Sort every material claim into one of three types before you publish it. Composition is what the product is made of (“100% merino wool”). Performance is what it does (“waterproof”, “breaks down within 12 months”). Certification is an outside body vouching for something, and only that type needs an issuer, a certificate number, a scope and a date.
For each certification, write down who issued it, its number, exactly what it covers (the whole product, one component, an input material or one size), whether it’s active and when you last checked. Then publish those words next to the claim. In 1,620 Shopify catalog results, only two descriptions gave a certificate number.
What 1,620 catalog results said about certifications
On October 26, 2026 we saved 162 searches from Shopify’s agent catalog, 10 results each. Shopify returns its own generated spec lines alongside each description. Shopify marks those lines Inferred: generated or enriched by Shopify, possibly inaccurate, and not merchant-authored text.
93 of the 1,620 results had a generated spec line that began “Certification” or “Certifications”. Here’s what those lines contained:
| What the “Certification” line listed | Results | Example (generated spec line) |
|---|---|---|
| At least one named scheme | 35 | “Certifications: GOTS, Oeko-Tex” |
| Only attribute claims, no scheme or issuer | 50 | “Certifications: BPA-free, phthalate-free, lead-free” |
| Conformity or testing marks only | 5 | “Certifications: CE, FCC, RoHS” |
| Other (a testing company, a bear-safety body, “Not specified”) | 3 | “Certifications: Not specified” |
More than half of the “certification” lines certify nothing. “Vegan, cruelty-free, gluten-free” may well be true, but it’s a composition or ingredient claim, not a certificate. When a generated list files it under Certifications, an agent or a shopper can’t tell which kind of claim it’s reading.
Scheme names the merchant never wrote
The bigger problem is in the 35 lines that name a scheme. In six of them, the scheme appears nowhere in the merchant’s title or description:
| Shelf (search) | Position | Generated spec line names | Merchant’s title or description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toddler snowsuit rated for minus 30 | 1 | bluesign | Doesn’t use the word; calls it “This bluepass product” |
| Organic cotton mini crib sheet | 2 | GOTS | 247-character description; says “organic cotton muslin”, no scheme |
| Natural scalp scrub | 7 | Leaping Bunny | No scheme named |
| Neck pillow that supports the chin | 1 | OEKO-TEX, CertiPUR-US | No scheme named |
| Eco stocking stuffers | 6 | FSC (plus UKCA, UKNI and CE) | No scheme named |
| Laundry detergent sheets | 4 | Leaping Bunny | 7,131-character description; no scheme named |
The crib sheet is the clearest case. Its whole description is 247 characters. The only place “GOTS” appears in the entire product record is Shopify’s generated line. The sheet may well be GOTS-certified, and Shopify may have drawn on data we didn’t receive. But nothing a shopper can see backs the claim, and the record carries no number to check.
Where scope got lost
Certifications cover specific things, and the generated lines tended to drop the qualifier:
- Crib sheets, positions 4 to 10: the descriptions say the sheets are “GOTS-certified organic cotton” made with “OEKO-TEX certified, non-toxic, all natural dyes”. The generated line says “Certifications: GOTS, Oeko-Tex”. The OEKO-TEX claim was about the dyes; the generated line doesn’t say so.
- Kids’ merino base layers, positions 2, 4, 8 and 9: the descriptions say the garments are made with “Woolmark and Oek-Tex 100 certified Australian merino wool”. That claim is about the wool. The generated line says “Certification: Woolmark and OEKO-TEX 100”. It fixed the spelling and dropped the scope.
- Compostable bags, position 8: the description says “BPI, TUV Home and TUV Industrial certified for backyard and commercial/industrial composting”. The generated line says “Certification: BPI and TUV”.
- Compostable bags, position 2: the description lists certificates from BPI, “OK Compost Industrial and Home” and “Seedling from TUV”, plus “ABA”. The generated line lists “BPI, OK Compost Industrial, TÜV, EN 13432, ASTM D6400”. The home-compost certificate is gone.
Two listings that did it right
Only two descriptions in the 1,620 results gave a certificate or label number.
The compostable trash bag at position 10 wrote: “Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) Certificate #10529252. Certified commercially compostable only. Facilities may not exist in your area. Check with local officials.” That’s issuer, number, scope and a practical caveat in four short sentences. A shopper, or an agent, can check it in BPI’s public catalog.
The yoga mat at position 9 gave its OEKO-TEX Standard 100 number, the product class and the testing institute. One snag: Shopify’s generated line repeated the number in lower case, and OEKO-TEX’s Label Check page says its label numbers are case sensitive. Even a correct claim can be bent in transit, so keep your exact number in your own text.
The compostable bag at position 5 shows why scope matters for variants. One listing sells two sizes, and the description says the 3-gallon bags are certified compostable and “Safe to tie off and throw in your home compost”, while “The 13-gallon trash bags are only certified commercially compostable”. The generated line kept it: “3 gallon (home/commercial), 13 gallon (commercial only)”. A shopper with a backyard compost bin needs exactly that distinction.
The claim-to-evidence worksheet
Make one row per claim, not one row per product. The worksheet is our proposal, built from the gaps above. No platform requires it.
Step 1: classify each claim
| Claim type | It answers | Evidence that supports it | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Composition | What is it made of? | Factory spec, fiber or ingredient breakdown, care label | “100% merino wool, 17.5 micron” |
| Performance | What does it do, and how was that measured? | Test report: method, lab, result, date | “Waterproof to 10,000 mm (test method, lab, date)” |
| Certification | Who vouches for it, for what? | Certificate or licence from the issuer, plus a public lookup | “BPI certified, Certificate #[number], commercial composting only” |
| Free-from | What isn’t in it? | Supplier declaration or test for each substance | “BPA-free (supplier declaration, date)” |
If a claim fits no row, rewrite it until it does or cut it. “Non-toxic” and “eco-friendly” need a specific basis. The FTC’s Green Guides warn about seals and certifications that don’t convey their basis, and say a certification doesn’t excuse the marketer from substantiating every claim it reasonably conveys.
