Automated Product Classification: How AI Handles ETIM, Shopify Taxonomy, GS1 and More
Product classification is one of the most time-consuming tasks in any retail or distribution operation, and one of the most error-prone. When Grosvenor Flooring came to merchi.ai with a backlog of over 1,000 unprocessed products, manual classification was part of what was holding them back. Today, merchi.ai classifies and generates content for their entire product range automatically. The result: 976% online revenue growth and a catalogue that consistently reflects how customers actually search.
Classification is not a side issue. Get it wrong, and everything downstream suffers: the wrong attributes get included (or left out), marketplace listings fail technical validation, and search engines cannot determine what a product actually is. Get it right, and content, search performance, and conversion all improve together.
merchi.ai has built a classification engine that gets it right, automatically, for any product classification standard.
What is product classification, and why does it matter for retailers?
A product classification standard is a structured taxonomy that assigns every product type a unique code and a defined set of attributes. ETIM (the global standard for technical and industrial products) defines over 5,600 product classes. A basin mixer tap is not just a tap: it has a specific class, and that class comes with a defined list of features (connection type, diameter, material, and so on) that buyers need to make informed purchasing decisions.
Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy covers around 10,000 categories across general retail. GS1 is the global standard used by major grocery chains, healthcare distributors, and large-scale B2B suppliers. Each one is a shared language between sellers, platforms, and buyers. When products are correctly classified within them, the benefits are significant:
- Product descriptions are built around the attributes that actually matter for that product type
- Marketplace and channel listings meet the technical requirements set by trading partners and platforms
- Structured data on product pages signals to search engines exactly what each product is
- B2B buyers can filter, compare, and specify products accurately in procurement systems
Without correct classification, retailers and distributors are guessing, and that guess compounds at scale.
How merchi.ai automates product classification
merchi.ai classifies each product automatically as part of its standard AI retail merchandising pipeline. There is no separate classification step, no manual taxonomy work, and no need to configure anything product by product.
When a product enters the merchi.ai platform (via image upload, spreadsheet, scraped data, or a direct feed) the system determines the correct class within the relevant standard and generates product content with the appropriate attributes already populated. Classification and content generation happen together in a single pass.
The process is fast. A catalogue that would take a team of merchandisers weeks to classify manually can be processed in hours. And because it is consistent, applying the same logic to every product every time, the results do not vary the way manual work inevitably does.
Which classification standards does merchi.ai support?
merchi.ai currently supports four major standards via its Standards Packs feature, with the architecture designed to extend to any additional standard or customer-defined structure without changes to the core platform.
ETIM (Electrotechnical Information Model) is the leading standard for technical and industrial products. It is widely used in electrical, HVAC, plumbing, and building products sectors, and is increasingly required by B2B distributors and procurement platforms. merchi.ai supports ETIM 10.0, the current release.
Shopify Standard Product Taxonomy is Shopify’s structured category system covering approximately 10,000 product categories across retail verticals. Correct taxonomy mapping improves discoverability within Shopify’s ecosystem and enables better structured data for search.
GS1 (Global Product Classification) is the international standard used across grocery, healthcare, and large-scale B2B distribution. GPC classifies products into a hierarchy of Segments, Families, Classes, and Bricks, each with a defined attribute set — making it essential for FMCG, supply chain, and trading partner interoperability.
Google Product Taxonomy is the classification standard used by Google Merchant Center and Google Shopping. It covers thousands of product categories across all retail verticals. Correct classification against Google Product Taxonomy improves product visibility and relevance in both paid and organic Google Shopping listings, and enables more accurate structured data for product-level rich results.
Custom structures are also supported. Any retailer or distributor with a proprietary category hierarchy or internal classification system can bring their own structure and have merchi.ai classify against it. The platform adapts. The classification engine is not tied to any single standard.
Why automated classification improves search performance and conversion
Correct classification is a multiplier. Every piece of product content becomes more useful when it is built around the right attributes for that product type.
For product page SEO, classification enables structured data that is specific and accurate. A page that correctly describes a product’s type, category, and key attributes gives search engines the signal they need to surface it for the right queries. Vague, unclassified content does not provide that signal.
For generative AI and answer engines (the tools that buyers increasingly use to research products), structured, well-classified content is far more likely to be cited accurately. An AI answer engine that receives a clear category signal alongside specific attribute data can represent a product correctly. One that receives generic copy cannot.
For B2B conversion, classification directly affects whether a buyer can find and specify a product at all. In procurement environments where buyers filter by technical attributes, a product that is not classified to the right standard simply does not appear in the results.
merchi.ai is a National AI Awards 2026 Finalist, AI SME Business of the Year. The classification engine is part of the AI retail merchandising platform that the nomination is built on: a system that handles product data enrichment, classification, and content generation together, rather than treating them as separate problems.
Ready to remove manual classification from your workflow?
Book a demo to see automated product classification in action, or read how Grosvenor Flooring cleared a 1,000-product backlog and achieved 976% online revenue growth with merchi.ai. You can also start a free trial and see how your own catalogue is classified.
Frequently asked questions
What is automated product classification?
Automated product classification is the process of using AI to assign products to the correct category or class within a structured taxonomy, without manual input. The AI analyses each product and matches it to the most appropriate class, populating the relevant attributes as part of the process. merchi.ai does this automatically for every product that enters the platform.
Which product classification standards does merchi.ai support?
merchi.ai currently supports ETIM 10.0, Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy, GS1 GPC, Google Product Taxonomy, and custom customer-defined structures. The platform is designed to extend to any additional standard without changes to the core workflow.
How accurate is AI product classification?
merchi.ai’s classification applies the same logic to every product, every time. It does not vary based on who processed the product or how busy the team was that day. For most product types, the AI selects the correct class reliably, and it scales to thousands of products without the drift that manual classification produces at volume.
Does merchi.ai classify products from images?
Yes. merchi.ai can classify products from product images alone, or from a combination of images, spreadsheet data, and existing descriptions. You do not need clean structured input data. The platform is designed to handle the messy, incomplete data that most retailers and distributors actually have.
What is ETIM classification and who needs it?
ETIM (Electrotechnical Information Model) is the international standard for classifying technical and industrial products. It is used extensively in electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and building products sectors, and is increasingly required by B2B distributors and procurement platforms. If you supply products to trade buyers or through platforms that require ETIM-compliant data, you need ETIM classification.
How does product classification affect SEO?
Correct product classification enables accurate structured data on product pages. Search engines use structured data to understand what a product is, which category it belongs to, and what its key attributes are. A correctly classified product page provides clear signals on all three. An unclassified product page with generic copy does not, and tends to rank poorly for specific, high-intent queries.
Can merchi.ai classify against a custom internal taxonomy?
Yes. If your business uses a proprietary category structure (whether for internal operations, a specific marketplace, or a trading partner requirement) merchi.ai can classify products against it. The classification engine is not limited to third-party standards.