Custom Catalog Group Management
About Custom Catalogs
Your site displays catalog content, including product details and images, from your selected vendor. The catalog content used to display and browse catalog categories, item attribute icons, search results, product long descriptions, item thumbnails and large images. Your site also displays some item pricing directly from your back office business system.
You could also use a vendor’s Enhanced Content Provider (ECP) services. This usually includes enhanced search keywords and category browsing, filtering of search results by various product-specific attributes, side-by-side comparisons, tabbed product detail displays, multiple product images, and alterative product suggestions. However, you might have many items in your back office database that are not carried by the ECP you select. If a back office item exists in a shopper’s contract or laundry list, the system uses the item number, company prefix, and short description as the item's record so your shopper can retrieve it on their Contract, Laundry List, Quick Order, Search, Favorites, and Order History pages. These back office items also appear in the Browse Catalog page under the System Items category. Your shoppers can order these items as soon as the contract/laundry list is synchronized.
Other than item number and short description, all back end product details are blank. To provide the kind of detail Web shoppers expect, you can specify item images, long descriptions, manufacturer names, search keywords, pack content, and product attribute icons. You can even copy details from the vendor catalog for your custom items or override the vendor details. Once you enter custom items, you can map them not only to one or more custom catalogs, but also authorize a catalog to be synchronized for use with your Enhanced Content features. Using custom catalogs gives you flexibility in assigning them to specific Customer Groups. You can promote any item under Best Sellers and Web Specials.
The first step is to prepare your system. We recommend you perform the following steps to get started:
Plan Customer Demos or Web Account Setups
Make Sure All Custom Item and Pricing Records Exist in Your Backend System
Sync Contracts and Laundry Lists
Pick Items to Copy from Existing Web Content
Collect Additional Product Details for Custom Items
Prepare Product Images for Your Custom Items.
Before you create new user accounts, set up your custom items, catalogs, and item promotions so you can assign them to user accounts or groups.
You should customize the catalog(s) you plan to use. You can do this using the Custom Product Management page. This page lets you manage your custom items in one place. For more information, see Custom Product Mgmt.
If you have multiple custom catalogs, you can create custom catalog groups. By adding one or more custom catalogs to a group, you can create sets of custom catalogs for increased flexibility. Then you can assign the catalog group to your shoppers, enabling them to view your custom catalog(s). For information, see Custom Catalog Group Management.
Assign the custom catalog group to your shoppers, either one at a time, or by using the parameter maintenance page. For details, see Parameter Maintenance.
Assign Custom Catalog Groups to Guest, Demo, or Individual Customer Accounts: You can assign your new custom catalog groups to individual customer accounts, or to your Guest or Demo accounts, using the Catalogs Groups box in the Customer Management Parameters tab. For details, see Add Customers.
By creating custom catalogs, you can limit the number of global catalogs your site uses. This speeds up the catalog search results, and prevents overloading the servers. This optional step lets you determine which catalog(s) have been identified as the global catalog option. If you need to change your global catalog, contact your support team. For details, see Global Catalog Group Management.
To promote your items, you can use ranking icons to prioritize the order certain items appear on product lists. For details, see Merchandising Products.
If necessary, change the catalog description that displays on the end user's site. For information, see Catalog Descriptions.
You can manually add custom items that already exist in the back office business system. For details, see Item Management. In addition, you can link items with the thumbnail and image graphics that display on the end user's Search Results and Product Detail pages. For details, see Loading Item Images.
Create Web Specials with special pricing for items ordered online (as opposed to ordering by phone, fax, or bought in person). You can forecast dates as needed for special promotional periods. Items must have e-content provided by the vendor, or they must reside in the custom catalog that is assigned to the end user. Custom items can also be added as well. For details, see Web Specials.
You can rank up to five items that appear in the Best Sellers column when the end user views the Advanced Search results. The higher the assigned rank number, the higher the item appears on the list. For information, see Preferred Items.
Create a Favorites List to give shoppers easy access to products they purchase frequently. Then, assign each Favorites List to your customers. You have the option to assign a Favorites List to all shoppers in a department within an account, all shoppers in an account, or all shoppers of the entire site. For more information, see Favorites Lists.
Note: For more information on setting up the Custom Catalogs feature, go to www.ddms.com/resources/support/faq/ecommerce/ecCatalogs.pdf
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