The role of product catalogs is steadily increasing for improving both online and offline consumer experience. But their real power lies in their ability to enhance the vibrancy and vividness of products so that consumers can better visualize and imagine products.
The role of product catalogs is steadily increasing for improving both online and offline consumer experience. But their real power lies in their ability to enhance the vibrancy and vividness of products so that consumers can better visualize and imagine products. It hones the usage experience of products and makes them highly influential in attracting buyers and convincing prospects during the purchasing process.
But over the years, manual product catalog management has become a tedious and time-consuming task. Enterprises face many challenges while managing their eCommerce product catalog due to the following reasons:
- Tackling multiple sources of product information
- Coordinating and collaborating with different teams and contributors
- Managing different catalog versions for multiple channels (e.g., web and mobile version of product data)
- Handling multiple languages and currencies
- Streamlining edit, approval, and publishing rights
- Managing different version and change control
- Introducing new products data and catalogs
If you do not have the right eCommerce catalog management strategy in place, your product data will become messy and inconsistent. It will also impact your operational productivity, data quality, product experience, and business revenue. When you have to deal with websites, e-commerce platforms, print catalogs, e-commerce, points of sale, mobile applications, and more, it becomes even more challenging.
>Best Practices for eCommerce Product Catalog Management
Product catalogs are now a volume game. Without adopting the best practices for eCommerce product catalog management, you can trap yourself in the maze of inconsistent and unreliable product experiences. You will be at the mercy of your manual efforts, which could mean risking a lot of precious time and resources. Here are some factors that you should keep in mind:
1. Relevancy and credibility of product data
Low quality and incomplete product data can be dangerous for your eCommerce strategy. You must always ensure your product information's quality and accuracy so that potential customers can trust your brands and keep coming back. You must provide comprehensive and updated information about your products. Right information enables you to create an accurate product catalog for your brands whenever and wherever you need it.
2. Clearly categorize and specify product attributes
A clearly defined product category is vital in the eCommerce business. You must add all specifications of products so that a well-designed product catalog can be created. All information like product size, color, price tags, and other attributes must be clearly defined. You must add some supportive but relevant specifications to your product description. Many products could belong to multiple categories. When there are hundreds of millions of products in the catalog, categorization and classification become essential. A well-defined product classification strengthens the user experience and improves search relevancy.
3. Differentiate physical and digital catalogs
Physical and digital catalogs are generally a little different in nature. It would be best if you made a clear distinction between what information should be included in offline catalogs and what information should be included in the online catalogs. The audience for both types of catalogs may behave differently. You must be in tune with your customer’s behavior (online and offline) and then deliver continuous innate product values.
4. Personalize your product catalogs
Personalization is one of the critical factors in product catalog creation. You cannot feed the same things to different audiences. Remember various factors like product pricing, quantities, and other attributes to cater to your targeted audience with the right type of catalog. You must segment your product catalogs to provide a personalized and seamless customer experience across all touchpoints.
Invest in the right PIM Platform
Product Information Management (PIM) systems are the ideal choice for managing eCommerce product catalogs. A PIM system enables you to centralize and manage all your product data in a single place. With PIM software, you can harmonize all your product catalogs and related marketing, sales, and technical product data. You can save time with the automated process to upload, standardize, and publish your product catalogs to your different sales channels. You can ensure that you always have rich, consistent product information that your buyers are searching for.
- Import and Onboard Data: Centralize all product content and information from multiple sources (Excel/CSV, ERP, PLM, Suppliers, and Marketing) with custom product hierarchies, data modeling, validations, and versioning.
- Digitize and Optimize Product Catalogs: Create and organize catalogs with comprehensive information such as product descriptions, images, videos, specifications, attributes, accessories, parts, and more.
- Enrich Product Catalogs: Make your product catalogs highly intuitive with detailed product information to increase conversion rate.
- Syndicate and Distribute in Real-time: Export and publish data in different formats across multiple customer touchpoints, other channel partners, suppliers, and agencies with industry-standard data pools.
- Automate Print Process: Create personalized print-ready marketing and sales collateral such as price lists, brochures, technical documentation, and up-to-date presentations at the click of a button.
Your brand’s abilities to empower consumers and evoke emotional connections by leveraging creative and aesthetic appeal will comprise crucial competitive advantages in modern eCommerce. Product catalogs can be a powerful catalyst to accomplish it.
Want to know how to choose the right PIM system for your eCommerce product catalogs management requirement? Schedule a demo with Pimcore consultants.
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