Product catalog

What is a product catalog?

A product catalog is the structured collection of all the products you sell in your online store. Each product in the catalog contains the data needed to display the product correctly, sell it, and distribute it to external channels—from title and price to images, variants, and inventory status.

The quality of your product catalog directly impacts your conversion rate, SEO performance, and the effectiveness of your ads.

Elements of a product catalog

• Title: The product’s name—should be descriptive and include important keywords (brand, color, size, material).
• Description: Detailed text describing the product, its benefits, and specifications. Should be unique for each product.
• Images: High-quality product images from multiple angles. Images are the most important factor in online purchasing decisions.
• Price: Regular price and, if applicable, sale price with validity period.
• Variants: Size, color, material, and other variations of the same product.
• In-stock status: Quantity in stock, order status, or supplier status.
• Categorization: Placement in the store’s category hierarchy.
• GTIN/EAN: Barcode for Google Shopping and price comparison sites.
• SKU: Your internal item number for inventory management.
• Brand: The manufacturer or brand behind the product.
• Weight and Dimensions: For shipping calculations and logistics.

Product Catalog in Shoporama

Shoporama offers a flexible product catalog system with:

• Product Management: Create and manage products with all necessary fields, variants, and images.
• Categories: A hierarchical category structure to organize your products logically.
• Landing Pages: Dynamic product lists based on rules—display products from specific categories, with specific labels, or within certain price ranges.
• Product feeds: Automatic export to Google Shopping, Facebook, PriceRunner, Partner-Ads, and more.
• Import/Export: Bulk import and export of product data via CSV.
• REST API: Programmatic access to product data for integrations with ERP, PIM, or external systems.
• Structured data: Automatic JSON-LD markup using the Product schema for SEO.

Catalog optimization for SEO

• Unique descriptions: Never copy the supplier’s default text. Google penalizes duplicate content, and it gives your competitors the same text.
• Optimized titles: Include the brand, product type, key features, and keywords in the title.
• Image alt text: Descriptive alt text helps with SEO and accessibility.
• Canonical URLs: Ensure that products with variants have correct canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content.

Product Catalog Maintenance

A well-maintained catalog requires ongoing attention:

• Remove out-of-stock products: Products that are permanently out of stock should be hidden or redirected (301 redirect) to avoid a poor user experience and wasted crawl budget.
• Update prices: Ensure that prices are always correct, especially in feeds to Google Shopping and price comparison sites. Incorrect prices can lead to rejection.
• Add GTIN: Always add GTIN/EAN when available. This significantly improves performance in Google Shopping and price comparison sites.
• Consistent categorization: Make sure all products are correctly categorized so customers can find them through navigation and filtering.