Shopify Category Metafields: How to Use Them to List Product Variations

Why has Shopify introduced Category Metafields?

The answer is simple, to better connect shopify products with the various marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart and also search engine-based shopping experiences offered by Google and Bing.

While the ability to connect Shopify to various marketplaces has existed for some time, the accuracy with which data got presented in these platforms is less than ideal. The standardized values in an attribute assigned to each category by shopify will significantly reduce errors when products are synced across platforms.

What is Category Metafield in Shopify?

It’s a feature that uses Shopify's Metafield definition framework to increase the visibility of products to visitors on your eCommerce store, in marketplaces and search engines.

Unlike Shopify Metafields that facilitates complete customization, the objective of Category Metafield is to offer its user customization with limits! The reason for this is to ensure that the data model we end up customizing and creating meets the standards that are generally found in marketplaces and search engines.

How is a Category Metafields different from a Product Category?

You can consider a Product Category to be more like a label. Using it efficiently can help in accurate taxation of a product based on the product type, across states which may have varying tax rates. It can also optimize selling on channels such as Google and Facebook Shopping that require a standardized product categorization.

Category Metafields on the other hand are attributes to a Product Category, more like additional information of a product. What additional information/attributes is best filled out for a product is determined by the assigned category. These attributes help optimize selling on various marketplaces and channels.

Category Metafields and Collections serve different purposes!

A Collection in Shopify is similar to categories you would find in Amazon. Collections allow you to group the products on specific attributes such as brand name, manufacturer, product type, products with discount etc. Best thing about Collections is that it allows you to group and present products whichever way you wish.

A Category Metafield only allows you to enter information associated with a specific category. The information is stored in the form of attributes, shopify currently does not allow a user to create a new attribute for a category. The category structure of category metafields are based on Shopify's Standard Product Taxonomy.

How is Shopify Metafield different from Shopify Category Metafield?

The objective of Metafield is to store and display custom information. It can be used for both store frontend customization and backend data management. Metafield definitions with Metaobjects have helped many shopify users customize their store in ways that were previously only achievable with the help of a website development team.

The objective of Category Metafield is much narrower, and can only be used to save category specific data from a list of predefined values. You could think of Category Metafields as one of the use cases of Shopify Metafield.

What are the advantages of using Category Metafield to show variation in your product?

This question is best explained with an example. If you want to list a T-shirt that varies in color and the colors are Midnight Sapphire, Desert Sand, Mystic Teal, and Shadow Grey. A customer will not search for these exact keywords when trying to purchase a T-shirt; instead, they will use search terms such as blue shirt, beige shirt, green shirt, etc.

When we use the Category Metafield to list a product's variation, Shopify gives the user an option to choose either a standard base color or create a custom color. But the custom color needs to be connected to one of the available base colors. This requirement ensures that the values can be mapped to a standardized structure.

The above concept of standardizing attribute values has been implemented in marketplaces for a long time. With Shopify Marketplace Connect gaining popularity, products listed in the Shopify store will better sync with Marketplaces.

How do you add product variations with Category Metafield attributes?

Follow these steps to add product variations with Category Metafield attributes:

1. Start listing a product in Shopify backed by typing in the name and description for the product.
2. Shopify Magic will auto-populate a Category for the product, check if it's the correct category. If not, select the right category from the dropdown menu.
3. Once the product category is selected, scroll down and you will see a field named ‘Category Metafield’. This field lists out all the predefined attributes and its values. Select one of the predefined values or create a custom value for the variation you want to list.
4. Once you have filled in variation values in the category metafield attribute, scroll up and click on “Add options like size or color” from the Variants section. In the pop-up menu select the metafield attribute you want to list as variation.
5. Save the product, you have now successfully connected a metafield attribute to a product variation.

Please check out our video for a more detailed explanation on how you can create custom values for an attribute using Shopify Metaobjects.

How do you create a Custom Category Metafield in Shopify?

When Shopify introduced category metafields, one of the most requested features was the ability to create custom category metafields. Well, Shopify has now introduced this feature in their Winter 2025 Edition.

You now have the option to assign a metafield to the various categories available in the shopify taxonomy. Metafields already created can also be assigned categories; essentially converting your product metafield to a category metafield.

Like in the default Shopify category metafields, custom metafields can also be used to create product variations, although the metafield definition needs to be set up with type/source as a metaobject.

The immediate benefit to custom category metafield is the ability to create, assign and manage custom values at a category level. You will also be able to create a large number of metafields and see only the field applicable to the product.

Custom category metafield represent a significant advancement for shopify. With Shopify’s plans to upgrade the current limitations of 3 options and 100 variants soon, you will no longer need to rely on third-party apps to manage and display a large number of product variations.

How do you connect variations in existing products to a Category Metafield?

Connecting existing variations of a product to a category metafield is quick and easy as long the variation values belong to the list of predefined values. Below screenshot shows how you can link the variations step by step.

Step 1: Open a product page backend in shopify admin and find the variation option you want to connect to a metafield. Click on the database icon and choose the appropriate metafield from the drop down.

Step 2: The option values that exactly match the predefined values will get created automatically. As you can see in the screenshot ‘Charcoal Grey’ and ‘Mystic Green’ are marked in dotted lines, this is because the specific colors are not present in the standardized values set by Shopify. You need to connect these colors to a standard color to proceed. For that click on the option value with dotted line and select “New entry”.

Step 3: Complete field in the new window and click on ‘Save’. You have now created and connected a custom option value to the standardized value set by Shopify