual product sector (e.g., apparel-accessories for a luxury fashion house) and receives a tier of luxury or ultra_luxury. The luxury catalog page shows all brands with those tiers, regardless of sector.

This means a luxury electronics brand appears in both the Electronics sector page and the Luxury page.

Product categories

Below sectors, merchants are classified into specific product categories from the Google Product Taxonomy — a hierarchy of approximately 5,600 categories organized up to 5 levels deep.

How it works

Category resolution depends on the merchant's brand type — an 8-value classification assigned during scanning:

Focused brands (brand, retailer, independent, chain, marketplace):

1. Determines up to 2 sectors for the merchant
2. Retrieves L2 and L3 subcategories under those sector roots
3. Uses an AI classifier to select up to 10 matching subcategories
4. Stores the mappings with a primary category designation

For example, scanning sweetwater.com (brand type: retailer, sector: arts-entertainment) might assign:

• Musical Instruments (primary)
• Musical Instrument Accessories
• Sound & Recording Equipment

Department stores and supermarkets (department_store, supermarket):

1. Sector is set to multi-sector automatically
2. Retrieves L1 and L2 categories across all classified sectors
3. AI classifier selects up to 20 matching categories

Mega merchants (mega_merchant):

1. Sector is set to multi-sector automatically
2. Each classified sector maps directly to its L1 root category — no AI classification needed

Category IDs

Categories use Google's numeric taxonomy IDs directly. For custom sectors (food-services, travel, education, events), custom IDs starting at 100001 are used.

Depth levels

The depth used for merchant-level classification depends on brand type. Focused brands use depth 2–3 (preferring the most specific level). Department stores and supermarkets use depth 1–2. Mega merchants use depth 1 only. Deeper levels (4–5) are available in the taxonomy for future product-level indexing.

How taxonomy appears in skill.json

The taxonomy block in skill.json includes structured category objects for programmatic use:

{
  "taxonomy": {
    "brandType": "brand",
    "sector": "apparel-accessories",
    "tier": "premium",
    "categories": [
      {
        "id": 5322,
        "name": "Activewear",
        "path": "Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Activewear",
        "depth": 3,
        "primary": true
      },
      {
        "id": 203,
        "name": "Outerwear",
        "path": "Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Outerwear",
        "depth": 3
      },
      {
        "id": 187,
        "name": "Shoes",
        "path": "Apparel & Accessories > Shoes",
        "depth": 2
      }
    ]
  }
}

• categories — structured objects with numeric IDs for programmatic use and cross-referencing with the Google Product Taxonomy. Each category includes id, name, path, depth, and an optional primary flag.

Market tiers

Every merchant is also classified by market position:

Tiers help agents make purchasing decisions — a budget merchant might prioritize coupon checking, while a premium merchant might emphasize product quality and exclusivity.

Why Google Product Taxonomy?

The Google Product Taxonomy was chosen because:

• It's the most widely adopted product classification system in e-commerce
• Used by Google Shopping, Facebook Commerce, and most feed management tools
• Approximately 5,600 categories with stable numeric IDs
• Hierarchical structure (up to 5 levels deep) with clear parent-child relationships
• Updated periodically by Google with backward-compatible additions
• Using the same IDs means our taxonomy is interoperable with existing merchant feeds, shopping APIs, and product data services

Brand types

Every merchant is also assigned a brand type during scanning, which determines how sectors and categories are resolved:

Focused types (brand, retailer, independent, chain, marketplace) keep their primary sector and can span categories across up to 2 sector roots. Multi-sector types have their sector set to multi-sector automatically.

For merchants

When you scan your store, sectors, brand type, and categories are assigned automatically. If you claim your brand, you can review the classification on your brand page and request corrections if the AI classified your store incorrectly.

Multi-category merchants like Amazon or Walmart are classified as mega_merchant or supermarket and receive the multi-sector designation, with broad L1 categories reflecting their full range. Focused brands keep their primary sector with more specific L2–L3 categories.