How to Categorize Products for Indigo

Understanding Indigo Product Categorization

Indigo, operating under the Chapters Indigo banner, stands as Canada's largest book, gift, and specialty retailer with over 160 stores nationwide and a robust e-commerce platform at indigo.ca. What began as a bookstore chain has evolved into a cultural destination offering books, toys, gifts, home décor, wellness products, stationery, and lifestyle accessories. The company's tagline "The World Needs More Canada" reflects its focus on Canadian authors and products while also curating an international selection of books and gifts. Our AI-powered categorization API helps vendors and suppliers automatically classify products into Indigo's sophisticated multi-category taxonomy with precision and accuracy.

The Indigo product ecosystem has transformed significantly from its bookstore origins. While books remain central to the brand identity, the company has expanded into what they call "cultural department store" territory, curating lifestyle products that appeal to their educated, affluent, predominantly female customer demographic. Products listed for Indigo must conform to categorization standards that reflect both traditional book industry classification (BISAC codes, genre hierarchies) and lifestyle retail merchandising principles. The taxonomy structure organizes products from broad departments through categories, subcategories, and product types, with additional classification for gift occasions, aesthetic styles, and age appropriateness.

Manual categorization for Indigo presents unique challenges due to the dual nature of the business spanning publishing industry conventions and lifestyle retail approaches. Books require categorization by genre, format, age range, and subject matter following established publishing standards. Gift and lifestyle products require understanding of Indigo's curated aesthetic, seasonal relevance, and gift-giving occasions. Our enterprise API addresses these challenges by incorporating both book industry classification expertise and lifestyle retail intelligence, ensuring products are accurately placed within Indigo's carefully curated shopping experience whether you're listing bestselling fiction, artisan candles, or children's educational toys.

Indigo Books & Lifestyle Taxonomy

Indigo employs a sophisticated taxonomy that bridges traditional book industry classification with lifestyle retail merchandising. The hierarchy organizes products from major departments (Books, Kids, Home, Gifts, Wellness) through increasingly specific categories, with additional classification layers for format, occasion, aesthetic, and target audience. This multi-faceted structure enables customers to discover products through various paths including genre browsing, gift-finding tools, and curated collections.

The taxonomy architecture at Indigo reflects the company's evolution from bookstore to lifestyle destination. Book categories follow publishing industry conventions with genres, sub-genres, and format distinctions (hardcover, paperback, audiobook, eBook). Lifestyle categories are organized by use case, room, and aesthetic style. Understanding these different organizing principles within a single retailer's taxonomy is crucial for accurate product placement. The system also accommodates Indigo's seasonal and event-driven merchandising, with prominent holiday, back-to-school, and gift-giving occasion categories that shift throughout the year.

Primary Indigo Departments

Indigo continuously evolves its taxonomy to accommodate publishing trends, emerging gift categories, and changing Canadian consumer preferences. Recent additions include expanded sustainability-focused product sections, enhanced audiobook and eBook categories, and dedicated mindfulness and wellness areas. The company also maintains strong Canadian content highlighting with dedicated sections for Canadian authors and Canadian-made products. Our AI models receive continuous training updates to reflect these taxonomy changes, ensuring your product categorizations remain accurate with Indigo's latest category structures.

API Integration Guide

Integrating our Indigo categorization API into your product information management system is straightforward and efficient. The API accepts product information including title, description, author/brand, ISBN (for books), format, target audience, and product attributes, returning detailed categorization results with confidence scores, department placement recommendations, and alternative category suggestions for products that span multiple shopping contexts.

import requests

def categorize_for_indigo(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": "indigo"
    }
    response = requests.get(base_url, params=params)
    return response.json()

# Example usage
result = categorize_for_indigo(
    "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Hardcover Novel",
    "your_api_key_here"
)
print(f"Category: {result['category']}")

async function categorizeForIndigo(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: 'indigo'
    });
    const response = await fetch(`${baseUrl}?${params}`);
    return response.json();
}

// Example usage
categorizeForIndigo('LEGO Creator Expert Bookshop Building Set 10270', '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=Voluspa Japonica Candle Baltic Amber 18oz" \
  -d "api_key=your_api_key_here" \
  -d "data_type=indigo"