Bulk-Fix a Whole Category with One Rule

Fix a whole category, brand, or price band of products at once with a single rule instead of editing them one by one — and new matching products are fixed automatically on every import.

Updated July 15, 2026

When a whole group of products needs the same fix — a category, a brand, a price band — don't edit them one at a time. Write a single rule that matches the group with a condition and corrects it with an action. Every matching product is fixed at once, and new products that match are fixed automatically on each import.

Why one rule beats editing products one by one#

Per-product edits don't scale across a client's catalog, and they don't survive the next import — the feed simply overwrites them. A rule lives in the catalog and re-applies on every import, so the fix sticks, and it covers products that arrive later without you touching them again. For an agency running many accounts, that's the difference between a five-minute fix and an afternoon of data entry.

The shape of a category fix#

Every bulk fix is the same two-part rule: a condition that selects the group, and an action that changes the field. The mechanics — the full set of operators, actions, and value steps — are covered in Fixing your feed data with rules. Here's how to aim one rule at a whole category.

Worked example: fix a mislabeled category#

Say a supplier's feed lists 300 products under the category value misc-outdoor, and you need them all in a proper "Outdoor & Garden" category.

  1. Open the catalog and go to the Rules tab.
  2. Add a rule with one condition: the category column is exactly misc-outdoor. (Use contains instead when you want to match a family of values — for example, every product type containing "Jacket".)
  3. Add a Set field action that writes your target field — here, the product type — to Outdoor & Garden.
  4. Publish the catalog so the change goes live. Nothing reprocesses until you publish.

The rule then shows how many products it matched, so you can confirm it caught the whole category and didn't sweep in anything it shouldn't.

More category jobs one rule can do#

  • Segment a category for a campaign. Every product whose type contains "Running" gets a custom label of running, so you can bid on them as a group.
  • Exclude a whole category from your ads. Drop every product in a brand or category you can't advertise with a single Exclude product action.
  • Clean a field across a category. Strip a supplier prefix from every SKU in one product type, or normalize casing, using value steps on a Set field action.

The payoff#

One rule replaces hundreds of manual edits — and keeps working. Because it re-runs on every import, a product added to that category next week is fixed the moment it arrives. You set it up once and never revisit it.

Or ask Aimée#

Describe the job in plain language — "give every outdoor product the category Outdoor & Garden," or "add the label clearance to everything on sale" — and Aimée can build the rule and publish it for you, once you approve.

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