Importing a Shopify Catalog
Introduction
Retail Cloud Connect imports all published Shopify products into AI Commerce Search and keeps them up to date in near real time. Inventory and pricing updates are prioritized, followed by collection and product updates, with a full catalog refresh at least once per day.
This page covers how Shopify data sources map into AI Commerce Search attributes and storefront filters.
Google Merchant Center
Merchants that already sync catalog data with Google Merchant Center should follow the same field mapping conventions for consistency with organic search results and products listed on Google Shopping. If Google Merchant Center is syncing the product catalog with AI Commerce Search, disconnect that sync before continuing with Retail Cloud Connect.
Shopify Data Sources
Product Options
Product options are standard Shopify variant attributes such as size, color, and material.
Metafields
Metafields are the primary way to import custom product data into AI Commerce Search attributes and storefront filters.
Tags
Tags are simple labels applied to products in Shopify that can be grouped into an attribute when metafields are not available.
Tag Prefixes
Tag prefixes bulk-import tags that follow a naming pattern such as Season:Spring or Season:Winter.
AI Commerce Search Attributes
System Attributes
Brand
The Brand field in AI Commerce Search is typically imported from Shopify's default Vendor field. Merchants can also import this data from any Shopify data source.
Reviews
The Reviews fields in AI Commerce Search can be imported from metafields. There are two inputs that make up reviews:
- Rating Count - The number of ratings that a product has
- Average Rating - The average value of a product rating, such as 4.5
REVIEWS.io Integration
If the store uses REVIEWS.io, the product metafields are reviewscouk.total and reviewscouk.rating
Colors
Two values are imported for colors:
- Color - The raw product color value, usually from a Shopify product option or another Shopify data source
- Color Family - A parent color used to simplify storefront filtering
Use Color Families to normalize similar colors such as Burgundy, Wine, and Crimson under one shopper-facing family.
Audience
The Audience fields in AI Commerce Search are Gender and Age Group, and can be imported from any Shopify data source.
Size
The product size field by default, or another Shopify data source.
Material
Material can be imported from any Shopify data source.
Pattern
Pattern can be imported from any Shopify data source.
Custom Attributes
Outside of System Attributes, custom attributes can be created for additional filtering on the storefront.
Custom attributes can be created from any Shopify data source. If a custom attribute should be used only for hidden storefront constraints or a bespoke switch, see Custom and Default Filters before adding JavaScript.
Advanced Use Cases and Import Settings
Additional catalog import controls such as excluding products, expanding variants into separate products, using SEO descriptions, and category enrichment are managed from Advanced Settings inside the Retail Cloud Connect Shopify App.
Categories and Shopify Collections
Retail Cloud Connect imports all Shopify collections as product categories by default. However, some merchants use collections for marketing campaigns or landing pages and prefer to only import a subset of collections to simplify navigation or product filtering.
All Collection Data Imported
Importing specific collections only impacts filtering. All product and collection data still imports to AI Commerce Search. To prevent specific products from being imported, use the Exclude Products settings above.
If primary navigation contains a link to a T-Shirts collection, but another collection called Red T-Shirts is not linked from navigation, the merchant may prefer to import it as a specific collection. This allows shoppers to select Red T-Shirts as a filter from the T-Shirts collection page.
If some red t-shirts are also in other collections, such as a Spring Sale marketing campaign collection, importing specific collections prevents navigation clutter by stopping Spring Sale from displaying on the T-Shirts collection pages.
AI Commerce Search requires each product to be assigned to at least one category, which is normally a Shopify collection. Stores using collection filters may see Default returned as a filter on the storefront.
To prevent the Default filter from appearing, create a Facet Control in the Google Cloud catalog project.
Retail Cloud Connect™ Attributes
In addition to aligning Shopify with AI Commerce Search attributes, Retail Cloud Connect also imports another core set of attributes to increase searchability, simplify merchandising rules, and apply additional filtering and sorting logic.
Product Type
Shopify's native Product Type field, which is a categorization field merchants often use to organize products such as Shirts, Shoes, and Accessories.
attributes.product_type
Published At
The timestamp of when a product was made available in the Shopify store, used when sorting products by Newest on search and collection pages.
attributes.published_at
Product Tags
Custom labels that are often applied to products for organization and filtering. These tags are imported to the native AI Commerce Search tags field, and also as a custom attribute for maximum flexibility.
attributes.rcc_tags
Price Ratio
The discount ratio calculated by dividing a Shopify product's current Price by its Compare At Price field, or original price. This can be used to determine discount percentages for sale items.
attributes.price_ratio
Collection IDs
Contains the unique identifiers of all Shopify collections that a product belongs to, allowing collection-based filtering and merchandising logic.
attributes.rcc_collection_id
Barcode and SKU
Shopify's variant-level Barcode field, such as UPC or ISBN, and SKU identifier are useful for exact match and high-intent searches.
attributes.barcode and attributes.sku