Lesson 7: Ecommerce Training – How to Categorize the Products?

By now you would have a long list of products that could be sold on your online store. However, it is not only important to have the right products, but also equally important to categorize the products. In simpler terms, categorization means arranging your products under different groups for easy identification. Examples can include clothes, footwear, grocery, electronics, etc.

Proper categorization of the products makes it easier for the buyer to quickly find the product he/she is looking for (If it is not findable it is not buyable!).

Identifying Categories and Sub-Categories

Most of the eCommerce platforms have a 2-3 tier categorization (levels of classifying a product). Shopnix for example supports a 3 tier categorization (see image). 

So how do you categorize your product?

First step towards this is to group the products under a broad heading such as clothes, books, gifts, footwear, grocery, etc. This can also be called first level category (defined as “Type” in Shopnix).

Once you have identified the main category, you need to work on the sub-categories (second level category). For eg., under the main heading ‘clothes,’ there could be 3-4 sub-categories such as men (can be named men’s clothing, for eg), women, children and/or babies. Books on the other hand can be classified based on their purpose – school/college books can be displayed under the heading ‘Academic,’ while the heading ‘Novels’ can be used to group novels of different genre (fiction, romance, action, etc).

A third level categorization will further refine the product type. Continuing with our previous example, under ‘clothes’ for ‘men’, the third level categorization can be the type of clothing (viz., t-shirt, shirt, trousers, jeans, etc). Academic books on the other hand can be further classified based on the subject that is covered (medical, dental, law, etc).

Defining Attributes

Attribute is another property that should be understood well and is different from category. While a category is product specific, attribute can be universal.

A single attribute can be applicable for all categories while the vice versa is not true. The attribute ‘color’ defined as ‘red’ for example, can be applicable to all products under different categories such as men’s clothing (a red colored t-shirt), women’s accessories (red lipstick) or books (red colored cover page). However, a category such as men’s clothing remains unique. Few examples for attributes can be Brands, Sizes, Colors, New Arrivals, etc.

Many buyers often use terms such as ‘red shirt’ to specify or easily locate a specific product (usually referred to as filtering). Such attributes (such as color, under which ‘red’ is specified) act as filters and help buyers quickly locate the product they are looking for. It also helps in advertising other products, as all products with attribute ‘color’ defined as ‘red’, gets displayed when a buyer uses the search term ‘red’.

These attributes are usually updated after you have categorized the products and uploaded the details on the eCommerce platform. The attributes are usually added as ‘tags’ with a specific description (see image). While ‘color’ is a tag name, the color of the product you have added, is the specific description (for eg, ‘blue’) that needs to be filled next to the ‘color’ tag.

In the Shopnix eCommerce platform, you can start adding your products once you have defined all the categories and sub-categories. Defining the attributes of the products you have added makes your online store more user friendly!