19 of 19
corrections pointed one way
Appliance retailer · refrigeration accessories
Nineteen corrections, all pointing one way: filing fridge accessories the client’s way
An appliance retailer sent us 41 refrigeration accessories to categorise. Our first pass spread 19 of them across nine categories, including ten plinth grilles filed under outdoor grills. The client moved all 19 to one place, and that move became the rule for the whole range.
What arrived
The range was 41 refrigeration accessories: water filters and filter cartridges, glass shelves, a storage box, and the plinth grilles that sit at the foot of a built-in fridge. Our first pass filed each product by what it looked like on its own.
For 22 of the 41, that matched what the client wanted: Refrigerator Accessories. The other 19 did not.
What we found
The client went through the categories and moved those 19. They had come from nine of our categories, and all 19 went to the same one: Refrigerator Accessories, under Kitchen Appliance Accessories.
| Our first pass filed it as | Products |
|---|---|
| Outdoor Grill Accessories | 8 |
| Water Filters | 2 |
| Replacement Shelves | 2 |
| Outdoor Grills | 2 |
| Air Purifier Filters | 1 |
| Water Filter Cartridges | 1 |
| Freezer Accessories | 1 |
| Water-Filtration Accessories | 1 |
| Kitchen Appliance Manuals | 1 |
Some were near misses. A water filter filed with water filters matches what the product is, but not where this shop sells it. Others were plain mistakes: ten plinth grilles, the vents at the foot of a built-in fridge, went under outdoor grills, and a glass shelf went under kitchen appliance manuals.
What it showed
Every correction pointed the same way, so they were one rule rather than nineteen separate fixes: in this range, everything is a fridge accessory, whatever it is on its own. Filed as a range, all 41 belong in one category.
It also showed where a first pass goes wrong. Judged one product at a time, a filter looks like a filter and a grille can pass for a grill. Seen as a range, they are all for the fridge. That is why categories come to you to check before anything is imported, and why the first corrections are worth reading as rules.
How we counted
From the job’s own record of corrections: every product the client moved after our first pass, with the category we had chosen and the one they chose. Nineteen corrections on 41 products, from nine of our categories, all to Refrigerator Accessories, where our first pass had put the other 22.
What it means for your file
A category tree holds rules nobody has written down: where accessories go, which ranges sit together, what a shopper expects to find side by side. Products filed one at a time, by what each one is, miss those rules. A shop often files a product by what it is for.
So the first corrections on a new catalogue are worth more than the choices that went through unchanged. They are the brief. Mapping supplier categories covers the rest of that job: the supplier’s tree, yours, and the rules between them.