Eyeing business expansion? Here’s why you need product catalog management!

The buyer journey has evolved immensely over the past decade with the introduction of digitally disruptive technologies and platforms.

The modern-day customers’ buying journey is no longer confined to the premises of a brick-and-mortar store. Before making any buying decision, today’s tech-savvy customers prefer to run a thorough research on the product they intend to buy, both online and offline, online being the most preferred platform.

The introduction of a plethora of mobile apps, eCommerce platforms have enabled them to sort through products online, read up descriptions, peer/customer reviews about the particular product and make their decision based on the ratings/reviews. As they prefer to have a holistic view of the product in one place rather than thumbing through multiple websites or platforms, the role of the product catalog system comes into play.

A product catalog system is highly essential to cater to the evolving customer demands for accurate, reliable and updated product-related information across multiple devices or platforms of choice. And, as and when businesses plan on expanding their product portfolio, managing it may become time-consuming and overwhelming. However, with a robust and efficient product catalog system at place, it can be seamless and productive.

Let’s have a walk through the basics pertaining to Product Catalog Management.

What is Product Catalog Management?

Product Catalog Management can be defined as the strategic process of organizing, standardizing and publishing product-related information across multiple sales outlets. It is essential in ensuring consistent customer experience by making accurate, and reliable product information accessible, 24*7.

Despite its myriad benefits, the product catalog management is not devoid of challenges. Some of the major challenges are:

Multichannel Marketplace

To cater to the evolving customer demands, businesses are upping their game by eyeing to offer the maximin product exposure achievable. This approach brings multichannel marketing into the scenario. Though having the products accessible across multiple marketing platforms may improve the sales opportunity, at times, it may seem daunting to achieve.

As the sales channels have different criteria for product cataloging, the eCommerce retailer is encountered with the challenge of customizing and curating their product catalog according to the sales channel they intend to leverage. This also leads to several secondary challenges such as product content consistency across channels and frequent product information updates.

Updating product information such as price changes, new features or additions if any, as well as the recent trends across several sales channels, requires extensive effort and this is one of the critical challenges in the eCommerce product catalog management space.

SEO-friendly Product Descriptions

Now, you might wonder what SEO does have to do with product catalog management? Well, as most of the customers would resort to a google search of a product in the first instance, SEO-friendliness of the product descriptions is the key!

Simply put, the product content must be searchable, user-friendly, grammatically correct and enticing to enhance the customer experience. However, the challenge arises when the businesses have to deal with rather a wide array of products or SKUs.

Why a Product Catalog System is required?

Now, let’s try to assimilate why a Product Catalog System is required.

To Deliver Consistent Customer Experience

Customer experience is crucial in making or breaking a business. Thus, eCommerce businesses must ensure consistency and accuracy of product information across several sales channels to deliver a seamless and personalized customer experience. Though ensuring product content consistency manually may seem overwhelming, an efficient Product Catalog Management system will turn the tables.

Customers might locate a product on an online marketplace and may navigate to the business website for making a reliable purchase decision. Product Catalog solutions assist businesses in efficiently managing product-related information in a centralized repository, making it accessible round-the-clock as well as ensuring accuracy and reliability.

With the help of a catalog management system businesses can manage product data in real-time that too with very little redundancy in the product information. A product catalog management software collates the enterprise data within a centralized repository to provide complete access & visibility to businesses via a unified interface that enables them to respond quickly to market changes.

To Boost Business ROI

Product catalog management solutions play a substantial role in improving a business’s growth perspective and ROI.

With these solutions, product scalability won’t be a staggering challenge anymore as businesses can ensure efficiency and lesser time-to-market their products.

To Customize Product Catalogs according to the Marketplace

The gen-Z customers not only expect a great shopping experience, but also consistent product information whether they are shopping online or offline. Conflicting or irrelevant product information in terms of the product image, description or price can impact the product experience negatively. Further, it may discourage their purchase decision.

A robust product catalog management system makes it easy to keep product information accurate, relevant and customized as per the guidelines of the concerned marketplace. Updated, digital product assets are a critical component to delivering meaningful and seamless customer experiences across the distributed eCommerce ecosystem.

Apt Product Segregation

Product catalog information management can be a staggering assignment and includes a colossal exertion of the inventory supervisor. Poor product categorization and order disappoint the customers and the odds of their returning back to the business website typically diminish.

Difficulty in accessing relevant product data may prolong the customer’s buying decision and businesses might have to lose a potential opportunity. However, a product catalog system ensures that the above challenges are taken care of. A well-organized and intelligent product catalog system enables the customers to explore through the product portfolio, online.

Conclusion

While ensuring correct, consistent and uniform product information across multiple channels, product catalog management services efficiently help in time & cost optimization along with managing a rather larger volume of product data. Product catalog management goes beyond simply creating and managing product data across numerous sales channels. A well organized and managed catalog promises higher business growth and ROI.

When it comes to choosing the right Product Catalog Management system, businesses are faced with a myriad of choices. However, if you are eyeing to obtain a competitive edge over your eCommerce counterparts, do get in touch with the Vinculum experts, today!