Catalog Design
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In Business Manager, you can enter product data manually or you can import the data in an XML file and edit the data. Most customers import product data from their Product Information Management system or other system of record, and then enhance it in Business Manager.
When designing your catalog you can configure product data to include variations, descriptions, images, video, pricing, and inventory.
The categories and subcategories in your catalog can function as the navigation for your storefront. You can configure category navigation so that customers can easily locate products they want, and even find some they don't yet know they want. You can define your catalog so that as customers traverse to a product, they see product recommendations, and promotional offers.
It’s best practice to create two catalogs: the standard catalog and the storefront catalog.
- The product catalog provides the same structure as an external system of record for your products. This catalog isn't assigned to a site. It owns the products you want to merchandise, and it mirrors the organization of your inventory, fulfillment, or product management systems.
- The storefront catalog is where you create categories that appear on your storefront. Products must be assigned to storefront categories to show on the storefront. A storefront has one catalog: the storefront catalog. The category structure you create in a storefront catalog is used for your storefront navigation.
Catalog Configuration
In addition to configuring products in categories, you can further define your catalog to add functionality to your storefront. After you create your standard catalog, you complete the storefront catalog definition by creating categories, setting attributes, defining image paths, establishing definitions for search, and assigning page meta tag rules. You find these options under the tabs in Business Manager.
Maintain and Deploy Catalogs
You create and maintain catalogs on your staging instance, and then replicate them to the development instance for testing. Once tested, you replicate them from the staging instance to the production instance.