Most retailers sell a wide selection of products to satisfy customer needs and preferences. A homeware company, for instance, might sell tons of and even 1000’s of things starting from cozy faux fur throws to elegant flute vases. To administer this array of offerings, retailers group goods into product categories.
Product categories help businesses organize their inventory, streamline business operations, and create an easy-to-use shopping experience for patrons. Customers, in turn, profit from a product category system that lets them easily navigate the shop or website, quickly finding the items they need. Let’s explore the advantages of product categories, best practices for categorizing products in ecommerce, and techniques for successful product category marketing.
What’s a product category?
A product category is a logical grouping of comparable products with common functions, features, or intended uses. Product categorization helps businesses operate efficiently while providing customers with a satisfying shopping journey.
In a typical product category hierarchy, top-level categories are the broadest groupings of products, similar to “clothing” or “electronics.” Inside each top-level category, there are more specific product lines or subcategories; for instance, under the “clothing” category, you would possibly find subcategories like “men’s clothing,” “women’s clothing,” and “children’s clothing,” each of which could be further divided into much more specific categories, similar to “shirts,” “pants,” or “dresses.”
Why are product categories vital for ecommerce?
Product categorization is a vital a part of designing a user-friendly ecommerce store. Organizing your products into clear, logical categories and subcategories will help achieve the next advantages:
Improved website navigation
Clear product categories in your ecommerce website improve navigation, making it easier for patrons to seek out the items they need, similar to connected products inside a selected category.
For instance, if a customer is searching for a brand new yoga mat at a fitness outlet, well-defined categories like “yoga equipment” and “yoga mats” help them quickly find the specified product and compare relevant goods. This reduces friction within the shopping and buying process, increasing the probabilities of a sale.
Increased offsite product discoverability
Beyond your individual website, well-organized product categories will help more customers discover your products through serps and other online channels, driving traffic to your ecommerce store. If you undergo an search engine optimization checklist and optimize your category pages with relevant keywords and descriptions, you increase the probabilities of your products appearing in search results when customers search for those items.
For instance, if a customer searches for “formal wear” on Google, your well-optimized category page for “evening dresses” or “tuxedos” could appear within the search results, attracting potential customers to your site who may not have previously been aware of your brand.
Streamlined inventory management
Product categorization not only advantages your customers but additionally streamlines inventory management in your ecommerce business. By grouping goods based on product type, you possibly can more easily track stock levels, discover popular items, and make informed decisions about reordering and inventory forecasting.
For instance, suppose your organization sells cosmetics and you will have a foundation category organized by skin tones. In that case, you possibly can quickly assess which shades are selling out faster and have to be restocked more often.
Targeted marketing and promotions
Distinct categories assist you to to create targeted marketing campaigns and promotions that cater to specific customer segments and their unique interests.
If your organization sells outdoor gear, you possibly can create a targeted email campaign featuring camping equipment discounts to extend engagement, drive sales, and ultimately boost brand recognition amongst your ideal customer base.
Higher customer insights and analytics
Analyzing customer behavior and preferences across different product categories gives your ecommerce business beneficial insights and analytics. By tracking how consumers interact with various product types and navigate between other products, you possibly can discover trends, popular items, and potential areas for improvement in your product offerings or packaging.
As an illustration, should you notice that customers who purchase mobile phones steadily also buy accessories like phone cases and screen protectors, you can create a bundled offer or cross-sell this stuff on the product page, improving the client experience and increasing average order value.
The right way to categorize products for ecommerce
- Understand your product assortment and customer needs
- Define clear and intuitive category hierarchies
- Ensure consistent and accurate product data
- Implement user-friendly navigation and filters
- Repeatedly monitor and refine based on data insights
Categorizing products in your ecommerce store is a multifaceted process that requires careful consideration and planning. To develop a comprehensive product categorization strategy, follow these steps:
1. Understand your product assortment and customer needs
Start the categorization process by analyzing your product assortment and identifying items to group together based on common characteristics or uses. If you will have many products, balance creating enough categories to maintain things organized while avoiding an excessively complex structure that will overwhelm or confuse shoppers.
2. Define clear and intuitive category hierarchies
Next, consider your audience and their needs, preferences, and shopping behaviors. This may help determine which categories and subcategories make essentially the most sense in your customer base. Create a transparent hierarchy by defining primary categories based on a very powerful attributes or characteristics, similar to product type, gender, or age group. Then, establish sub-categories that further refine these groupings based on more specific attributes like size, color, material, or style, ensuring that the hierarchy is intuitive and simple for patrons to navigate.
3. Ensure consistent and accurate product data
Maintain accurate and complete product data to be certain that your goods are categorized appropriately and consistently in order that customers can filter and seek for items inside a family of products. By establishing standard naming conventions and attributes across your product catalog, you possibly can be certain that products are properly assigned to the proper categories and subcategories.
4. Implement user-friendly navigation and filters
Implement clear and intuitive category labels, breadcrumb navigation, and attribute-based filters that help users easily browse and find the products they need. Let customers refine their search results based on criteria like price range, brand, or other relevant product characteristics. Think about using auto-assigned product tags or keywords to enhance search functionality and help customers quickly locate the items they’re searching for, even in the event that they don’t know the precise category or subcategory to explore.
5. Repeatedly monitor and refine based on data insights
Repeatedly monitor and analyze your ecommerce site’s performance data, similar to search queries, click-through rates, and conversion rates, to discover areas where your product categorization may have improvement. Use these insights to refine your categories and subcategories, aligning them along with your customers’ changing needs and preferences. Moreover, control your competitors’ product categorization strategies and adapt your individual approach to remain competitive and supply the perfect possible user experience in your customers.
What’s product category marketing?
Product category marketing is the practice of promoting and selling a selected group of related products, fairly than individual items, to a audience. For instance, a fashion retailer might create a marketing campaign focused on athleisure clothing, highlighting the comfort, versatility, and type of products like leggings, sports bras, and sneakers.
Product category marketing helps you guide customers to seek out what they’re searching for, whether or not they’re browsing online or in-store. An ecommerce store selling pet supplies might create a “dog toys” category marketing campaign featuring targeted social media ads to draw dog owners searching for fun and sturdy playthings for his or her furry friends. By providing clear, informative content about each category as a part of your marketing strategy, you possibly can guide customers toward making a purchase order decision and increase sales inside that product group.
Product category FAQ
What’s an example of a product category?
Home electronics is a product category which may include televisions, soundbars, smart speakers, and streaming devices.
How do you categorize a product?
To categorize a product, consider its primary function, audience, key features, and the way customers would intuitively seek for or browse the item in your website or in your store.
What’s a typical mistake to avoid when categorizing products?
A typical mistake to avoid when categorizing products is creating too broad or vague categories that make it difficult for patrons to seek out what they’re searching for, leading them to get frustrated and potentially shop from other brands.
