15 to 1
categories, one range
Bathroom retailer · wall panel range
Sixty-two wall panels in fifteen categories, from tiles to sofas, pulled into one range
A bathroom retailer sent us 62 wall panels with no categories at all. Our first pass filed each panel on its own and spread them across fifteen categories, two of them sofas. The retailer wanted one, so we put all 62 into a single range and kept the category each panel was first given.
What arrived
Sixty-two wall panels from a bathroom retailer, with their sizes, finishes, prices and images, and no category column at all. Every category they went on to have came from us.
What we found
Our first pass filed each panel on its own, by what it looked like, and the 62 ended up in fifteen different categories. The largest group went under Wall & Ceiling Tiles, and others went under cladding, worktops, flooring and building materials. Two went under Furniture > Sofas, and one each under Coffee Makers and Saw Blades.
| Category our first pass gave it | Panels |
|---|---|
| Wall & Ceiling Tiles | 26 |
| Cladding | 7 |
| Worktops | 6 |
| Wall Panelling | 5 |
| Flooring & Carpet | 3 |
| Building Materials | 3 |
| Timber & Sheet Materials | 3 |
| Furniture > Sofas | 2 |
| Hatches | 1 |
| Wallpaper | 1 |
| Accent Tables | 1 |
| Decorative Plaques | 1 |
| Cement & Mortar | 1 |
| Coffee Makers | 1 |
| Saw Blades | 1 |
Imported like that, the range would have been split fifteen ways. A shopper would find 26 panels among the tiles, seven among the cladding and two among the sofas, and no page holding the range.
What we did
The retailer wanted one category for the range. We pulled all 62 panels into it, Hardware > Building Materials > Wall Panelling, so they sit together where a shopper looks for them, and kept the category each one was first given on the product, so a cladding panel can still be told from a worktop panel.
How we counted
From the job’s data: the 62 products in the wall panel range, grouped by the category our first pass gave each one. Fifteen distinct categories across the 62, where the file we were sent had none. After the job, all 62 carry the one range’s category path.
What it means for your file
A range spread across categories is invisible as a range. A shopper browsing one category sees a slice of it, and search has no single page to point at.
Before you import, count how many categories each of your product types sits in, whoever filed them: a supplier, a colleague or a tool like ours. A single type of product in more than one or two categories is worth a look, and a type that has reached the sofas certainly is. Mapping supplier categories covers filing a supplier’s products into your own tree.