Do I have to indicate the gender for which my products are made?

By indicating in your data feed the gender your products or product combinations are designed for, this allows Google to apply accurate filters that users can use to narrow search results.

You will therefore take advantage of an advanced ranking in Google Shopping. Indeed, the Google Shopping layered navigation allows the users to select, for example, only products specifically designed for women. By providing the information about gender your products are designed for, you will be able to appear in selections by gender.

Example: let's imagine that a Google Shopping user enter the "t-shirt with short sleeves" keywords in the Google Shopping search engine and then select the "Woman" gender in the left menu. If you sell t-shirts with short sleeves for women and if you have indicated in your feed that you sell products for women, your t-shirts will appear in the selection. Also, it is interesting to note that you can benefit from an even more accurate filtering on your products by giving information on age group for which your products are designed for. In this way the user who wants to see short-sleeved t-shirts for "girl" kids will have even more chance to see your products by clicking on the filter "girl" which is even more accurate because it takes into account the age AND sex.

In a general way, keep in mind that the more information you will provide about your products to Google, the better your feed will be and the better your products ranking will be in Google Shopping.

The gender must be provided for all products that belongs to the Google category: Apparel & Accessories (166) and whose feed targets certain countries (which list is available by clicking here), including France and United States. It is also required for all products that vary by gender, even if they are not clothing or accessories and whatever the targeted country.

However, the gender is optional for some products in the Google "Apparel & Accessories". You will find the list of these exceptions by clicking here.

Also, even if your products don't match with the conditions above, we advise you to indicate the gender your products are designed for, anyway. Indeed, the more information you will provide about your products to Google, the better your feed will be and the better your product ranking will be in Google Shopping.

Please read the Google's official guidelines about the "gender" tag in Google Shopping attentively by clicking here.

The "gender" information is especially useful (mandatory) for apparel, so this is why its configuration in the module is available in the "Apparel feed options" tab of the "Product feed management" section. However, the "gender" tag may be needed in some cases to other product types, specifically made for men or women.

To configure the "gender" tag for each of your default categories, select "Yes" for the "Do you want to include gender tags?" option, save and then click "Configure the tag for each category" :

You get a pop-up that lists all your categories^(*). For each of them independantly, you can associate one of the three Google predefined values :

• male
• female
• unisex

^(*)Warning : please note that the categories we are talking about are the DEFAULT categories.

Click on "Modify" and then don't forget to save the "Apparel feed options" form.