Step 2: fill in the evidence fields for each certification
| Field | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Scheme and issuer | The exact scheme name, as the issuer writes it | “Oek-Tex” and “OEKO-TEX Standard 100” aren’t the same string |
| Certificate or licence number | Exactly as issued, same case | A shopper can only check what you publish |
| Scope | Whole product, one component, input material, or certain sizes only | “Certified wool” isn’t “certified garment” |
| Holder | Your business, your manufacturer or your fabric supplier | Tells you who to ask when it lapses |
| Status and validity | Active or inactive; valid from and until | Certificates expire; Schema.org has status and expiry properties for this |
| Lookup and last checked | The issuer’s public lookup, plus the date you checked | Proves the claim was true when you wrote it |
| Exact public wording | The sentence you’ll publish | Keeps the generated copies from rewriting it |
Issuers we checked run public lookups: OEKO-TEX’s Label Check, the GOTS Certified Suppliers Database and BPI’s product catalog. GOTS notes that certification bodies are still updating its new database, and tells you to ask your certification body if information is missing. So a missing lookup result isn’t proof the claim is false, but it’s a reason to ask before you publish.
Step 3: publish it in text, in your own words
Write the certification as a sentence in the product description, with the number and scope. For example: “Fabric certified to [scheme], certificate [number] (holder: our fabric mill), valid until [date]; checked [date].” Don’t rely on a logo image or on a generated list to carry it.
If you sell textiles in the US, the FTC’s textile rules apply to internet ads too. If an ad says anything about a fiber, the fiber content from the label must appear, minus the percentages, in descending order of weight. Internet catalog descriptions must also say whether the item is made in the USA, imported or both.
Worked case: the kids’ merino base layer
Here’s position 2 from the kids’ merino search, run through the worksheet. The product facts come from the catalog record. The “Status” column says what we could and couldn’t confirm.
| Claim as written | Type | Evidence in the record | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| “100% merino wool” | Composition | Description and generated spec agree | Stated; no fiber diameter or origin certificate |
| “Woolmark … certified Australian merino wool” | Certification (input material) | Scheme named; no licence number | Scope is the wool, not the garment; unverified |
| “Oek-Tex 100 certified” | Certification (input material) | Misspelled scheme; no label number | Can’t be checked in OEKO-TEX’s Label Check without a number |
| “sustainable natural product” | General environmental claim | None | Needs a specific basis or should be cut |
The fix takes four lines in the description:
- Fiber: 100% merino wool, [micron] micron, [country] origin.
- Wool certification: [scheme exactly as issued], licence [number], held by [supplier]; covers the yarn.
- Textile safety: OEKO-TEX Standard 100, label [number exactly as issued], product class [class]; checked [date].
- Imported (or Made in USA), consistent with the sewn-in label.
Every bracket is a fact the merchant has to supply. If one is missing, say “not certified” or leave the line out. Don’t fill the gap with “certified” alone.
What the platforms’ fields will and won’t carry
Platform fields carry composition well and certifications poorly (checked on 2026-10-27; re-check before acting):
| Platform field | What it takes | Certifications? |
|---|---|---|
Google Merchant Center material |
The main fabric or material; up to 200 characters; required when products vary by material | No |
Google Merchant Center certification |
Authority, name and code for regulatory certifications | Only four supported: EU energy label, two vehicle CO2 schemes, Energy Star |
OpenAI product feed material |
“Principal materials in the item” | No certification field found in the current field reference |
| Shopify Global Catalog | Generated tech_specs and metadata.attributes, marked Inferred |
Generated from your data; can drop scope or case, as shown above |
On Google, OEKO-TEX, GOTS, Leaping Bunny and BPI aren’t in the supported certification list, so for now your description text is where those claims live. Schema.org’s Certification type has the right properties (issuer, identification, status, expiry). Google’s own structured-data examples for it are energy and vehicle labels, though, and we found no platform documentation saying it reads these properties for textile or compostability schemes. For how structured data, feeds and the catalog relate, see our guides on product schema markup and Shopify’s Global Catalog.
For dimensions and units, use the product specification template. For fit, use the size chart guide. To test a single product against a shopper’s full brief, including “certified organic”, use constraint coverage.
How we checked
On October 27 we reopened 162 saved Shopify agent-catalog responses from October 26, 2026, each an unpersonalized search returning the top 10 results (1,620 result occurrences). A script found every generated tech_specs line beginning “Certification” or “Certifications” and sorted its contents against a hand-built list of named schemes (OEKO-TEX, GOTS, Woolmark, Leaping Bunny, bluesign, BPI, CertiPUR-US, FSC and others) and conformity marks (CE, UKCA, UKNI, FCC, RoHS). For each named scheme, it checked whether the same name appeared in the listing’s title or description. A second search looked across all titles, descriptions and generated lists for certificate, licence and label number patterns.
We then read the descriptions by hand for the scope examples above: the crib sheets, merino base layers, compostable bags and yoga mat. We didn’t look up any certificate number, open any product page or contact any store. Official pages were read on October 27, 2026.
Your next step
Open your product with the most claims. Put every claim into the worksheet, one row each. For each certification, find the certificate, copy the number exactly and check it in the issuer’s lookup. Then rewrite the description so each certification carries its issuer, number and scope in plain text. Cut anything you can’t back up.