It’s easy to manage a small catalog. Adding a product means you can add general information and images to a database. However, having more SKUs, more suppliers, or selling on more platforms (Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, you name it, plus your own site) means that every product update (no matter how minor you think it may be) now has to be updated across all sales channels.
Price updates, missing details, out-of-date specifications, and all other manually updated product information can cause issues with product listings. This can create lost revenue and force products to be returned. With a growing catalog, it gets harder to actually focus on growing the business rather than spending time fixing data.
Catalog management software helps solve this issue by allowing you to access product information channels from multiple sales points rather than just one. This keeps your product information consistent on all sales platforms. The software organizes product information and eliminates the need for repetitive tasks. It helps improve accuracy by eliminating manual data entry for product listings across all sales channels.
Common E-commerce challenges and their solution with catalog management software
Every ecommerce business struggles to manage product information at some point during its growth. Initially, updates to listings and spreadsheets are manageable. More products, suppliers, and sales channels complicate the process. More product information must be kept in different places to communicate with more team members.
Each marketplace has different product listing requirements. Suppliers may send product data in different formats. The different sales and marketing teams may alter data for different purposes, like sales promotions and SEO. Descriptions can change, and product data can become fragmented across different systems. Changes can happen, and different product data may even be in different systems. This fragmentation may cause confusion regarding the different product data and which one is correct.
When data becomes fragmented, it will cause problems for customers. Specifications may become incorrect and cause product returns. Prices can change and cause a product to sell at a loss. Search engine and marketplace visibility can be impacted by product data fragmenting and becoming incomplete.
Because of these problems, many businesses invest in catalog management software. This centralizes product data and allows teams easy access to update and manage data. This software solves the fragmented product data problem.
1. Managing Product Information Across Multiple Sales Channels
Selling on various marketplaces increases your customer base. This is great, but it also makes managing your product catalog a much bigger task. Each channel has its own set of listing rules, category frameworks, image, and product specification demands. Manually adjusting for these demands usually leads to a lot of extra work and inconsistent product data.
Common challenges that businesses usually face:
- Updating the same product on different marketplaces
- Each sales channel has a unique category structure
- Each marketplace has its own set of attributed product demands
- Product descriptions and images are often inconsistent
- Price and promotions take time to update
- Products showing on one channel and not showing on another
How Catalog Management Software Solves It?
| Challenge | Solution |
|---|---|
| Updating products manually | Update product information in a central catalog |
| Different requirements for each marketplace | Map product features for different sales channels |
| Editing products individually | Update products in bulk across different channels |
| Irregular listings | Keep one approved product data version |
| Publish time inefficiency |
Quicker distribution of product data across marketplaces |
A practical case
Let’s say a retailer is selling a backpack on Shopify, Amazon, and Walmart, and they are notified by their supplier that the backpack has new specifications and that the backpack’s capacity is now 25L instead of 20L. Without a centralized catalog, the retailer has no choice but to update each marketplace manually, and there is a larger chance that some listings will become stale and outdated. With the help of Catalog Management Software, the retailer would be able to update the backpack listing in the software, and the update would be done automatically for all other portals where the backpack is sold.
Expert Tip: When businesses grow, the challenge of scaling is no longer ‘to sell more products.’ The challenge of scaling is to sell products while maintaining a single, reliable source of truth for product information. Implementing a centralized product information catalog will eliminate duplicate work for product updates and will also improve the overall product data quality.
2. Fixing Product Data Errors That Hurt Sales
One of the most common reasons for loss of customer trust in an eCommerce business is the presence of errors in product data. Errors in product specifications, missing product dimensions, incomplete/outdated pricing, or incorrect images can cause customers to lose trust. These errors can also cause an increase in the product return rate. Manually managing product data as the catalog grows is inefficient, especially when different teams and/or suppliers contribute to the same product catalog.
Consider the example of launching a new line of office chairs. If the weight capacity is updated by the supplier from 120 kg to 150 kg, and this change is only reflected on your website, but Amazon and Walmart still have the old weight capacity as 120 kg, now customers will have contradicting weight capacity information based on where they choose to shop. This will cause customer confusion and unnecessary support requests.
Instead of waiting for product data errors to be fixed post go-live, catalog management systems help businesses enhance product data quality through the standardization of product data and the reduction of manual errors.
Some common product data issues that catalog management systems help prevent are:
- Missing or incomplete product data elements.
- Duplicate product records.
- Incorrect product images.
- Incomplete or obsolete product data and pricing.
- Inconsistent product naming across multiple sales channels.
- Missing or incorrect GTIN, UPC, EAN data.
- Different product naming conventions from different suppliers.
Using catalog management systems reduces the need for manual auditing to validate product data. Several systems allow teams to define required data fields, create product data templates, and automate product data updates from a central catalog, allowing businesses to maintain product data consistency across all sales channels.
Key Takeaway: Pristine product data yields further benefits beyond the accuracy of the catalog. These benefits include a reduction in customer-related questions, a reduction in returns, and a more dependable shopping experience for customers.
3. Organizing Complex Product Variants and Bundles
A clothing retailer launches a new polo shirt in 6 sizes and 8 colors. Instead of managing one product, the team now has 48 individual variations, each with its own SKU, inventory level, and product image. A simple update, such as changing the care instructions or product material, suddenly needs to be reflected across every variation. As product catalogs grow, managing variants and bundles manually becomes increasingly difficult, often resulting in duplicate listings, incorrect images, or products showing the wrong availability.
