5 Practices To Ensure Flawless Product Catalog Management

By Dietmar Rietsch, Pimcore

In this day and age, omni-channel eCommerce forms the core of every business, and product catalogs are the interface that can transcend typical product information barriers across platforms. Today, product catalogs present an opportunity to reach new stakeholders, expand the customer base, and showcase unique products. An online product catalog is expected to deliver an exceptional digital customer experience appealing to B2B buyers, of which 73% are tech-savvy millennials. While creating compelling product experiences, catalogs must comprise both visual appeal and persuasive descriptions, vital for effective digital selling. Product managers, regardless of industry, are recalibrating their strategies to offer exceptional tailor-made experiences for their target audience that are adaptable across digital channels. 

Be it sending the catalog to a press outlet, a retailer, or directly to the clients, it should be a source of rich product information that conveys everything they need to know about the product a business offers to potential buyers. However, keeping product listings engaging, updated, and accurate across multiple sales and marketing channels can be daunting. Even the best enterprise efforts can often be jeopardized by poor data quality, insufficient participation of stakeholders, the lack of the right skills, cost constraints, and other factors. In short, businesses often do not follow the best practices needed to succeed in product catalog management (PCM). Here, we look at some significant aspects of PCM that cannot be overlooked:

• Enabling exceptional data management: Product catalogs are information – and information is best managed in databases. It is crucial for any business, especially when expanding its product portfolio and growing multichannel reach, to maintain a database for optimizing the catalog. Organizations must avoid replicating information in different sources and storing it in one database that acts as a single source of truth. For businesses aiming at aggressive expansion, the feasibility of the product catalog database expansion should be assessed. It is necessary to ensure that the product catalog can be easily managed and analyzed, and product variant information is readily available for the targeted user groups or customers. This is where the single database can help streamline the process of evaluating, standardizing, and publishing the product data to the desired sales channels. The easily manageable product catalog database will not only assure rich and consistent product data but also address unique organizational sales requirements and futuristic business needs. To be precise, channeling the product database through a single source will allow the business to improve its product information quality and futuristic catalog data automation initiatives.
   
• Incorporating product exposure tactics: Product catalogs are a concise way for any brand to present precise information about its products and engage potential buyers – consumers, stakeholders, and high-level decision makers alike. According to a report from Gartner, 27% of buyers independently research the product they are interested in online before purchasing. If product exposure is managed effectively, catalogs can be an efficient sales tool and provide easily accessible information concerning specific products. In addition, it can be distributed via multi-marketing and sales channels to help spread awareness of the brand and expand the customer base. However, inadequate information on a product will result in poor catalog management and can lead to lost sales and damaged brand loyalty. It is crucial to ensure that the entire process should be of users becoming aware of a product, understanding its value, and being willing to buy the product. In doing so, organizations can employ high-quality visuals and multiple media formats to illustrate that their product can attract and engage web store visitors. Furthermore, they can balance offline and online catalogs to offer both easily digestible and extensive product overviews for driving quick decisions as well as product deep-dives and comparisons.
   
• Validating real-time updates and engagement: Amidst a myriad of dimensions to product catalog management, incorporating ample information, frequent updates, and detailed visuals creates an effective product catalog. All products change at one point or another, and it is essential to continually update product information. In some instances, the change is so subtle that the consumer does not even notice it; in others, the product is almost a brand-new entity. However, multichannel sales must ensure consistent and fully commented product information to help optimize customers’ shopping experiences and make informed decisions. This can be achieved through continuous product updates and maintaining uniformity across channels, both online and offline. Real-time data is vital to maintain visibility across these channels. However, this is where businesses need to improve, especially as they look further down their multi-tiered model of business channels. Frequent catalog updates and engagement not only enhance consumer experiences but also enables brands and businesses with high levels of visibility into suppliers and sub-suppliers.
   
• Creating contextual categories: The inability to freely navigate categories, sub-categories, and filters to refine the product search can directly affect a potential buying decision. Consistency is essential in tagging and categorizing to ensure that customers can find the requirements without ambiguity. However, systematically tagging and categorizing the products can make the catalog more easily navigable and ensure that users find the right product quickly and proficiently. Great product categories in any platform not only allow internal teams to manage the product lines more efficiently but also improve collaboration with the end users and stakeholders. Contextual categories must be created keeping the customers’ perspective in mind. For instance, if customers frequently look for material-related specifics of a product, catalogs should not be restricted to size and color attributes. Besides, catalogs can include additional information or attributes as and when required to help customers make accurate decisions. Also, product tags across different categories should be consistent. In a nutshell, well-defined product classification and tagging elevate the customer experience and enhance search relevancy.
   
• Ensuring scalability and personalization: Applying a personalization strategy to product catalog management ensures that each user has a different experience that matches their specific needs and shopping habits. Businesses that cater to diverse content and varied customer segments must serve tailor-made catalogs to meet the specific needs of customers. Customizing search results and category pages for each user minimizes the time spent on searching for products and ensures that users always see relevant results that align with their unique preferences. Since product pricing differs for every customer and order and for new products to be added easily, organizations should focus on a scalable catalog management solution that can be extended when the need arises. They must also pay close attention to controlling the price displayed. While deciding on the personalization strategy, organizations need to first analyze which customer signals hold the most value for their business, considering the importance of every single user’s experience. However, to ensure scalability, they need to consider the unified storage of each product across online and offline channels. This allows the catalog data to be rapidly gathered, coordinated, and managed to create personalized experiences.

Product Catalog Management: A Gateway To Maximize Conversions

Product catalog management can sometimes be overwhelming because of the multiple challenges that can arise due to the vendors, stakeholders, and customers’ requirements. However, using product catalogs is an efficient way to stay ahead of the competition as it displays accurate information regarding any company product. It is essential to invest time in mapping the catalog management process, as it will help identify areas of inefficiency which can then be improved upon by implementing solution-based practices. Assigning responsibilities across teams, creating a schedule that outlines all the required tasks, and measuring performance are other practices that can bring credibility to the product catalog management process. An efficient catalog management solution with a customizable interface, built-in security measures, and capabilities to highlight business metrics can improve catalog management efficiency and make the automation journey seamless.

About The Author

Dietmar Rietsch is CEO of Pimcore. A serial entrepreneur with a strong sense of innovation, technology, and digital transformation. He is a passionate entrepreneur who has been designing and realizing exciting digital projects for more than 20 years.