Electronic Cataloging

Access to product listings is at the heart of e-commerce efforts, and it remains one of the more difficult and expensive problems to address. What are the issues with e-catalogs?

• Availability of appropriate product data
• Easy location of desired product in the catalog
• Common format of data across suppliers

Digital formats of data are often determined by company IT departments, not the marketing or sales folks. Presentation of the data in an effective manner often requires extensive conversion efforts, or going back to the source repository to reshape the data at its origin so that it can be used in the desired manner.

Once the data appears in a catalog, it must be easy to both browse for the casual user, as well as find specific items in the user's vocabulary. Part numbers may work well with warehousemen in the plant, but the catalog reader often uses a wordy, misspelled, or vague description which nevertheless refers to a very specific product in mind.

It is increasingly the case that a catalog or exchange may contain items from many different suppliers. The aggregation, display format, searchability, and update of those items can easily be an expensive nightmare if each supplier uses a proprietary interface or vocabulary.

Catalog solutions are a critical part of electronic purchasing, yet they remain tremendously expensive to implement. Notwithstanding the cost, businesses are pushing ahead with web-based procurement, and the money spent is driving vendors and trade organizations toward improved solutions. The accompanying articles outline some of the efforts now being made.

The gradual integration of back office systems, phase-in of CRM, and participation in XML-based industry standards all are contributing to the easier implementation of e-catalogs. The process however, remains a minefield of potential compication and expense.