For eCommerce store owners, product data classification is an essential task in building their website and maintaining the digital products in their store. For those new to eCommerce, tackling product classification for the first time, the topic can seem filled with jargon and confusing terminology! Below we’ve provided a brief guide as to what product classification is and what each of the key terms means to help you get started.

What is product classification?

Product Data Classification is all about grouping the products based on the hierarchical strategy of the retailer. Organizing the data into a multi-layered taxonomy will make it easier for visitors to navigate and find products on your site. The main levels are category, brand, product, and variant.

You can see each of the most common levels in the product classification infographic

Product Families

A product family is the collection of attributes that will be the same for all products related to that family. A product will belong to only a single-family.

Brands

Products manufactured by a company under a specific name. Important for product types where shoppers are likely to search by preferred brand.

Categories

Product categories groups like products together. You can assign several categories to a product. You can also go into the second level of sub-categories.

Parent Product

The product may come in different colors, sizes, materials – but the basic elements of the parent product remain constant. The product detail page is generally at the parent product level.

Attributes

The details about the product that will help describe the product and give the shopper the information they need to make a purchase decision eg size, color, price, description, warranty information, etc.

Options

Some attributes may be available in different options – such as the attribute color, having several options of blue, green, red, purple, etc. These options need to be displayed in an easy to select way on a product detail page.

Variants or Child SKU’s

The final product which a shopper will receive which incorporates both the parent product + the options. One parent product can have up to hundreds of associated variants child SKU’s.

If the product categorization work needed for your eCommerce site is becoming overwhelming, give the Ultra Commerce eCommerce team a call. The Ultra Commerce team are experts in this area, happy to guide you through the process along with the technology and automation tools to get your products online faster.