OP-018
Every word, image, category, filter, FAQ, piece of shipping information and customer review can serve a purpose in the catalogue. Product information can serve more than one.
A table width of 120 cm might help a Shopper establish whether the table will fit their available space. The same measurement might later help them compare it with another table.
A shoe available in Size 10 might help a Shopper narrow the range to shoes they can wear. The same size information might later help them confirm that their chosen shoe is available in the size they need.
A single product fact can therefore be applied in different ways across the catalogue.
But that does not mean every possible use is worthwhile.
The question is not simply where else can this information be used?
It is what would another use help the Shopper do?
A structured attribute may be easy to show somewhere else in the catalogue. That does not mean showing it there will help Shoppers in a meaningful way.
A specification can be included in a comparison without helping Shoppers distinguish between the products being compared.
The possibility of another use is therefore only the starting point.
That leaves the Operator with a judgement to make whenever existing product information could do more.
When the same product information could be used in several parts of the catalogue, what should determine which uses are worth adding for the Shopper?
Product information is a fact recorded about the product. A treatment is how that fact is presented, organised or applied for the Shopper.
Consider a suitcase with a capacity of 40 litres.
The 40-litre capacity is product information.
Listing it in the product specifications is one treatment. Showing the capacity while a Shopper browses a range of suitcases is another. Including it alongside the capacities of other suitcases in a comparison is another.
The underlying product fact has not changed. What changes is what the Shopper can do with it.
On the product page, the capacity helps them understand the individual suitcase. While browsing, it could help them identify products with the capacity they need. In a comparison, it could help them examine the difference between several options.
The Operator therefore needs to consider not only whether the information is useful, but also what each treatment helps the Shopper do.
Consider a kitchen tap with a matte black finish.
The finish is useful product information. It can help a Shopper understand the product and may help them find tapware that matches the look they want.
That does not mean the finish needs to be repeated in every possible treatment.
If a Shopper has already narrowed the range to matte black taps, repeating Matte Black throughout a comparison may add little when every product being compared has the same finish.
The information still matters. That particular use simply does little to help the Shopper distinguish between the remaining options.
The useful distinction is therefore not between presenting information once and presenting it many times.
It is between another use that has a purpose and another use that is merely possible.
Now consider the weight of a laptop.
A weight of 1.2 kg may be highly relevant to a Shopper looking for something easy to carry every day.
For that Shopper, seeing the weight while comparing laptops could help them assess portability.
But relevance alone does not mean the weight needs to appear in every part of the catalogue. Its value depends on what the Shopper is trying to do at that point.
They may be narrowing a range, comparing products, checking whether a product meets a requirement, or confirming something about a product they are already considering.
The Operator therefore needs to connect the product information to the Shopper task before deciding how else it should be applied.
A useful Shopper purpose also does not mean the information is ready for that treatment. If laptop weights are missing or recorded inconsistently across the range, the Operator may recognise a valuable application without being able to implement it dependably yet.
That leaves two separate questions:
Would this use help the Shopper do something worthwhile here?
Is the underlying product information dependable enough to support that treatment?
The second affects whether that treatment can be implemented.
The first establishes why the treatment is worth considering.
The value of a particular use of product information depends on what it helps the Shopper do in that part of the catalogue. One product fact may be worth using in several places when each use helps the Shopper with a different task. Another technically possible use may add little when it does not help the Shopper do anything useful there.
When considering another use of existing product information, the Operator should ask:
What would the Shopper be able to do with this information here?
The Shopper wears Size 10 and wants to find shoes available in that size.
Each product page lists the sizes available for that shoe.
The information already exists, but the Shopper has to open products individually to find out whether Size 10 is available.
The catalogue already records the available sizes for each shoe.
That information could serve another Shopper purpose: helping the Shopper narrow the range to products available in the size they need.
A Size filter is one possible treatment. The Operator has identified another Shopper task that the existing size information could help with.
If the Operator adds a Size filter, the Shopper can select Size 10 and see shoes available in that size.
No new product information has been created.
The existing size information is now helping the Shopper with another task. On the product page, it tells them which sizes a particular shoe offers. In the category, it can help them narrow the range before opening individual products.
The practical lesson is to recognise when existing product information could be put to another purposeful use for the Shopper, and then decide which catalogue treatment is appropriate.
Product information is more than something to complete, store and maintain.
Knowing a product fact is one part of the job. The Operator also has to judge whether that knowledge could help the Shopper somewhere else in the catalogue.
Sometimes the answer will be yes. A fact already used to describe an individual product may also help a Shopper narrow a range, compare options, check suitability or find something related.
Sometimes its existing use is enough.
The Operator’s responsibility is not to find more places for every product fact. It is to recognise when existing product knowledge can help with another Shopper need, then decide how that knowledge should be applied.
That is part of catalogue optimisation: not only improving the product information a catalogue holds, but improving what Shoppers can do with it.