Important components of

E-commerce
Unit - 2
Product Cataloging
A product catalog is a type of marketing collateral that lists essential product details that help
buyers make a purchase decision. These details include product features, descriptions,
dimensions, price, weight, availability, color, customer reviews, and more.

The best example of a product catalog is the Amazon marketplace, where you can get a host of
information in a single click.

A product catalog is a type of marketing collateral that lists essential product details that help
buyers make a purchase decision.

These documents are quite common both in the B2B and B2C domains.
Who Needs Product Catalogs?

• Sales reps and inside sales teams

• Buyers and decision-makers
• Store and warehouse managers, shift managers, and
operators use it to know about the details of the
inventory in their godowns.
• Field marketers
• External parties such as agencies, partners, resellers,
and value-added sellers use it to get information
about a product and service and sharing it with
end-users.
Ingredients of a Product Catalog

• Call to Action - What do you expect the target audience to do after seeing your brochure?
Download/email/call you/share it socially? Append this information to let users contact you.
• Certifications - List the certifications earned by the product such as ISO 9001, ISO 27001, etc.
• Constituents - Mention its core constituents, e.g., copper, steel, alloy. This element varies based
on your industry.
• Customer credentials - Include credentials from customers who have given a thumbs-up.
• Description - Briefly describe it so users can quickly scan it for reference.
• Dimensions - Call out the length, height, breadth, weight, the volume of the product.
• Discounts - Are there any early-bird/seasonal discounts for your product?
• Features - Include the top features of the product.
• Guarantee/Warranty - Specify any guarantee or warranty clauses applicable to the product.
• Ideal conditions of usage - Indicate the best conditions and criteria for
using the product. e.g., temperature, surroundings, etc.
• Name of the product - What is the product name? If you have a brand
name for it, don't forget to include it.
• Pictures - Pictures speak more than words! They are the most critical
component of a catalog.
• Price - Mention the price of the product and the currency/geography
applicable.
• Returns - Under what conditions will the company accept returns of the
product?
• Safety measures - If your product requires safety measures before using,
include them to inform and educate users.
• Size - Name the size of the product.
• Terms & Conditions - Call out the most typical terms and conditions of
using the product.
• Version - Name the version/release/series of the product. e.g., Windows
2016.
• Year of the launch - Which year was the product launched?
Jewelry eCommerce Product Catalog Example
 • A product listing page (PLP) is a page on a
website that presents a list of products based
on a category or search query.
• This page is an essential element of the

Product
eCommerce experience as it funnels site
visitors to product detail pages and closer to
conversion.
Listing Page • PLPs are also rich with metadata, and
because each product links back to a
category page, they can heavily influence
SEO rankings and internal link building
strategies.
Most of the eCommerce traffic is
sent to product listing pages,
either from an email campaign,
social media, or advertisement.
Therefore, it’s important to ensure
the PLP experience is carefully
designed to:
• Promote product discovery
• Encourage user engagement
• Decrease time to purchase
Product
Listing Page
Design
 1. Category name: The top navigation menu is fixed across all site pages, and on a PLP, a design
element is added to highlight which category the PLP in view falls under to better orient the shopper.

2. Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs display what parent category or sub-categories the list of products
belong to, offering users an easy way to navigate back and forth between different product listing
pages for deeper browsing.

Main 3. PLP page name: The name of each PLP typically appears highlighted in the category section or atop
the page. Additionally, the number of products matching the PLP criteria typically appears somewhere
on the page.

components 4.

5.
Sort menu: Users can sift through products listed on a PLP using a dropdown menu displaying the
various sorting options available to them. Options include “Featured,” “Price: Low to High,” “Newest,”
and “Rating: High to Low.”

Pages: Users can browse through multiple pages if enough SKUs match the criteria of the PLP using

of a PLP on 6.
this navigational element. Additionally, an option to view items by 10, 50, or 100+ products per page
can offer flexibility for shoppers based on their preferred browsing method.

Browse by: If a PLP has sub-category pages that fall below it, users can navigate to more specific
category pages using this menu bar.

a retail site 7.

8.
Filter menu: This menu bar displays the various filtering options available for further refinement of
the listing page by attributes such as price, color, style, in-store availability, brand, and more.

Product Details: Below each product on a PLP, brands typically include the item name, price (or
range), and available colors. This can be customized to also include customer ratings, any
promotional offers associated with the product, and more.
 Product descriptions refer to the
characterization of the products you sell. You
need to create these descriptions with your
consumers in mind and include high-quality
videos and images.

The best descriptions need to answer the

Product consumer’s questions, and you should write

them in a tone that’s friendly and convincing to
your potential consumers. Besides this, the

description Page best product descriptions also are reliable,

complete, and accurate.

While writing product descriptions, you need to

focus on your products’ benefits and features.
Also, you concentrate on driving the customers’
emotions and ensure you create trustworthy
and authentic descriptions.
 Stand Out From The Stiff
Competition

Why Unique Rank Higher On Search

Engines
Product
Descriptions are Increased Organic Traffic
Vital For
E-commerce More Conversion
Businesses
Reduced Bounce Rate
Rank Higher
in Search
engines
How To Write Unique and Professional Product Descriptions

1 2 3 4 5
Avoid Using Use a Use The Right Write Clear Add Images
The Relatable and Keywords Product
Manufacturers’ Distinct Voice Descriptions
Descriptions
Use The Right Keywords
Write Clear
Product
Description
s
Add Images
 Data Layer

A Data Layer is a virtual layer between your website (code and server) and your
tag management solution (such as Google Tag Manager), where you can store,
process and pass data.

When data is put into the Data Layer, it makes data from the website easily
readable by a tag management solution and thereby easy to pass on to various
analytics or marketing tools (Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn,
etc.).

The data in your Data Layer can also be passed back to your website in the form
of personalized content.
The more data that is put into this layer, the more knowledge a marketer will get about user
behavior. With this added knowledge it is easier to serve better and more relevant content, ads
and campaigns to the users, which in the end makes everyone win (better content = happier
users = more sales).

The main advantage of having a Data Layer is that you will have one place to store all kinds of
information, that might not be readily available in your websites presentational layer or in the
markup and source code.

Data in a Data Layer is stored in an accessible and simple format, that your website, app or tag
management solution can read and use.
 Types of data you can put in the Data Layer

Visible website elements

Website markup and cookie data

Database data

Ecommerce data

Third party application data