How do I find the ID of a product category? (BPE)

BPE now supports both editing and filtering on product categories (originally called standard product types) for products in your store. However, BPE identifies product category entries by ID's, instead of category names. Therefore, to make the best use of these functionalities in BPE, you need to be familiar with a method to find the ID number of the product category you need. 

There are two ways to find the ID number of a category. In this article, we will discuss both of these methods. 

Method 1: Look up the product category ID in the lookup table

Internally at Shopify, a product category is called a Product Taxonomy. You can find a full list of all product taxonomies in the lookup table here. 

Product taxonomies (product categories) are listed in the lookup table in the [ID Number] - [Full Name] format; the full name is a list of product taxonomy names connected by ">", where a parent category is followed by a child category.

A line in the lookup table showing one product taxonomy.

The product taxonomy name after the last ">" in its full name is the actual name of the product taxonomy listed on the line. In the list record above, the ID number for the product taxonomy is 61, and the name is "Pet Bed Accessories". It is a child category of the taxonomy "Pet Supplies", whose parent category is "Animal & Pet Supplies". This is equivalent to selecting the taxonomy in the following steps in Shopify Admin: 

To find the product taxonomy you need in the lookup table, you need to use the search tool with your browser. In most mainstream browsers, the search tool can be triggered by the shortcut Command + F (on Mac), or Ctrl + F (on Windows PC). 

Method 2: Check the product category of products in BPE preview

You may make use of the product preview feature on the Product Type & Category page on BPE to see ID's of product categories, should you be able to filter at least one product you are aware that is of the product category you need. This is more useful if you actually need to check the product category (or categories) of certain products. 

To check the product category of certain products in BPE preview, select Bulk Product Edit in the homepage and navigate to the Product Type page.

Accessing the Product Type page via the left side menu. 

In "Step 1: Select what products to edit", use any available filter to select products in your store. The result list of filtered products will show up in "Step 2: Preview selected products"; for each of the filtered products, if there is a product category assigned to it, the ID and name of the category will appear in the "Product Category" column in the preview. 

An example of checking product category ID in BPE preview. 

Please note that product categories in BPE preview will show up in [ID Number] - [Short Name] format. The short name contains the name of the final-level taxonomy, with names of all its parent categories omitted. In the example above, 71 is the ID number of the product taxonomy assigned to the product, and its name is "Pet Carriers & Crates". If you need further information about its parent categories, you may need to search on the lookup table based on either the ID or the category name.