How to Categorize Products for Tesco

Understanding Tesco Product Categorization

Tesco stands as Britain's largest retailer and one of the world's leading grocery retailers, commanding approximately 27% of the UK grocery market share and serving millions of customers through over 3,400 stores across the United Kingdom. From Express convenience stores to Extra hypermarkets and a comprehensive online grocery platform, Tesco offers food manufacturers, CPG brands, and household product suppliers unparalleled access to British consumers. Our advanced AI-powered categorization API helps suppliers automatically classify their products into Tesco's sophisticated grocery taxonomy with exceptional precision, ensuring your products appear in the correct categories for maximum visibility and sales performance across all Tesco channels.

The Tesco product catalogue represents one of the most comprehensive grocery and general merchandise ranges in British retail, spanning fresh food, ambient grocery, frozen products, household essentials, health and beauty, clothing, and home products. When products are listed on Tesco, proper category placement is absolutely critical because grocery shoppers typically navigate by category rather than search, making correct placement essential for discoverability. Tesco's taxonomy organizes products from broad departments like "Fresh Food" through increasingly specific subcategories such as "Fresh Food > Meat & Poultry > Fresh Chicken > Whole Chickens" or "Cupboard > Cooking & Baking > Oils & Vinegars > Olive Oils > Extra Virgin Olive Oil". This hierarchical structure enables the sophisticated filtering that grocery shoppers expect when building their baskets.

Product categorization for Tesco presents unique challenges compared to general retail marketplaces because of the specialized requirements of grocery retail. Products must be categorized considering factors like storage requirements (fresh, chilled, frozen, ambient), dietary attributes (vegan, gluten-free, organic), and regulatory compliance for food products. Additionally, Tesco operates multiple store formats with different product ranges, meaning categorization affects which stores can stock products. The retailer's Clubcard loyalty program and data-driven merchandising also depend on accurate categorization for personalized recommendations and promotions. Our enterprise API addresses these grocery-specific challenges through machine learning models trained specifically on UK supermarket data, understanding British food terminology, regulatory requirements, and the detailed category structures that grocery retailers require.

Tesco Category Taxonomy System

Tesco's category taxonomy represents a sophisticated grocery retail classification system designed to serve British shoppers building their weekly shops across multiple channels. The taxonomy reflects decades of British grocery retail expertise, organizing tens of thousands of products in ways that match how UK consumers actually shop for food and household essentials. Understanding this grocery-focused taxonomy is essential for suppliers seeking to place products effectively within Tesco's vast store network and online platform.

The taxonomy structure follows a grocery-oriented hierarchy designed to support both aisle-by-aisle browsing and specific product searches. Categories are organized to reflect how products are merchandised in physical stores while also supporting online shopping basket building. For instance, products are grouped by storage type (fresh, chilled, frozen, ambient), meal occasion (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacking), and dietary need (free-from, organic, healthy). The system also accommodates Tesco's own-brand hierarchy (Tesco Finest, Tesco, Tesco Everyday Value) alongside branded products, with categorization supporting appropriate brand positioning and competitive placement.

Popular Tesco Categories

Tesco regularly updates its taxonomy to accommodate new product types, emerging dietary trends, and evolving British consumer preferences. Our AI models are continuously trained on the latest Tesco category structures, ensuring your products are categorized according to current platform standards. This includes handling Tesco-specific approaches like Free From ranges, Plant Chef vegan products, and seasonal category expansions that reflect changing British shopping habits.

API Integration Guide for Tesco

Integrating our Tesco categorization API into your supplier systems is straightforward and designed for seamless incorporation into existing product information management workflows. We provide RESTful endpoints that accept product information including ingredients and dietary attributes, returning detailed categorization results specifically mapped to Tesco's grocery taxonomy structure.

import requests

def categorize_for_tesco(product_description, api_key):
    """
    Categorize a product for Tesco UK supermarkets
    Returns grocery-specific category paths and attributes
    """
    base_url = "https://www.productcategorization.com/api/ecommerce/ecommerce_category6_get.php"
    params = {
        "query": product_description,
        "api_key": api_key,
        "data_type": "tesco",
        "region": "uk"
    }
    response = requests.get(base_url, params=params)
    return response.json()

# Example usage with grocery product
result = categorize_for_tesco(
    "Heinz Beanz 415g Baked Beans in Rich Tomato Sauce",
    "your_api_key_here"
)
print(f"Tesco Category: {result['category']}")
print(f"Storage Type: {result['storage_type']}")

async function categorizeForTesco(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: 'tesco',
        region: 'uk'
    });
    const response = await fetch(`${baseUrl}?${params}`);
    return response.json();
}

// Example with fresh food product
categorizeForTesco('Tesco British Chicken Breast Fillets 500g', 'your_api_key')
    .then(result => {
        console.log('Category:', result.category);
        console.log('Dietary Attributes:', result.dietary);
    });

curl -X GET "https://www.productcategorization.com/api/ecommerce/ecommerce_category6_get.php" \
  -d "query=Alpro Oat Milk Barista Edition 1 Litre Vegan Plant Based" \
  -d "api_key=your_api_key_here" \
  -d "data_type=tesco" \
  -d "region=uk"