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Ecatalog - A Key Component Of Your Ecommerce Initiative
Ecatalog - A Key Component Of Your Ecommerce Initiative
By Nowshade Kabir, Sat Dec 10th
/p> In recent years, Internet virtually has become major drivingforce of economic and technological growth in many industries.It is fundamentally changing the way companies operate, do theirtrade and interact with each other and it is giving birth to newprocesses and business models that were previouslyunimaginable. First type of the Internet business models that created adifferent business method was Business to Consumer (B2C)eCommerce. Business to Business eProcurement systems andweb-based storefronts were two other models that emerged next.The eProcurement systems became widely popular instantly due tothe factor that Internet-based automated buying solutions arecapable of considerable reducing Maintenance, Repair andOperating expenses, which, in turn, makes direct impact on thebottom line of a company. Web-based storefront, on the otherhand, provides a low-cost channel for the global marketing andsales of goods and services. The next business model that changed the perception of doingbusiness online was eMarketplaces. An eMarketplace is an onlinevenue which brings together multiple buyers and sellers andmakes it easier for them to communicate, collaborate and tradeas members of a large community.
The fourth online business model has combined key aspects ofall the above mentioned business methods and is known asEnterprise B2B Portal or Private B2B Exchange. The businessworld sees enormous changes across industries due to theemergence of this unique solution. Enterprise B2B Portal withsupply chain management features is capable of streamliningprocurement and sales processes, cutting overhead costs,increasing efficiency, while maximizing profit and helpingbottom line savings for companies. No doubt that B2B presents enormous new businessopportunities. But to realize these massive opportunitiesbusinesses must overcome some significant technical impediments.The most extreme and critical of these challenges involvecreating, managing and distributing product content. All four ofthe above mentioned online business models face this crucialproblem.
Product Content and eCatalog Accurate and complete product content improves quality andspeed of purchasing decisions by giving buyers the vitalinformation needed. For sellers content differentiates theirproducts and enables them to participate in multipleeMarketplaces, eProcurement systems and in their very own B2BPortal. The eMarketplaces and eProcurement systems must delivercontent, with value added information such as ratings, reviews,regulatory compliances and service information to attract newusers, retain the old ones and fulfill the needs of theirdiverse buyer and supplier communities. Creating high quality product content is difficult becausedifferent suppliers use different descriptions, attributes andparameters to describe the same item. Managing productinformation becomes even more complex with the addition ofvalue-added content such as editorial articles, serviceinformation and third party reviews. Moreover, Buyers and Sellers have totally different approachand require different functions from a product contentmanagement solution. Buyers need a comprehensive contentmanagement system which allows them to take conclusive buyingdecision with minimum of effort and cost. Suppliers want asystem that enables them to manage their brand, control theirproduct descriptions, pricing, and discount policies. The need for an advanced eCatalog Despite its critical nature, product information management hasbeen grossly underestimated by most of early projects,which tend to focus on more high profile technologies, such astransaction engines and user interfaces. However, few of theseB2B projects put required emphasize on the management of productcontent. As a result, many of
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them are beginning to realize thatthey have condoned the challenge of managing product informationand that such oversights are hindering the overall effectivenessand scalability of their initiatives. Actually, veryfew of initiatives today have the right resources tosupport the activities required for aggregating, maintaining,and delivering high quality product content. In order toovercome this major hurdle initiatives have to improvetheir ability to acquire, manage and update product content withthe help of an advanced eCatalog system. What is an eCatalog? An eCatalog is an Online product content management solutionwith powerful user interface which provides efficientnavigation, searching and integration capabilities to organizeand publish product information and enable real-time handling ofbusiness processes related to buying and selling. An eCatalog stores product content in a single database andorganizes product information under a certain categorizedhierarchy. An eCatalog also have sophisticated searchingopportunities so that buyers can locate products easily. Classifying products Usually product information is acquired from different sourcesand is often classified under different taxonomies. This makesproduct indexing difficult and in many cases products end upbeing listed under several categories. International HarmonizedCodes, a taxonomy used by many countries for customs tariffpurposes, is one of the example of such systems. Because of thisproblem, HC and similar taxonomies are not really suitable foreCommerce. That's why, most advanced eCatalog systems use classificationsystem like The United Nations Standard Products and ServicesCode® (UNSPSC®), which provides an open, global multi-industrystandard for well-organized and precise classification ofproducts and services. In e-catalogs the product content also has to undergo anormalization procedure to comply with a uniform product namingsystem. This uniformed nomenclature makes it easier for buyersto compare products and prices, and ensures exact match forrelevant product searches. Depending on the quality of productinformation available, the eCatalog also requires rationalizingabbreviations and acronyms, synchronizing terminologies,converting unit of measurements, etc. How businesses are loosing opportunities Early eCatalog adopters made a crucial mistake by assuming thatcatalog integration is a fairly easy task in comparison to theother parts of development. This misapprehension ofreality occurred mainly due to lack of practical knowledge inthis field and is based on the false assumption that one methodfits for describing all similar products and it is possible toconstrain product content with finite number of attributes andvalues. Observation shows that in many cases buyers are unableto take key procurement decisions due to poor content of theproduct, which results in lost business opportunities foreCommerce companies. Benefits of using right eCatalog An advanced eCatalog system similar to Rusbiz.com delivers acompelling value proposition. Using this type of solutionscompanies can integrate eCatalog capabilities into theirbusiness processes rapidly and manage sourcing, classifying,syndicating and publishing product content data effectively. The return on investment from these solutions is alsosignificant! Companies can expect increased revenue, bettercustomer satisfaction, and shorter sales cycle.
About the author:Nowshade Kabir is CEO of Rusbiz.com, a global B2Bportal for small and midsize companies. Our distinctive web storesalong with many outstanding features like e-marketplace, e-catalog,
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