December 7, 2017 
The Gen Y customers demand rich online experience when it comes to purchasing a product or booking services online. With more and more customers going online, it has become quintessential for sellers to adopt a multichannel selling approach and to create an awe-inspiring customer experience. Sellers these days are relying on catalog management systems to deliver a consistent experience to the end user.
Catalog management forms the backbone of any online store and sellers cannot afford to ignore it.
What is Catalog management?
Catalog management is the strategic process of managing eCommerce product catalog to ensure the quality of product data across channels. An organized catalog provides shoppers with the descriptions of different products that help them in making data-driven buying decisions. Processing a store catalog in eCommerce manually is a time-taking process and involves the effort of the catalog manager as one has to extract and import data from various sources like the PDF, hard copies, and websites of different manufacturers.
Challenges faced by sellers in managing multiple Catalogs:
1. Updating SKUs – Updating SKUs on a regular basis is very important for sellers as they have to constantly add new features and make changes to the existing information. This product information needs to be itemized uniformly. Without an efficient catalog management system, it really becomes difficult for sellers to manage their digital shelf.
2. Targeting multiple channels – Selling on multiple channels has been an arduous task for the manufacturers as they face challenges in listing products simultaneously. Also, different channels have different criteria for managing product catalogs. Sellers uploading the same product detail on different channels like Amazon, eBay and Flipkart might end up leaving product listings incomplete. Hence, it’s for the sellers to decide how efficiently they want to manage all the channels and deliver quality product details that amplify the experience of the end user.
3. Supplier Data Management – The data provided by suppliers can be irrelevant and incomplete for the audience that sellers target. Usually, the information provided by suppliers are customized according to the market trend and the buying behavior of the target audience. Suppliers don’t standardize the product data unlike the sellers as they do not sell to the end users directly. Thus, the sellers are the ultimate sufferers as they don’t get much traction due to the incomplete information that gets uploaded on the website.
4. Maintaining data consistency – There are high chances of getting human errors while managing data. With the expansion of product catalog, it becomes necessary for sellers to update information for each product and at the same time maintaining consistency in data management across channels becomes really difficult. There can be instances where the product information uploaded by the seller might be inaccurate along with spelling mistakes, missing information and product features. To provide exemplary customer experience it becomes important for the sellers to provide rich and consistent product description.
Benefits of Catalog Management System
Catalog management is an important aspect for sellers on marketplaces. Efficient management of product catalog on different channels creates a frictionless process of product discovery which provides shoppers with the option to quickly find, view, compare and decide on their purchase. Let’s have a look at few of the benefits of catalog management system:
Consistency across channels: To enhance the user experience, it is of utmost importance for sellers to efficiently manage eCommerce product catalog. With the help of an eCommerce catalog management system managing a high number of SKUs count becomes easy. Retrieving product information from the suppliers and publishing it on different marketplaces as per their criteria can be seamlessly done. Fully attributed and accurate product information enables sellers to build a true omnichannel experience which in turn helps them in earning customer loyalty.
Enhanced user experience: Providing customers with the optimum seamless experience is the need of the hour and is a very necessary element to outpace the competition. What users love about brands is that how well they understand their needs and how effectively they can deliver results. Catalog management provides sellers with the opportunity to uplift their brand by illustrating products in the most appealing manner which catches the attention of the user.
Guaranteed growth of business: Product catalog management provides sellers the opportunity to outsell their products, generate more revenue and earn loyal customers. Not only the manual effort of the sellers reduces, but also the time and cost involved in managing these products get reduced. A simplified eCommerce catalog management strategy enables sellers to support larger catalog of products that they can get to market faster.
If utilized efficiently, catalog management has galore of benefits which sellers can only think of. With Vin eRetail Catalog Management System (CMS), sellers can manage their catalog and easily list and sell across multiple channels through ready integrations with multiple global marketplaces and apps.
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