Enterprise Ecommerce Platforms for Brands Managing Thousands of Products
It is much more complicated to manage an ecommerce store with tens of products compared to an ecommerce store with thousands of products. The larger the catalog becomes, the more complicated the system is to support each product page, category, inventory management, ordering process, promotion and interaction with customers.
For bigger companies an ecommerce site is not anymore simply a digital store. An ecommerce site becomes an integral component of the business infrastructure. The product data should be kept well-organized, the inventory has to be managed, orders should run smoothly and there should be accessible data for marketing teams.
Here is when an enterprise ecommerce solution becomes relevant. An enterprise ecommerce solution should support not only the look of the ecommerce site but also the systems and processes behind it.
Why Thousands of Products Affect E-commerce Management
A big catalogue poses challenges that may not be easy to identify in a small-scale business environment.
Imagine that you own a business with 5,000 products in various categories, having unique images, descriptions, prices, SKUs, sizes, colors and inventory. An update of a particular product could easily turn into a big challenge if a lot of updates were to be made on other hundreds or thousands of products.
Other challenges faced include:
Many product variations
Lots of SKUs
Variety of product categories and collections
Price change frequently
Product promotions and discounts
Different product inventory locations
Big orders
Different customer groups
Various sales channels
In such situations, the e-commerce system has to help simplify the operation processes rather than complicate them.
Catalog Management Centralization Is Important
The product catalog is the most valuable asset for larger ecommerce businesses.
The catalog management system of an enterprise ecommerce solution must make it easier to manage product data, product categories, product collections, product variants, pricing, images, and other information about the products.
Centralized catalog management will allow for higher consistency within the online store because when product data is scattered over multiple disconnected systems and spreadsheets, the chances of having outdated or inconsistent product data increase.
A properly organized catalog is the basis for a proper product discovery process.
Management of Thousands of SKUs Is Possible With Improved Organization
With the increase in the number of items, the management of SKU becomes critical. For instance, a fashion label sells a design in different sizes and colors. Similarly, an electronic item could have various combinations. In a furniture store, materials, colors, and dimensions could differ from each other.
Every combination impacts the management of stock, pricing, information about the products, and choices for the customers. Therefore, in an enterprise-grade ecommerce platform, it must be possible to manage the product variations and link them to the relevant inventory and catalog structure.
The point here is not the storage of thousands of SKUs but their organization.
Inventory Visibility: Essential for Business Operations
In an environment with thousands of items, inventory management simply can’t exist separately from ecommerce.
Consumers expect product availability data to be precise. On the other hand, business processes require visibility in relation to inventory and products. Lack of inventory visibility may result in some problems like consumers ordering unavailable items, manual verification, and inability to identify those products which should be replenished.
Ecommerce platform with inventory management integrated will allow businesses to have a more unified view of products, stock, and orders.mLarge companies may face the necessity of such unification especially in case of increasing number of products and orders.
Why Product Discovery Is as Important as Product Quantity
Just having lots of products is not always a solution for improving your shoppers’ experience. On the contrary, the existence of many products may even complicate product discovery.
Your customers should be able to navigate through the store using categories, collections, search, filtering options, and product descriptions in order to avoid any trouble looking for certain products.
An online clothing store that has many products may have them categorized based on such factors as gender, product category, event, size, colour, material, and price range.
Performance and Mobility Must Not Be Overlooked
Large-scale ecommerce sites must take into account the technical side of the business along with catalog management.The trend today is for consumers to shop ecommerce websites on their mobile devices. Pages such as product pages, category pages, images, navigation, and checkout must all work seamlessly regardless of screen size.
It is also necessary to think about performance since the large catalog may add another layer of technicality to the problem. High-res images, product information, filters, integrations, and other features must not slow down shoppers.
Therefore, it is important for big companies to consider website performance as an integral part of their ecommerce architecture.
The Need For Marketing to Work in Tandem With The Product Catalog
Big companies usually have more than one marketing campaign happening at once. There might be different products marketed to different groups or even some categories which are seasonal or have some special discount offers.This is why the collaboration between the marketing and the catalog becomes even more important.
The marketing teams must be able to find out which products and categories and customer base can be leveraged without putting additional pressure on other teams.
Analytics Assists Major Brands to Handle Complexities
When there are several thousand SKUs being managed by a business, analytics can assist in segregating valuable information from the vast data.
