Challenge
A disorganized system is prone to stagnation, has limited user adoption and can dissolve into chaos. If a taxonomy is formed at the outset of an information management project, a foundation can be defined that will enable the organization to expand and evolve the system as demands change.
Description
There are three major respects in which a good product taxonomy can help your business:
- Improve user experience on your web shop, with intuitive navigation and on-page features.
- Good structure in your products brings good structure to your internal team of 'product owners'.
- Optimize for search engines, whether we speak about your internal website search or external searches that lead to your website.
Product360 data management capabilities let you master and maintain multiple taxonomies, thus enabling an effective way to classify product data. It can handle an unlimited number of structure systems, and within each structure system (taxonomy), the number of product categories and levels is not limited. This article will walk you through the concept of taxonomies in Product360 and guidelines on creation and curation.
It is noteworthy to understand that there are different terminologies for taxonomies in the industry today. Taxonomy, Hierarchy, Structure, Structure Systems, Classification - they all mean the same in the context of P360.
Overview
A product taxonomy is a method of classifying your company’s products and services by their essential components into a logical structure. A product category within a taxonomy is a type of product or service typically created by the organization. Classifying products into meaningful categories supports marketers determine which strategies and methods will help promote a business’s product or service. Taxonomies can be created based on:
- Product Type
- Industry
- Brand
- Customer needs
- Demographics
- Customer preferences . . .
Product 360 Taxonomy
A taxonomy has one or more product categories typically organized in a tree-like structure for easy navigation. Each product category will have one or more product category attributes. A product category attribute is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a product or service that helps boost its appeal to potential buyers.
Here is an example of industry specific taxonomy - Global Product Classification, where ‘Bread’ is a product category and ‘Gluten Free Claim’ and ‘If Organic’ are product category attributes applicable to that node of the taxonomy. Not necessarily all these attributes will be applicable to other nodes in the taxonomy. Providing this attribute information for the product will encourage users to easily identify what they are looking for.
Master Product Taxonomy
An effective product taxonomy allows anyone in your organization to be a product advocate and delivers a consistent message about what your product does, who itis for, and its value.
The master taxonomy should be based on product type. As the taxonomy goes deeper, the more alike products/SKUs become. It is all about the product category attributes! The further down the taxonomy, the attributes and attribute values become more similar.
There are four distinct types of taxonomies in P360:
- Primary maintenance structure
- Secondary maintenance structure
- Output structure
- Material group system
Primary Product Maintenance Structure
This is intended to be the master product taxonomy in P360.The purpose of this structure is to unambiguously classify the products by their characteristics. You can have only one primary maintenance structure in P360.
All product category attributes are defined in this structure. The taxonomy has a collection of product categories that drive product category attributes definitions. It also allows you to define the allowed values for each product category attribute and identify which attributes are mandatory.
A product should be classified to only one category in the taxonomy, and it should be at the lowest level. This ensures the classification is as specific as possible to avoid conflicting lists of allowed values and attributes
Secondary Maintenance Structure
While companies will and should always have one leading structure, often there is a need to maintain additional ones. This use case is resolved using secondary maintenance structures. The intention here is to allow flexibility for additional maintenance and classification while having one master taxonomy. It contains all the features of the primary maintenance structure with the exception that P360 allows you to have many secondary maintenance structures.
Examples of secondary structures include Publication, Brand, Print, Sales areas, and Regions.
Output Structure
An output taxonomy is the categorization of products intended to enable customers to find products. In P360, this structure is typically used to mimic downstream retailer’s ecommerce taxonomies. An output taxonomy locates products by clicking through an intuitive presentation of categories, sub-categories, and leaf nodes. P360 supports maintenance of many output structures since they can differ by destination or retailer channel. Products can be assigned to more than one node in the taxonomy. The intention here is to provide as much visibility as possible. The more places the product will reside in the taxonomy, the easier for the customer to find it.
Examples of output structures include Retailer hierarchies, Web shops, and Ecommerce channels.
Feature Comparison
Recommendations
- Do not introduce Brand or Vendor into the main product taxonomy.
- There are many standard classifications available, and it is recommended to use them based on industry. Common examples are GPC for GS1, UNSPSC for ecommerce, and BISAC for the Book industry.
- Typically, all attributes should be attached to the main product taxonomy, though there can be rare exceptions to this rule.
- The main product taxonomy can be mimicked in other hierarchies (like web taxonomy) but is never used in the place of the main product taxonomy.
- The main product taxonomy should always be based on product type and NOT based on application or marketing.
- Products/SKUs should live in only one location in the main product taxonomy – they can live in multiple locations in the alternative hierarchies.
- Avoid going too many levels deep as this only creates extra maintenance without extra benefit – approx. four levels are average.
- Taxonomies should not be too shallow as this creates navigational issues and does not properly delineate the products/SKUs.
- Taxonomy typically stops when the taxonomy names begin to depict attributes values (i.e., Red Rollerball Pens, Mahogany Desk Chairs, etc.).