Why you can only pick certain materials

EU law lists the exact words you are allowed to use for a material. The app checks what you type against that list before you can save, so you cannot write something that is not allowed by accident.

That is not us being strict. Regulation (EU) 1007/2011, Article 5, says only the names on its list may be used to describe what a product is made of, and that those names are reserved - you cannot use one for a different material, or as part of another word.

Finding your material

Type into the Material box and a list of matching names opens under it. Three or four letters is usually enough. Pick one from the list and the row is done.

The box is forgiving: capitals, accents and one or two typos are all fine, and any of the app's six languages works, so Baumwolle on an English store gives you cotton. What it will never do is guess for you. A near miss is offered as a suggestion for you to accept, never filled in on its own.

When nothing on the list is close enough, the list says so: No EU material name matches that. That is your sign to try the word below instead.

Bamboo is the common one

There is no bamboo on the list. Bamboo fabric is almost always viscose made from bamboo, so viscose is what goes on the label. Type viscose and pick it from the list.

The same applies to a few other everyday words:

• Bamboo, for clothing, is viscose
• Lycra and Spandex are brand names - the material is elastane
• Tencel is a brand name - the material is lyocell
• Microfibre is not a material, it is usually polyester or polyamide
• Vegan leather is not a textile material at all

Some materials have two official names

A few entries on the EU list give two names, and both are allowed. You are not choosing between a right one and a wrong one:

• flax and linen are the same entry
• polyamide and nylon are the same entry
• abaca is also called Manila hemp
• coir is also called coconut

Both are in the list, so type whichever your shoppers know. If you sell linen shirts, your label can say linen, and it is never marked as anything other than a correct label.

Whichever of the two you type is the one that prints, and the one you see when you open the product again. Type linen and your product page says linen.

A file import keeps your word too. A spreadsheet reading 100% linen or 50% nylon puts linen and nylon on the product page, exactly as if you had typed them in yourself. There is nothing to re-open and nothing to save again.

If your material is genuinely not on the list

There are two honest ways out, and the first is the one EU law itself gives you.

Add it as "other fibres" with its percentage. Type other fibres into the material box, pick it from the list like any other name, and give it its share. Article 9 of the same regulation says that is exactly what to do for a material the list does not name yet. It is the correct label, not a workaround.

Or use your own wording, knowingly. If you sell outside the EU you may need a different word - the United States, for example, asks for "spandex" where the EU asks for "elastane". So the app lets you keep what you typed. Press Add anyway, the button in the material row to the right of the box. You can only press it once what you have typed is a word the EU list does not have, so you cannot use it by mistake.

Press it and the button turns into a Not EU wording badge in the same spot. From then on the product carries that mark in three places: a warning banner at the top of the product, the badge on the material row, and the same badge beside its materials in the Products list. So you can always see which of your products are on the official words and which are not.

Nothing is blocked. The product still goes on your store when you save. The app just never lets it happen by accident, and retyping an official name takes the mark straight off again.

Small amounts

EU law lets you group small amounts as "other fibres" instead of naming them: one material of 5% or less, or several adding up to 15% or less.

The app never groups anything for you, so if you want your 3% elastane named, it stays named. What it does check is the 15% total - an "other fibres" line above that is refused, and it cannot be the only line on a product.