Catalog Transformations overview – Marketplacer

Catalog Transformations let you define AI-assisted rules that automatically reformat product titles and descriptions across your catalog. Transformations clean up and standardize seller-submitted content — correcting casing, removing unwanted characters, stripping HTML, and trimming text to length — without requiring sellers to resubmit their listings.

Transformations are managed in the same place as your hard-block validation rules: ADVERTS > Catalog Rules.

Note: Catalog Transformations is currently in beta. It is to select marketplaces at no cost, with fair-use limits applying during the beta period.

What are catalog transformations?

Catalog Rules includes two types of rules:

Hard blocks: Validation rules that reject a listing if it fails a condition. The seller must fix the issue before the product can proceed. Hard blocks are the existing catalog rules, now part of the unified Catalog Rules page.
Transformations: AI-assisted rules that automatically reformat a product's title or description when it changes. The product is not blocked; the text is cleaned up and the original is always preserved.

The two rule types are complementary. Hard blocks enforce your non-negotiable requirements; transformations handle reformatting work that would otherwise require manual intervention from you or your sellers.

The Catalog Rules page

The Catalog Rules page has two tabs:

My rules: Your active hard blocks and transformations. Transformations are listed in their own table, grouped by attribute (for example, all Product Description transformations together). Each row shows the rule description, variable if applicable, date added, and controls to toggle, edit, or delete the rule.
Rules library: A catalog of predefined hard blocks and transformations you can add to your marketplace. You can search by name or filter by attribute and outcome type to find the rule you need.

A Processing order indicator at the top of the page shows the sequence rules run in: Hard Blocks → Transformations → Rules passed. Hard blocks always run first. Transformations only run on content that has already passed validation.

Available transformations

At launch, the following transformations are available for product titles and descriptions:

Transformation	Applies to	What it does	Example
Title Case	Product Title only	Capitalizes the first letter of each word	blue cotton tshirt → Blue Cotton T-Shirt
Sentence case	Product description only	Normalizes description casing to sentence case	THIS JACKET IS WATERPROOF. → This jacket is waterproof.
Remove special characters	Product Title, Product Description	Removes or replaces special characters	Sale!! 🔥 Jacket™ → Sale Jacket
Shorten text	Product Title, Product Description	Trims a field to a target character length while retaining meaning	400-character title → trimmed to the configured limit
Whitespace normalisation	Product Title, Product Description	Removes unwanted double-spaces, tabs, and line breaks	Red leather bag → Red leather bag
Strip HTML	Product Title, Product Description	Strips all HTML tags, attributes, and scripts from text fields	<strong>Warm</strong> wool → Warm wool

Note: Title Case and Sentence case cannot both be enabled on the same field. Title Case applies to Product Title only; Sentence case applies to Product Description only.

How transformations are applied

Trigger

A transformation runs when a new advert is created or when a product's title or description changes, whether the change comes through the Operator Portal, Seller Portal, a spreadsheet upload, or M-Connect. Editing other fields does not trigger transformations.

Timing

Transformations run in the background. Results usually apply within 10–15 minutes, though this is not guaranteed. Each product shows one of four statuses while processing:

Processing: The transformation is queued or running.
Completed: The transformed text has been applied.
Failed: The transformation did not apply. The product keeps its original text.
Blocked by Catalog Rules: The product has failed catalog rules. The transformation will not run until the catalog rule errors are resolved.

Reviewing changes

The original text is never overwritten. A Review panel is available in both the Operator Portal and Seller Portal, showing the original and transformed values side by side. Use it to see exactly what has changed.

New and existing products

Transformations apply automatically when a new advert is created or when a product's title or description changes. Products already published are not reprocessed unless their title or description is updated.

What sellers see

Sellers do not configure transformations. Once you have added a transformation, sellers will see:

A transformation status column on their products in the Seller Portal.
Transformed title and description values in the Edit advert form and advert exports.
The Review panel showing original vs. transformed values.
Active transformations listed on the Marketplace Catalog Rules page in the Seller Portal.

Beta availability

Catalog Transformations is available in beta to select marketplaces from 25 June 2026. The feature is free during beta, with fair-use limits applying. Additional capabilities are on the roadmap, including custom AI rules, image transformations, and the ability to preview changes on existing products before applying them.