It is no coincidence that visiting a retail website is a pleasant experience. In fact, it is guided by a well-designed website structure, known as a product taxonomy. Different types of products are organized and categorized so that you can easily find what you need.
What is a product classification?
A product taxonomy is a system for organizing and classifying products to make online shopping easier for consumers. A good taxonomy is essential for businesses looking to attract both visitors who are simply browsing and shoppers looking for specific products.
The goal is to organize products in a clear hierarchy that customers are familiar with and can navigate intuitively. For example, in an online retailer’s clothing category, shoppers expect to find men’s and women’s subcategories with nested categories such as tops, bottoms, and swimwear. A taxonomy also includes product attributes, which are descriptions of a particular product. For example, for men’s pants, the attributes might be size, color, material, and style.
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Benefits of Product Classification
Setting up a smart product taxonomy provides numerous benefits to businesses and their customers, including:
Easy browsing
There are two types of e-commerce shoppers: browsers and searchers. Browsers are people who browse a website not specifically looking for anything, but are ready to be seduced. Browsing is like window shopping or walking around a physical store.
Browsing customers should be able to smoothly navigate your website, moving effortlessly between logically organized product categories and subcategories, encouraging them to purchase individual products, become repeat customers, and recommend your site to others.
Improved SEO
Searchers are goal-driven shoppers. They have a specific product in mind and usually don’t want to spend a lot of time on your website. Searchers are more likely to bypass your website’s menus and go directly to the search bar, where they type in a keyword or phrase for their desired product.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) It is important to choose the right keywords and phrases to get the most relevant results from search engines searching the Internet. A good product taxonomy that focuses on relevant search terms will help your website rank higher in Internet search results.
Increased sales
That’s the main goal of smart product categorization: to get more online shoppers to click that “add to cart” button and buy your products. E-commerce companies Conversion SpeedIn this case, it’s the percentage of browsers and searchers that convert into purchases. A smart, intuitive product categorization helps improve conversion rates and build customer loyalty.
Customer Insights
Tracking customer movement through your product classifications can help you understand how customers use your site, what products they’re interested in, and how much they’re willing to pay. This can influence which products to promote and which to discontinue, as well as changes to your product lineup and how you categorize your products.
Better internal reporting
A good taxonomy with clear and distinct product categories aids in accurate sales reporting and analysis. For example, a clothing retailer can track and compare sales of men’s and women’s clothing, or compare sales of two different products within women’s clothing. This allows retailers to make online product mix decisions based on hard data, not product impressions or gut feelings.
Product Classification Best Practices
Retailers and other businesses can use product classifications effectively by following a few guidelines and best practices.
Focus on the customer
Use tracking data to evaluate how shoppers browse your online store. If the specific product they are looking for is not available, offer accessible alternatives. By storing customers’ previous purchase history and preferences, you can fine-tune your product categorization and personalize the shopping experience with categories like “Favorites” and “Best Sellers.”
Keep it simple
Design your category taxonomy so that browsers can find your products with just a few clicks. A complex, disorganized taxonomy that requires more than three or four clicks through a category tree can discourage shoppers, who may give up and shop elsewhere.
Use smart SEO terms
Stick to words and phrases that shoppers are familiar with, rather than jargon or formal terms used among industry insiders. Make sure to link different keywords or phrases that refer to the same product to help shoppers find it easily. For example, in the pants category of women’s apparel, capri pants are also called three-quarter pants. Searching for any of these names will bring up the same product.
Be prepared to adjust
As products change, so do consumer preferences. Inevitably, this requires a revision of taxonomy and calls for different product classifications. Imagine an online electronics retailer has a main category of Computers with two subcategories under it – Desktops and Laptops. As more shoppers start to prefer laptops over desktops, the retailer can remove the Computers category and make Laptops and Desktops their respective main categories. This way, the option to buy laptops is clearly visible from the home page.
Product Classification FAQ
What is the product classification structure?
A product taxonomy structure is a way that an online business logically organizes the products that it sells and helps customers find them on an e-commerce website. The goal of a well-constructed taxonomy is to enable customers to find and purchase your products with just a few clicks or minimal keyword search.
Why is product classification important?
By making your products easier to find online, a smart taxonomy can help increase sales by keeping shoppers on your website longer and more likely to purchase your products, or even keep them coming back after a satisfying first experience.
What are some examples of product classifications?
An example of a product classification would be an online catalog of consumer electronics. The main categories are computers and phones. Under the computers category are the subcategories laptops and desktops. Under each subcategory are brands with attributes such as processor chip speed, memory, data storage capacity, screen size, cost, etc.
