Try the below 8 tactics for ecommerce catalog management to help you accurately represent product information across all sales channels.
E-commerce catalog management entails more than simply keeping track of product information effectively. When purchasing online, consumers nowadays conduct additional research for product data.
You aim to ensure that your items are available online with all the necessary information for customers to make a purchase decision.
Customers must have regular access to product dimensions, price tags, color, quantity available, and other information to make informed decisions.
The ultimate aim of e-commerce catalog management is to build trust with your online store’s consumers and help establish a reputable reputation for your business in the industry.
Decide e-commerce catalog management
A catalog, in its most basic sense, is a comprehensive list of items organized. Having this type of structure has been crucial and efficient in the business world, and it hasn’t changed with the advent of e-commerce.
E-commerce catalog management is the process of integrating catalogs with e-commerce management software. The goal is to offer product information and to message uniformly across all sales channels. It’s an essential customer-focused sales approach that can make or ruin businesses.
Over time, catalogs have evolved. They’re more concerned with function than fashion these days. We’re finger-swiping through digital catalogs today, and they can be accessed on various platforms where we’re met with bots or virtual concierges to keep us interested in the company.
However, something hasn’t changed since old-school print catalogs: merchants must develop and manage accurate product information to build a brand, attract consumers, and deliver a positive experience.
The approach for monitoring products has changed, too. It started with manually recording jillions of hand-written entries in ledgers, then progressed to typing into thousands of Excel spreadsheet cells. Now it’s down to distilling masses of inventory data with the click of a button.
This emphasizes the importance of a high-quality e-commerce catalog management system. It must arrange, standardize, and publish product data in a certain manner across sales channels. It must embrace the omnichannel experience and sell via numerous platforms.
Manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors should verify that their e-commerce catalog management systems correctly contain product names, descriptions, pricing, hierarchy, suppliers, and other connected information while considering search engine optimization (SEO), site navigation, and consumer confidence.
The need for PIM system
Businesses should consider adopting a Product Information Management (PIM) system to ease the process of cataloging products and standardizing data with suppliers.
It must handle catalogs for various audiences and keep track of inventory on several channels for efficiency. It should be accessible 24/7, seven days a week, adaptable, and scalable.
See more» What is Product Information Management (PIM)? See our beginners’ guide to PIM!
Anyways, to better foster your business, here are the 8 tactics for e-commerce catalog management you will want to consider:
1. Process Mapping and Managing
The first practice in 8 tactics for ecommerce catalog management is mapping and managing. This means you should break down the barriers. Ensure that everyone understands how you plan to manage the catalog internally and externally. Establish roles and permission processes for database updates. Make knowledge of the procedure an open-source offer for wholesale retailers or external stakeholders who want to add items if necessary.
Stakeholders who are not part of the product management team should be aware of how new products and variants are created, as well as the process for product descriptions and imaging. To automate reorder point notifications and management, use SKUs to track real-time inventory counts.
2. Trust Building and Sustaining
Customers should feel at ease while shopping on your e-commerce site. Ensure the goods have all necessary and up-to-date information, such as technical specifications, pictures, videos, inventory availability, units of measure, and product usage.
3. Associated/ Alternative Products Suggesting
We’ve all gone to a brick-and-mortar store to look something up. Before you pay with your credit card, any items you may have forgotten or overlooked are visible in the checkout area.
In an e-commerce scenario, it’s the same as in any other situation. Customers should be given options or encouraged to explore if they don’t find what they’re looking for. Don’t be scared to upsell and cross-sell with related and alternative items to boost transaction revenue.
4. Being innovative
Potential consumers may need help narrowing their search to a merchant’s wide product range when they are unsure of what they want.
On the other hand, customers can be irritated by e-commerce sites that demand detailed product descriptions. Innovative search queries, easy drop-down navigation, and intelligent bots may alleviate this problem.
5. Proper Product Categorizing
Customers prefer to be able to modify their search and sort filters so that they can choose what they want. This implies that all product descriptions and measurement units must be standardized.
6. E-commerce Pillars Following
Some popular e-commerce pillars: Flexibility, scalability, omnichannel, integrations, and customizations.
Read more» Are there e-commerce pillars that you should follow so that your business can succeed?
7. Traditional Catalog and Digital Catalog
Although it’s a printed product that came by snail mail, it doesn’t mean it’s ineffective or out of date. The online and offline catalogs should work together harmoniously.
Make the offline version a simple-to-read reference overview guide for a greater grasp of the goods available in the online version.
Anytime a print catalog and its digital sibling are used in tandem, the user should be able to feel that they’re experiencing an interactive experience.
8. Risk Minimizing in Inventory Management
There is no such thing as a lesser of two evils when it comes to understock or overstock. They both have the potential to be detrimental to your business. Overstock causes needless capital expenditure, and understock prevents you from making money on merchandise sales.
The problem of inventory misuse has plagued the ec-ommerce industry for a long time, and online store owners have worked hard to reduce inventory risk. For your good fortune, with the solutions available for product catalog management today, you may use data to draw a clear picture of your products’ futures.
Sales will provide you with crucial information about the items that make the most money and those at risk of becoming deadstock. Furthermore, having an all-in-one solution that displays your product stats in one spot may help you make stock selections even more effectively.
You may quickly identify items that need restocking for particular variations, lowering inventory waste for the other versions still in stock.
Are you curious to learn about 8 tactics for ecommerce catalog management? Several firms have already implemented them and had excellent outcomes, and one day, thanks to these methods, your online business will flourish!
