Category Recognition in E-Commerce using Sequence-to-Sequence Hierarchical Classification

Abstract

E-commerce platforms often use a predefined structured hierarchy of product categories. Apart from helping buyers sort between different product types, listing categorization is also critical for multiple downstream tasks, including the platform's main listing search. Traditionally, when creating a new listing, sellers need to assign the product they sell to a single category. However, the high diversity of product types in the platform, along with the hierarchy's low level of granularity result in tens of thousands of different possible categories that sellers need to pick from. This, in turn, creates a unique classification challenge, especially for sellers with a large number of listings. Moreover, the expected cost of making a category classification error is high, as it can impact the likelihood that their listing will get discovered by relevant buyers, and eventually sold.