In addition to considering total sales, businesses can look into the performance of the SKUs as well as the categories.Important considerations could be:
- What products contribute the most towards total revenue?
- What products attract visitors but make no sales?
- What are the growth categories?
- What are the popular product bundles?
- What campaigns drive sales?
- Which products require more content/merchandising efforts?
Such considerations could assist in making inventory, SKU, promotional and marketing decisions. In case of enterprise ecommerce, analytics does not remain a reporting exercise alone. It becomes an integral part of the decision making process.
AI Can Assist With Catalog Management
Managing thousands of products could also generate a lot of content work that is repetitive. Some AI-enabled ecommerce tools would help speed up some catalog activities like content generation and organization of product information.
For instance, for a business releasing hundreds of products, there would be a need for consistent content and descriptions within the catalog. Using AI, teams could be assisted in repetitive content management tasks but giving them an opportunity to refine the content before approval.
The idea isn’t to automate all decisions.
Scalability Needs to Be Baked into the E-commerce Foundation
Enterprise-level companies should not base their assessment of the suitability of an e-commerce platform solely on what they currently need.A business dealing with 2,000 SKUs at present could see a lot more SKUs, customers, markets, and orders in the future.
That being said, the technology decisions need to factor in future needs as well.Some key factors to think about include catalog management, inventory management, order management, analytics, marketing features, mobile features, customizability, integrations, and scalability.
The goal is to choose a scalable e-commerce platform that can support the business as its catalog, customers, markets, and orders grow.
Why an Integrated E-commerce Platform Would Be of Benefit
Large-scale ecommerce businesses typically have many departments, including merchandising, marketing, operations, customer service, technology, and management. Where each department uses different systems, fragmentation is likely to occur.
An integrated ecommerce platform would bring many of these activities into one space. These could include the storefront, product management, inventory, orders, marketing, analytics, and other ecommerce activities.
Idiocom looks at ecommerce as a more comprehensive growth platform as opposed to just building websites. Their capabilities for ecommerce include storefront development, product and catalog management, inventory management, order management, marketing, analytics, and AI-powered catalog capabilities.
From the perspective of brands handling large catalogs, this would allow them to link the storefront with the systems that help to run ecommerce at scale.
What Should Enterprise Brands Look for in an Ecommerce Platform?
There is no standard platform architecture for every enterprise brand. What the business needs depends on the catalog, the business model, markets, operations, and growth strategy. But businesses with thousands of products should determine if their ecommerce technology is capable of handling:
- Catalog management: Products, categories, collections, variants, SKUs, prices, and content should be well organized.
- Inventory management: Product availability should be linked to ecommerce operations.
- Order management: More orders should not result in too much manual effort.
- Customer experience: Navigation, product discovery, mobile usability, and checkout should still be easy.
- Marketing: Businesses should have the ability to launch promotions, campaigns, and interact with customers.
- Analytics: Management should have insight into how the products and the business are performing.
- Scalability: The platform should support future needs and not just the present ones.
Conclusion
Management of thousands of SKUs goes beyond the provision of a fancy-looking ecommerce site. Big companies require technology that will assist in organizing the catalogs, linking inventory with orders, helping in product discovery, giving insights on sales, and making the marketing and operations easier to execute.
An appropriate enterprise ecommerce solution should thus not be assessed as a component of the company’s marketing toolkit but rather as part of its business architecture.
For companies looking forward to long-term ecommerce success, it is important to build the foundation of today and tomorrow.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an enterprise ecommerce platform?
An enterprise ecommerce platform caters to the needs of bigger ecommerce companies in terms of a vast product catalog, high order volume, inventory, marketing, analytics, customer experience, etc.
How do you handle thousands of products in ecommerce?
Structured catalog management, categorization of products and collections, managing SKUs and variants, product inventory management, maintaining product data, and efficient product discovery are required by ecommerce businesses.
Why do you need inventory management in large ecommerce brands?
Catalogs of many items may complicate inventory management for large businesses manually. Inventory connected to the system will increase visibility of the products.
Can AI be helpful in managing large ecommerce catalog?
Artificial intelligence will aid in handling repetitive tasks of catalog management and other content-related processes. Still, human evaluation and decisions cannot be neglected.
Is an ecommerce website builder sufficient for enterprise brand?
Website builders can create stores, yet enterprise brands need capabilities for catalog, inventory, orders, marketing, analytics, and scalability.
