Every year, millions partake in the tradition of spring cleaning. With flowers in bloom, and the stark winter left behind, spring is the perfect season to clear out the old and make way for the new. What better time to freshen up your eCommerce catalog as well?
Catalog management can be a daunting task, but working with the proper software tools can optimize this multi-platform process to reduce countless hours of data entry.
This guide will help you refresh your eCommerce catalog for maximum efficiency and consistency.
What Is eCommerce Catalog Management?
Your eCommerce catalog contains all of the data about the products you sell, including descriptions, item variations, prices, images, and SKUs. Management of your online catalog entails keeping every detail up-to-date, for every item in your database.
This means that what your customer sees on your website’s front-end is consistent with the underlying details that connect your warehouses, suppliers, and shipping. Your eCommerce catalog management system is central to how you organize, standardize, and publish items across all channels. If your store is on multiple websites, like eBay and Amazon, for example, each channel requires a unique format.
Catalog management involves tracking the status of your product inventory so customers have accurate, real-time data about availability.
Implement Real-Time Product Updating
eCommerce sellers would likely overwhelmingly agree that the greatest challenge in online sales is managing inventory. It’s also among the most important. Keeping your inventory up-to-date is vital to all aspects of your business, from supply chain to customer satisfaction.
Maintaining an accurate assessment of your stock is tedious and time-consuming, but necessary. Too much inventory will tie up funds, while too little inventory will lose you valuable customers, or hinder new sales. Bad feedback can even get you penalized on some sites. A Kenco survey revealed that 47% of consumers ranked the visibility of available items as their top concern.
You need a system that can update inventory across all channels in a single process, including when items are sold, re-ordered, returned, or in transit. The right management software will help you organize your visual merchandising by tweaking your presentation of products, based on data analytics.
When you’re launching a new product line, or rolling out an update that affects thousands of items, a bulk editor to handle all of your eCommerce catalog management is indispensable. This smart software is your one-stop shop for price adjustments, descriptions, product types, and images. With eCommerce catalog management software, you can add, remove, or change product attributes and variations, product tags, adjust availability, or promo codes.
Optimize Upselling, Cross-Selling, and Bundling Strategies
Managing your catalog includes encouraging your customers to add items to their checkout cart, or upgrade to more expensive models with more features.
Spring is the perfect time to maximize the power of your inventory, especially when tailoring products to upcoming holidays. Nearly 80% of Americans celebrate Easter, spending over $20 billion annually, with more than 1/3 of that coming from online sales.
Furthermore, more than 80% of Americans celebrate Mother’s Day, spending nearly another $30 billion each year. When done correctly, suggesting related products using upselling, cross-selling, and product bundling will increase the average value of orders.
When Amazon studied its recommendation system, they found it yielded a 29% increase in sales. You can suggest similar products, using phrases like “often bought together with” or “other customers also bought”, to encourage the sale of better or similar products. Use this with complex search suggestions for maximum effectiveness.
Update Your Product Descriptions
Product descriptions should be a top priority with your eCommerce catalog management, with clear and consistent item details. A clean, springtime assessment of your product descriptions is a sure way to win fresh customer loyalty.
How you maintain your system is about placing your customer first. From descriptions to branding, designing a seamless user experience is paramount. Your goal is to get return visitors. Only 8% of first-time website visitors plan to make a purchase, while return visitors are 75% more likely to complete purchases. Think of product details/descriptions like a children’s book. You want to grab the reader’s attention and be direct to leave no unanswered questions, all while painting a picture – not of fairytales, but of how your product can improve the customer’s life.
Your product descriptions must be original. Don’t duplicate details from manufacturer websites. Your search engine optimization (SEO) will benefit from strategically utilizing keyword phrases. This will improve your Google ranking to help drive web traffic. Next, use analytics from your eCommerce catalog management system to reduce bounce rates.
It’s about simplifying and improving your customers’ experience. This entails offering a dynamic search bar with filters, tagging items correctly, and ensuring products have accurate technical specifications, measurements, and variations. The right management software with visual merchandising is key to unlocking the true power of your website.
Leverage The Use of an eCommerce Catalog Management Tool
The use of eCommerce catalog management software is necessary for any online business.
The larger your inventory, the greater the challenge. Product details that aren’t delivering conversions, inventory data that isn’t up-to-date, and inconsistent cross-channel details can very well be the difference between a lifelong customer and dollars lost.
You need the ability to update prices, check stock availability, and standardize a single format for all of your data. When it’s time for seasonal sales or special promotions, you must be able to make targeted changes in inventory and attach discounts with ease.
Furthermore, you must offer a seamless ordering/reordering process, ensuring customers always have the same real-time stock data. A powerful management system helps you target different audience segments, like B2B or B2C buyers.
Manage Your eCommerce Catalog Smarter
The right eCommerce catalog management software will arm you with the ability to better provide your loyal customers with quality, easy-to-find information.
Smart Merchandiser brings you the power of visual merchandising control, drag-and-drop editing, the ability to automate catalog rules, powerful analytics, management of item variations, instant inventory alerts, and powerful attribution details. Even better, it’s a one-stop-shop. That’s right. Seamless, automated integration that still gives you the control you deserve in your business.
If you’re ready to unleash the full potential of your eCommerce website, get in touch with Smart Merchandiser today.
