12 to 8
spellings, eight real types
Bathroom retailer · 329 baths
Twelve spellings in one column, eight real bath types: a filter menu fixed at the source
A bathroom retailer’s 329 baths carried twelve different values in their Type column, so shoppers got twelve filter options for eight real things. The filters only started working once the twelve became eight.
What arrived
Three hundred and twenty-nine baths, all but three with a Type in the supplier’s file. The column held twelve different values. Some were plainly the same thing written two ways: Single Ended and Single End Bath, Corner and Corner Bath, Freestanding and Freestanding Baths.
A store builds its filter menu from the values in a column like this one, so twelve values meant twelve options to tick.
What we found
Side by side, the twelve values came down to eight types of bath plus one value that was not a bath at all.
| Type, as the supplier wrote it | Bath type |
|---|---|
| Single Ended | Single Ended |
| Single End Bath | Single Ended |
| Freestanding Baths | Freestanding |
| Freestanding | Freestanding |
| Corner | Corner |
| Corner Bath | Corner |
| Double Ended | Double Ended |
| Left Hand | Left Hand |
| Right Hand | Right Hand |
| L Shape Bath | L Shape |
| P Shape Bath | P Shape |
| Freestanding Taps | Not a bath |
A shopper who wanted a corner bath had two boxes to tick, Corner and Corner Bath, and ticking either one hid the baths filed under the other.
What we did
We folded each spelling onto one value per bath type, so the column holds eight values and each one means one thing. Freestanding Taps is not among them: a tap is not a ninth type of bath.
What came back
That gives eight filter options for eight kinds of bath. A shopper ticks Corner once and sees every corner bath in the range, instead of missing every bath listed as Corner Bath.
How we counted
The Type column across the 329 baths held twelve distinct values. Grouped by the kind of bath each describes, they make eight types and one value belonging to a tap. The three products with no Type at all are not a spelling, so they are not among the twelve.
What it means for your file
Before you import, count the distinct values in every column that feeds a filter. If you find twelve where you expected eight, the filter menu offers the same choice twice, and whichever box a shopper ticks, they miss part of the range.
Normalising attribute values covers the whole job, using these same baths as its example.