In today’s retail world, the importance of incorporating and utilizing reliable eCommerce catalog management cannot be over-emphasized. As you probably battle your way to turning your store into a raging success, a well-detailed and structured product catalog management might be all you need to attain victory.
And why is this so?
Effective product catalog management caters to the distribution of adequate information for your customer’s chosen products. You can unlock doors to many seeming opportunities and constantly keep yourself afloat in the market competition.
As a case study, in an article published in Harvard Business Review in 2016, the yearly cost of poor quality data in the US alone amounts to $3.1 trillion. That’s the extent to which poor data can damage business revenue. But the good news is that you can avoid such a fate.
In this blog, we have discussed the importance of taking advantage of an effective eCommerce catalog management. But before we dive in yet, let’s quickly zoom in and take a look at some of the challenges often faced in executing an effective eCommerce catalog management.
Challenges of Catalog Management in eCommerce
The challenges in eCommerce catalog management can be enormous for many different reasons which include:-
- In eCommerce catalog management, it is effortless for your product data to get messy and inconsistent, especially if you are a multi-channel seller.
- You can decide to settle for subpar product information if your catalog management system is not adequately outlined, which can tell your sales and customer satisfaction.
- Needing to update your products constantly can pose a serious challenge if you are operating on multiple channels.
- In eCommerce catalog management, you will have to deal with variations and misspellings in supplier data because suppliers have little or no regard for effective catalog management.
- Also, the size of the catalog concerning the number of products and SKUs.
- The freshness of data: how recent is your data? Data is good, but only if it is recent.
The Importance of eCommerce Catalog Management
Maintaining efficient eCommerce catalog management is critical in building up your business. It is the most fundamental aspect of a retail enterprise. If you can commit the time, effort, and resources required to manage your product catalog, in the end properly, you will be glad you did.
Below are some of the reasons why we think eCommerce Catalog Management is so important:
Omni-channel Experience
The product catalog serves as a building block of an omnichannel strategy. A consistent catalog management system across different channels helps your customers establish a strong connection with your products. Therefore, they can easily recognize your fingerprints in the product listing without checking for the seller’s info. Going in-between channels like this will strengthen your overall omnichannel experience and help boost your strategy.
Improve customer experience
In a survey conducted among online adult sites in the US, 30% of them said they would consider buying a product from an unknown retailer with detailed product information rather than one that doesn’t. This affirms that good customer experience is critical in a retail business. By creating and imbibing a rich and detailed product information service that is readily available, easy to find, and user-friendly, you can be sure of beating your competitors hands down.
Create rich and consistent product information
One of the goodies of product catalog management is that you get to maintain rich and consistent information all across your sales channels. With access to quality data, you would have conquered inconsistency in spellings and information gathering, which happens to be a common plague in the product listing. Also, sooner or later, you would have had product information that is fully-attribute to you.
Improve business growth
There is no denying that product catalog management helps create a solid foundation for business enlargement. You can quickly expand your business and dominate the market when you have a brilliant eCommerce catalog management strategy. As a matter of fact, with a proper structure in place, you can easily add different SKUs without feeling overwhelmed or consumed.
Aspects to consider before outsourcing catalog management services to a partner?
As an eCommerce business owner, it is ideal to outsource catalog management services of your business. Before you do this, there are a few aspects that you must pay attention to. One of them doing the outsourcing service provider follows good practices in eCommerce catalog management. In the next section of our blog, we have discussed a few best practices in eCommerce catalog management. In no order of importance, we have discussed a few of them:-
1. Ensure that the product catalog and business website are SEO friendly
It is a known fact that several vendors are selling the same range of products and services. Thus, leaving the end users spoilt for choice. Against this backdrop, eCommerce business owners are leaving no stone unturned to make sure that their business website and catalog rank high on search engine result pages. To stay ahead of the competition, eCommerce business owners are doing all they can to make their business website and catalog Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly so that they rank high on search engine result pages. One of the ways to achieve this is to write copies that are grammatically correct, user-friendly, up to date with information and searchable. eCommerce business owners know that a Google-friendly website will help top the SERP and divert more organic traffic. Thus, it is essential to ensure that the eCommerce website is SEO friendly.
2. Make sure that the Product Information Management System (PIMS) is adhered to
Experts agree that a Product Information Management System (PIMS) goes a long way in simplifying the eCommerce catalog management process. It has also come to light that implementing the PIMS rules out the issues of simultaneously dealing with multiple spreadsheets across multiple divisions. Furthermore, PIMS helps retailers to standardize and customize the product information. It can be done by using various tools. Additionally, with PIMS, retailers can list the same product on different channels. Such is the importance of the PIMS. Thus, adhering to the PIMS is regarded as one of the best practices for eCommerce catalog management.
3. Take care that product information about a product is uniformly displayed
Customers do a lot of research before they purchase any product. It means the same product can be displayed across multiple online channels. It is an excellent idea to establish uniformity in the product description. This will go a long way in winning the consumer’s trust, which can result in the consumer purchasing the product or service from the particular vendor. Also, when a vendor does not maintain uniformity in the product description, it will confuse the user who could be viewing information about the product across multiple channels.
4. Be sure to write product descriptions that are unique, attractive and original
One of the best practices to follow in catalog management services is to make sure that the product descriptions are to the point, unique, attractive and original. The product description can be supported with images that match the content (text). The image can be high resolution. Depending on the need, self-explanatory videos that support the product description can be used.
Vserve eBusiness solution can double up as your trusted eCommerce catalog management partner
The eCommerce catalog is the window that can either persuade the consumer to purchase the product or it can turn away from buying it. At Vserve, the professionals understand that every consumer is as important as the other. Thus, the experts at Vserve will work on appropriate categorization, catalog management, and product descriptions that can help customers find relevant products they are searching for. By outsourcing ecommerce catalog management services to a reliable service provider such as Vserve, as an eCommerce business owner, you can easily handle such intricate data and minimize the chances of errors. Stay on top of the game with our product catalog management services with Vserve. Get in touch with the team of experts at Vserve and get started with services.
