Category Mapping

Shopify groups products into collections; WooCommerce groups them into product categories. The connector does not guess which belongs with which — you pair them yourself, once, on the Map Categories tab.

Open My Account → Shopify Connector → Manage Account → Map Categories.

The Map Categories tab, with the Fetch Shopify Collections button and the mapping controls

Why map at all?

Two things depend on the mapping:

  • Where imported products land. A product whose Shopify collection is mapped is filed under the paired WooCommerce category. Anything unmapped falls back to the Default Category set on the Settings tab.
  • Which products are imported at all. If the account's Products to Import setting is Only mapped categories product, the import skips anything outside a mapped collection and reports "Product(s) skipped due to category not mapped".

If you would rather not map anything, set Products to Import to All products and choose a Default Category — every imported product goes there.

Step 1 — Fetch the Shopify collections

Select Fetch Shopify Collections. The connector reads the store's collections in batches and shows a progress bar with a running Sync Logs panel underneath, so a store with many collections can be watched as it works.

You only need to do this again when new collections are created in Shopify.

Step 2 — Pair a collection with a category

Below the description are three controls:

  1. Select Store Category — the WooCommerce category. Subcategories are indented under their parents, and any category you have already mapped is hidden from the list, so a category can only ever be paired once.
  2. Select Shopify Collection — the collections fetched in step 1.
  3. Map Category — saves the pair.

A successful pairing shows Category Mapped Successfully.

MessageWhat it means
"Category already mapped."That WooCommerce category is already paired with a collection
"Please select a valid category to map."One of the two dropdowns was left on its placeholder

Note

If a seller's marketplace account restricts which categories they may sell in, only those categories appear in the picker — and in the Default Category list on the Settings tab.

Step 3 — Review the mapped list

Every pair appears in the table below.

The mapped category list, showing each WooCommerce category paired with a Shopify collection

ColumnMeaning
Store Category NameThe WooCommerce category, with its term ID
Shopify Category IDThe collection's numeric ID in Shopify
Shopify Category NameThe collection's name in Shopify
Published DateWhen the collection was published in Shopify

The names do not have to match — in the example above the WooCommerce category Sweater is paired with the Shopify collection Hoodies, and Shirts with Tshirts. That is exactly the point of mapping: the two stores can keep their own vocabulary.

Search By Shopify Category filters the list. Bulk Actions → Delete removes selected pairs and reports "Category Deleted Successfully."

Removing a pair does not move products that have already been imported — it only changes where future imports land, and frees the WooCommerce category to be paired with a different collection.

An unmapped store shows No Mapped Categories Found.

A practical order of work

  1. Fetch the collections.
  2. Map the collections you actually sell through, starting with the busiest.
  3. Set a Default Category on the Settings tab as a safety net for anything unmapped.
  4. Decide whether Products to Import should be All products or Only mapped categories product.
  5. Only then run the product import.

Mapping first saves re-filing products by hand afterwards.

Next step

Continue to Importing Products.