Missing Gender
Your apparel product is missing the gender attribute. Gender tells Google whether the product is designed for men, women, or is unisex — and it's one of the first filters shoppers apply when browsing apparel on Google Shopping. Missing gender means your products are excluded from the filtered search results that drive most apparel conversion. The gender attribute also informs fit recommendations and prevents women's products from showing to men's searches.
Missing value [gender]Impact: Gender is a required attribute for all clothing and most apparel products. Without it, Google cannot place your product in gender-filtered searches (the most common apparel search pattern) and the product will be disapproved.
Root Causes
- 1Your feed template was built without a gender column — no attribute was ever configured for it.
- 2The gender is implicit in your product categorization (e.g., products are in a 'Women' collection) but isn't explicitly set as an attribute value that maps to the feed.
- 3Your store sells for a single gender and you assumed it would be inferred — Google doesn't infer gender from store context or product names; it must be an explicit attribute.
- 4Products were imported from a supplier without a gender field, and no default was set during import.
- 5Gender-neutral or kids' products are submitted with no gender value instead of 'unisex' or linked to age_group.
Fix by Platform
- 1The cleanest approach for Shopify: add a product metafield for gender. Go to Settings → Custom data → Products → Add definition. Namespace: 'google', Key: 'gender', Type: Single line text.
- 2Set the value per product: in the product editor, scroll to the Google metafields section → set gender to 'male', 'female', or 'unisex' (exact lowercase values Google requires).
- 3For stores where all products are one gender (e.g., all women's): use your feed app's default value rule — set 'female' as the default for all products in specific collections without per-product overrides.
- 4In Simprosys, AdNabu, or DataFeedWatch: go to feed settings → attribute rules → add a rule that sets gender = 'female' for all products in your 'Women' collection and gender = 'male' for all in 'Men'.
- 5Valid values are exactly: 'male', 'female', 'unisex'. No alternatives ('men', 'women', 'm', 'f', 'boys', 'girls') — these cause 'invalid value [gender]' instead.
{% comment %} Gender metafield {% endcomment %}
{{ product.metafields.google.gender }}
{% comment %} Valid values: male, female, unisex {% endcomment %}When This Doesn't Apply
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the valid gender values?+
Exactly three values are accepted: 'male', 'female', 'unisex'. All lowercase. No other variations ('men', 'women', 'boys', 'girls', 'M', 'F', 'both', 'either') are valid — these return 'invalid value [gender]'. For kids' products that could be worn by either gender, use 'unisex'. For clearly gendered kids' clothing, use 'male' or 'female'.
My clothing store is all women's. Can I set 'female' for every product?+
Yes — and this is the fastest fix. Use your feed app's default value or category rule to apply 'female' to all products. If you ever add men's or unisex products later, you can override per-product.
What about gender-neutral or unisex clothing?+
Use 'unisex'. This is the correct value for products designed to be worn by any gender. It's also the correct value for most children's clothing that doesn't have a gender-specific cut. Using 'unisex' for genuinely gendered products (women's fitted dress) reduces your targeting precision — only use it when the product is genuinely designed for any gender.
How does gender interact with age_group?+
They're separate, complementary attributes. age_group specifies the demographic tier (adult, kids, toddler), while gender specifies male/female/unisex. For most adult clothing: age_group = 'adult', gender = 'female' or 'male'. For children's clothing: age_group = 'kids', gender = 'female' or 'male' or 'unisex'. Both are required for all apparel.