Challenges In eCommerce Product Catalog Management

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Challenges In eCommerce Product Catalog
Management
If there's one thing that all eCommerce sites
frustrate their customers with, it's poor
product descriptions and inaccurate information.
Why do eCommerce sites struggle to offer the
right information to the customers? The answer
lies in inefficient catalog management. Catalog
management, in simple terms, is the centralized
management of all the items being sold on the
site. The catalog maintains a centralized
repository of all the SKUs with accurate
descriptions and information and that is shared
with all the stakeholders in the value chain such
as merchants, suppliers, and customers. In this
article, we will go over some challenges in the
world of eCommerce product catalog management
and give tips on how to solve them.
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Multiple Vendors Multiple vendors mean multiple
interfaces, multiple systems, and inconsistency.
It's a nightmare. If you have vendors selling
through your eCommerce store, you're going to
have a hard time managing their product
catalogs. If you have multiple vendors selling
through your eCommerce store, their product
catalogs will likely be different from one
another. For example, one vendor might sell their
products in pounds while another sells theirs in
kilograms. The same goes for shipping costs
one vendor might charge 10 for shipping while
another charges 15 for shipping. It can be
incredibly difficult to keep track of all these
differences and ensure they're consistent across
all product listings on your site. This is
especially true if you're running an
international business with buyers worldwide who
are shopping on your site in different
currencies and languages! Complex Data
Structures The data structures and processes
that underpin an eCommerce platform can be
complex, especially if you are running multiple
channels across different geographies and
currencies. Moreover, the data that drives your
products can be distributed across various
systems and locations, making it very difficult
to maintain a single view of the customer. To
make matters worse, new product categories and
attributes can be added at any time. These
additions may not always be reflected in all
systems or channels, resulting in inconsistencies
that impact the quality of your customer
experience.
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Multiple Channels With so many different
channels available these days, it has become
very difficult for retailers to manage everything
manually. There are hundreds of marketplaces out
there where you can sell your products, but it
is almost impossible for retailers to maintain
separate catalogs for each one of them. This
leads to incorrect pricing, incorrect
information, and even duplicate listings. On the
other hand, you may have a single platform that
manages your product catalogs across all
channels or different platforms for each channel.
Either way, it's imperative to keep track of
what's happening across all these platforms so
that you can make changes where
necessary. Increasing Costs The main challenge
in eCommerce product catalog management is the
cost-effective management of the product
database. Companies need to keep track of all the
available products in their inventory and ensure
that they are accurately represented in their
online store or print catalogs. Automated
systems come with many features and
functionalities, which means you don't need to
hire additional staff to manage your product
catalog, as one person can do it. This will save
you money on employee wages and free up time for
other activities such as marketing or customer
service.
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Integration Of Catalogs With ERP And POS
Systems The data from your ERP and POS systems
can be used to create a clearer picture of your
customer's shopping behavior, which can help you
identify new opportunities for upselling and
cross-selling. A lot of companies have their own
in-house enterprise resource planning (ERP)
systems and point-of-sale (POS) systems that
they use to manage their inventory and sales
data. Unfortunately, these systems don't always
play nicely together, especially when it comes
to product information management (PIM). This
can make it difficult for companies to integrate
their eCommerce product catalogs with their ERP
and POS platforms so that they can share this
information across different departments within
their organization. Personalized Product
Recommendations It's easy for new products to
get lost in the shuffle, especially if they
aren't getting any attention from customers or
employees. If you don't have processes to ensure
that all products are being updated regularly,
this can become a problem quickly. Product
recommendations are a critical part of the
product catalog management process. However,
personalized recommendations can be challenging
due to the vast number of products and the many
factors involved in determining which products
should be recommended to customers based on
their past purchases, browsing history, and
other factors.
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The challenge
is further complicated because each
recommendation service uses its own algorithms
and rules for generating recommendations, so
each service must be integrated separately into
your eCommerce site or managed manually by your
team. Catalog Size The challenge of keeping the
product catalog up-to-date is one that most
retailers are familiar with. It's easy to imagine
how a massive database with thousands of
products could become difficult to manage,
especially when adding new products or updating
existing ones. What's more, if you're using an
outdated legacy system, this can only make
matters worse. With the right software, all
these tasks can be done automatically by sending
push notifications directly from the platform
itself. In addition, if you want to be able to
update images on-the-fly without having any
coding skills at all, then this feature may come
in handy as well! Inconsistent Categorization
Taxonomy If your eCommerce store has a large
catalog, it can be difficult for buyers to find
exactly what they're looking for. This is
especially true if your categories aren't
properly organized or if you don't have an
effective taxonomy in place. An inconsistent
taxonomy can lead buyers down different paths and
cause them to lose interest quickly.
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For example, there can be multiple variations of
the same product or version. This can confuse
users who want to shop by specific features or
specifications. An incorrect or incomplete
taxonomy can also impact how your products are
ranked on search engines like Google, which
means you won't get as much traffic from
shoppers looking for certain products. Conclusion
For effective eCommerce product catalog
management, it is important to be aware of all
of the challenges and work with a company with
previous experience and expertise in this
domain. Such experts can help you define the
right strategy for your product catalog
management, help you select the right
technology, and implement the same based on your
unique business needs. Get in touch with us to
know more about eCommerce Solutions. Read more
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