E-commerce Catalog Management: Spreadsheets suck but there is a better way!
Still doing your e-commerce catalog management in spreadsheets?
Spreadsheets are the most commonly used “e-commerce catalog management” tool out there. The only problem is that spreadsheets are terrible at catalog management.
Spreadsheets suck at many critical tasks
Here are just a few of the critical tasks that spreadsheets are bad at:
- Dealing with multiple sources of information
- Differentiating between mobile and desktop versions of media and product descriptions
- Handling multiple languages and translations
- Accommodating multiple contributors
- Enforcing separate edit/approval/publish rights
- Version control and content rollbacks
- Staging new products and catalogs
- Quality control
So why do so many people use spreadsheets for a job for which they are inherently badly designed?
It seemed easy.
Until you get started. Then most merchants quickly find themselves struggling with dozens of files, 20+ columns in every spreadsheet, and multiple tabs. Version control quickly becomes a problem and suddenly you’re dealing with outdated, incomplete, and incorrect product data being pushed to prospective customers.
Spreadsheets don’t scale well.
Hopefully, good things are happening for your company. Your team and product lines are growing. Distribution platforms and sales channels are proliferating. Products are constantly being updated.
Those are all great things… Unless you’re trying to manage your e-commerce catalog management with spreadsheets. Then your life becomes a nightmare as you struggle to maintain compelling, complete, and up-to-date product information. This steals focus from your real job of merchandizing and marketing strategy.
There is a solution
The product category for e-commerce catalog management is generally referred to as product information management or PIM for short. PIM solves all the problems that spreadsheets don’t because they are custom-built for managing product information across websites, e-commerce platforms, print catalogs, e-commerce, points of sale, mobile applications, and more.
Want to know more?
Take a tour with our online demo.
Discover how to increase:
- Productivity by 50%
- Data Quality by 30%
- Revenue by 10%
Convert your collection of spreadsheets into a single definitive source of product information across every sales channel and in every language.
Simplify your current chaotic workflow into one of simplicity and power:
1. Import your data
Automatically import your data from any third party system including ERPS, spreadsheets, and your supplier’s systems.
2. Organize and classify
Organize and classify your products however you want. Stop trying to organize your workflow around SKUs and use more logical product groupings instead. An easy GUI eliminates hundreds of useless columns.
3. Enrich, edit and translate
Complete your product information, add rich media in any format, and translate just the descriptions that are needed.
4. Utilize built in workflow and quality checks
Enable multiple contributors with edit/publish workflows and automated checks to ensure that all mandatory fields are always completed.
5. Publish your data
Export all product data to any e-commerce platform, mobile application, print catalogs, or point of sale interface.
Take a tour with our online demo.
Managing product information is seamless and easy when you have a solution built for this purpose. Why settle for spreadsheets? Take a tour with our online demo or contact us to learn more.
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