Catalog management software helps businesses organize these complex product relationships without creating unnecessary duplicate records. Instead of treating every variation as a completely separate product, related products can be managed under a single parent listing while maintaining unique information such as size, color, storage capacity, or model. The same approach also simplifies bundle management by keeping grouped products connected while ensuring each item retains its own inventory and product details.
| Catalog Challenge | How Catalog Management Software Helps |
|---|---|
| Several sizes and colors | Products are organized hierarchically, as parents and variants |
| Bundle or kit management | Links related products, yet keep separate records |
| Updating shared product information | Modifies descriptions for all related product variants |
| Incorrect images or attributes | Assign correct images or attributes to the variants |
| Duplicate product listings | One structured product family was created instead of separate records |
Managing product variants isn’t just about keeping the catalog organized. It also improves the shopping experience by allowing customers to view available sizes, colors, or configurations from a single product page instead of navigating through multiple listings. As catalogs continue to expand, maintaining these relationships manually becomes increasingly time-consuming, making structured catalog management essential for operational efficiency and customer experience.
Expert Insight: Businesses often focus on the number of products they sell, but the real challenge lies in managing the relationships between those products. Well-structured variant management reduces maintenance effort while keeping product information accurate and consistent across every sales channel.
4. Speeding Up New Product Launches
New product launches should be fast and simple, but many businesses suffer delays because the required product information is not ready. Missing images, descriptions, attributes, or manual stops can slow down the product publishing process, forcing products to be unavailable for sale longer than anticipated.
An example of the steps taken in a normal product launch is as follows:
Supplier Product Data → Content Review → Image Upload → Product Approval → Marketplace Listing → Product Goes Live
While these steps are done manually, any product data information issue can delay a launch. This can be as simple as a missing product specification or information being set to an incorrect product category, which can require multiple product data submissions to be approved before the product is set to “publish.”
With the use of catalog management software, the centralization of product data, and the reduction of repetitive tasks, the time delays that occur from these tasks are eliminated or reduced.
Imagine that you are launching a collection of 300 kitchen appliances. Instead of working on separate sheets for product specifications and reviews, every team updates and reviews the same product catalog. This enables the accuracy of data across all sales and publishing channels.
5. Solving Inventory Sync and Availability Problems
Having your desired product information available online and not having the product in stock is an unpleasant experience for the customer. This decoupling of product information and availability from sales channels creates a poor shopping experience. This results in a poor shopping experience.
The catalog management software allows the product data management systems to traverse the sales channels and keeps product availability data across all sales channels. This removes the need for separately updating a product sale listing, thus improving the accuracy of product data available across all sales channels.
An example of this would be a product being brought to a company that sells the product to the company. The specifications of the product have also changed. Instead of needing to update the product sale listing for that particular sales channel, the new data would be made available to the other sales channels.
Common Benefits include:
- Relevant product information for customers
- Information is not stale or redundant
- Less work due to less updating of product information
- Customers have more confidence
- Less difficult to manage more products
Why Spreadsheets Eventually Stop Working?
Many companies start catalog management with spreadsheets. They’re the easiest tool to use to manage small catalogs. Spreadsheets quickly become unmanageable for medium to large catalogs. Most difficult is keeping data updated across all the copies, shared among all the sales and team channels.
Some challenges include:
- There are multiple copies of a product file
- There are manual updates needed on all the sales channels
- There is no clear way to see what edits others on the team have made
- The product data has a higher chance of duplication and/or becoming inconsistent
- The catalogs have supported scalability and growth
Large catalogs quickly become too difficult to manage with spreadsheets. For scalability, data accuracy, collaboration, and long-term catalog management, Catalog Management Software is used for this purpose. When looking at catalog management software vs. spreadsheets comparison, dedicated catalog management software comes with automation, controls data in a central location, and better supports expanding product catalogs.
Choosing the Right Catalog Management Software
Not every business needs the same solution. While small stores might require basic organizational resources, bigger brands operating on different channels may need advanced integration.
Your choice of software must simplify, not complicate. You want software to provide centralized product information, seamless channel management, bulk editing capabilities, integration with inventory management systems, and scalability.
But above all else, you will want to select software that complements your everyday routine. It is no use having numerous advanced features if your team does not use them. It’s important to choose the right catalog software that everyone can use every day.
Final Thoughts
As businesses expand, managing product catalogs becomes more difficult. This is especially true for businesses that sell grouped products across numerous sales channels and frequently modify product offerings. Effective product management relies on consistent product information. Manual steps in product management create inconsistent product information and require excessive, repetitive operations.
A central product management system software integrates product information and improves the management of product catalogs. With accurate product information, managing product catalogs, and effectively growing the business is easier. With centralized product management, businesses can create product catalogs that are easier to manage and sell to customers.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What does catalog management software do?
Catalog Software is designed to keep all product information up-to-date, organized, and easy to share from one location. This software will ease the burden of catalog editing and distribution by keeping product information uniform across websites, marketplaces, and other sales channels.
2. When is the right time to move to a catalog management software from spreadsheets?
Moving to a catalog management software from spreadsheets is recommended when keeping track of product information becomes too time-consuming, involving too many people to keep the same catalog, or if the business is using too many sales channels. At a certain point, spreadsheets cannot be used to keep product information accurate.
3. Does catalog management software increase product data quality?
Indeed. Many of the catalog management software use a variety of methods to control product data quality, such as reducing the quantity of duplicate product records, controlling product data fields, and keeping product data consistent across all product views.
4. Is it worth using catalog management software as a small business?
Yes. Larger businesses will use this software to a greater extent, due to the time saved by automation. Small businesses with a greater goal of growing their product line or focusing on multiple sales channels will find this software immensely useful.
5. What do businesses want in a catalog management software?
Some critical functionalities are managing product data from a single location, managing product data in bulk, supporting a variety of sales channels, managing product data variations, workflows for approving product data, and a variety of ecommerce and inventory management integrations.