How to Categorize Products for BigBasket

Understanding BigBasket Product Categorization

BigBasket dominates India's online grocery market with over fifty thousand products spanning fresh produce, staples, beverages, household essentials, and personal care items. As a Tata Enterprise company, BigBasket has set the standard for online grocery shopping in India, serving millions of households across major metropolitan areas. For suppliers and brands, proper product categorization is essential for visibility in BigBasket's extensive catalog and ensuring products reach customers searching for specific grocery items.

The online grocery category presents unique categorization challenges that differ significantly from general e-commerce. Products must be classified not just by type but also by dietary preferences, regional tastes, packaging formats, and freshness requirements. A packet of organic brown basmati rice needs different categorization than regular white rice, even though both are rice products. Similarly, regional specialty items like South Indian filter coffee powder or Maharashtrian masalas require precise subcategory placement to reach customers specifically seeking these regional variations.

BigBasket's taxonomy reflects the complexity of Indian grocery shopping, where households purchase everything from daily staples like atta and dal to specialty items, gourmet foods, and international products. The platform organizes products into intuitive hierarchies that mirror how Indian consumers think about grocery shopping: by meal type, cuisine, dietary requirement, brand, and product function. Our AI categorization system understands these nuances and accurately places products within BigBasket's multi-dimensional taxonomy structure.

For brands and distributors managing hundreds or thousands of SKUs, manual categorization creates significant operational overhead. Every new product launch, packaging update, or variant addition requires careful category assignment. Errors in categorization mean products become invisible to customers searching in specific categories, directly impacting sales velocity. Our enterprise API eliminates this bottleneck by providing instant, accurate categorization that integrates seamlessly with your product information management systems and BigBasket's supplier portal workflows.

BigBasket Category Taxonomy Structure

BigBasket's product taxonomy is designed to replicate and enhance the traditional Indian grocery shopping experience. The hierarchy begins with major departments that reflect how Indian households organize their kitchen and household needs, then branches into increasingly specific subcategories that account for regional preferences, dietary requirements, and product characteristics.

The platform organizes products into primary departments including Fruits & Vegetables, Foodgrains Oil & Masala, Bakery Cakes & Dairy, Beverages, Snacks & Branded Foods, Beauty & Hygiene, Cleaning & Household, Kitchen Garden & Pets, and Baby Care. Each department contains multiple levels of subcategories. For example, Foodgrains Oil & Masala contains Atta Flours & Sooji, Rice & Rice Products, Dals & Pulses, Edible Oils, Ghee & Vanaspati, Masalas & Spices, Salt Sugar & Jaggery, and more. Each of these further subdivides by product type, variant, and characteristic.

Popular BigBasket Categories

Beyond basic categorization, BigBasket uses product attributes extensively for filtering and search. These include dietary flags like vegetarian, vegan, organic, gluten-free, and sugar-free. Products can also be tagged by occasion, cuisine type, and special dietary requirements. Our AI system identifies and suggests relevant attributes based on product descriptions, helping suppliers complete listings with all required metadata for optimal product discoverability.

API Integration Guide

Integrating our BigBasket categorization API into your supplier workflow is straightforward. The API accepts product information including name, description, brand, and specifications, returning detailed categorization results formatted for BigBasket's taxonomy. The system handles the complexity of grocery categorization, including variant recognition and dietary attribute extraction.

import requests

def categorize_for_bigbasket(product_description, api_key):
    base_url = "https://www.productcategorization.com/api/ecommerce/ecommerce_category6_get.php"
    params = {
        "query": product_description,
        "api_key": api_key,
        "data_type": "bigbasket"
    }
    response = requests.get(base_url, params=params)
    return response.json()

# Example usage for grocery product
result = categorize_for_bigbasket(
    "Tata Sampann Unpolished Toor Dal 1kg Protein Rich",
    "your_api_key_here"
)
print(f"Category: {result['category']}")
print(f"Confidence: {result['confidence']}")

async function categorizeForBigBasket(productDescription, apiKey) {
    const baseUrl = 'https://www.productcategorization.com/api/ecommerce/ecommerce_category6_get.php';
    const params = new URLSearchParams({
        query: productDescription,
        api_key: apiKey,
        data_type: 'bigbasket'
    });
    const response = await fetch(`${baseUrl}?${params}`);
    return response.json();
}

// Example usage for dairy product
categorizeForBigBasket('Amul Butter Salted 500g Pack', 'your_api_key')
    .then(result => console.log('Category:', result.category));

curl -X GET "https://www.productcategorization.com/api/ecommerce/ecommerce_category6_get.php" \
  -d "query=Organic India Tulsi Green Tea Classic 25 Bags" \
  -d "api_key=your_api_key_here" \
  -d "data_type=bigbasket"