FP-010
There is a point in every catalogue project when the work is done and the catalogue can go live.
The products have been loaded. Titles and descriptions have been reviewed. Images are in place. Specifications have been checked. Categories are populated. The catalogue goes live.
Then the next supplier update arrives.
A furniture manufacturer introduces another finish. A food producer changes an ingredient. Three new products need to be added. An electronics accessory becomes compatible with a newly released device. A discontinued product is still being recommended elsewhere in the catalogue.
Customers begin asking questions too. A footwear retailer keeps receiving the same question about fit. An equestrian retailer discovers that customers are unsure which replacement part they need.
The catalogue may have been properly prepared when it went live.
This publication investigates why the work of maintaining a catalogue continues after the catalogue goes live.
Products need to be created. Supplier information needs to be checked. Images, descriptions, attributes and specifications need to be prepared. Categories need to be populated. Product relationships need to be established. Pages need to be reviewed.
Eventually that work reaches a point where the catalogue can go live.
A supplier may revise a specification a week later. A new product may arrive next month. An existing product may be discontinued. A replacement may need to be connected to the products it supports. Customer enquiries may show that an explanation which seemed sufficient at launch needs more detail.
Some of this work comes from changes to products and ranges. Some becomes apparent only after customers begin using the catalogue.
A furniture retailer may need to update dimensions after a manufacturer revises a table. A food retailer may receive a new ingredient list. An electronics retailer may need to add newly released devices to an existing compatibility list. A footwear retailer may learn from returns and enquiries that customers need more help understanding how a particular style fits.
None of this necessarily means the catalogue was poorly prepared.
It means the catalogue is still being used while products, information and customer questions continue changing.
Going live completes the work required to get the catalogue live. It does not remove the need to maintain it afterwards.
A live catalogue requires ongoing work because the catalogue continues to encounter change after publication.
Why does the work of maintaining a catalogue continue after the catalogue goes live?
Consider a retailer preparing a new catalogue.
For months, people have been working through the products.
Supplier files have been checked.
Product titles have been standardised. Descriptions have been written. Specifications have been organised. Images have been matched to the correct variations. Categories and filters have been reviewed.
There are missing dimensions to chase.
Some products arrive without suitable images.
A manufacturer needs to confirm whether an accessory works with two particular models.
A group of products has been placed in the wrong category and needs to be corrected before launch.
Eventually those jobs are completed.
The catalogue is reviewed.
It goes live.
A week later, a supplier sends another spreadsheet. Five new products have been added to the range, one product has been discontinued and two specifications have changed. A replacement component now needs to be recommended instead of the one currently shown.
Meanwhile, customers have started using the catalogue.
They keep asking whether one of the riding boots runs narrow.
The product page has a size chart, but the question keeps coming.
The catalogue was properly prepared.
The launch was completed.
So why is there already another list of catalogue work?
Going Live Finishes the Launch Work
Take a homewares retailer preparing several hundred products for a new ecommerce site.
Every product needs to be accounted for.
Some supplier titles are usable. Others need rewriting.
Dimensions arrive in different formats. Materials are described inconsistently. Product images need matching to the correct colours and sizes.
Categories have to be built and products assigned to them. Filters need usable attributes and related products need to be checked.
Before launch, someone works through the catalogue looking for missing information, incorrect images, products in the wrong categories and obvious inconsistencies.
Eventually the outstanding list becomes short enough to finish.
The remaining issues are resolved.
The catalogue goes live.
That work has been completed.
The same thing happens when an established retailer launches a new range.
A cosmetics retailer might spend several weeks preparing new products. Ingredients are checked. Application instructions are reviewed. Variations are organised. Images are approved.
Once those products are published, the launch work for that range is finished.
There is nothing wrong with calling that work complete.
The Next Catalogue Change Arrives Anyway
Now consider what happens after launch.
A furniture retailer publishes a new dining collection on Monday.
The product pages contain the dimensions supplied by the manufacturer. Available finishes are listed. Chairs and tables have been connected where appropriate.
Two weeks later, the manufacturer adds another finish to three tables.
The catalogue needs updating.
An electronics retailer has an accessory with a carefully checked compatibility list.
A manufacturer releases another generation of devices, and the accessory works with some of them.
The existing product has not changed, but its compatibility information now needs updating.
A hardware supplier replaces a component with a new part number.
The old component appears on several product pages as a compatible or recommended part.
Changing the original product page is only part of the job. The references elsewhere in the catalogue also need attention.
Some of the New Work Comes From Customers
Not every post-launch change starts with a supplier.
Consider a footwear retailer selling a new riding boot.
Before launch, the retailer checks the manufacturer’s measurements and prepares a size chart. The materials and construction are described. Product photography shows the boot from several angles.
Customers begin ordering.
Some contact the retailer before buying.
Others get in touch after trying the boots on.
The same question appears repeatedly: how should the calf measurement be taken for this particular style?
Nothing about the boot has changed.
The size chart still contains the same measurements.
A cosmetics retailer launches two moisturisers with accurate descriptions of their ingredients and intended use.
After launch, customers regularly ask which one is more appropriate for a particular skin concern.
The retailer now has information about how customers are comparing those products.
Customer service teams see these situations every day.
They answer questions about fit, compatibility, installation, ingredients, dimensions, replacement products and differences between similar products.
The catalogue in these examples was not necessarily unfinished when it went live.
The products had been prepared. The available supplier information had been checked. The pages reflected what the retailer knew about the products and customer requirements at the time.
Then things changed.
Suppliers revised information. New products entered the range. Existing products were replaced or discontinued. Customers started asking questions that had not been anticipated before launch.
This is different from saying that the original work was never completed.
A catalogue team can finish loading a range, reviewing the product pages, correcting the attributes required for launch and completing the launch checklist.
Those tasks have an end.
But the catalogue remains connected to products that are still being sold.
Suppliers continue making changes.
New products continue entering the range and older products leave it.
Customers continue using the catalogue and asking questions.
Going live completes a body of work.
A catalogue goes live at a particular point in time.
The catalogue reflects what was known about the products, range and customer requirements when the work was completed. Then the catalogue continues operating.
Products change. Supplier information changes. Products enter and leave the range. Customers reveal questions that were not known when the catalogue was prepared.
The work is not continuing because the catalogue failed to go live properly.
It continues because the catalogue is live while the products and information connected to it continue changing.
A live catalogue requires ongoing work because the catalogue continues to encounter change after publication.
“The new catalogue is live” can be entirely accurate.
“The new range is finished” can also be accurate if the work required to prepare and publish it has been completed.
The problem comes when that completion is treated as a reason to stop paying attention to what happens next.
Return to an established catalogue a year after a major catalogue project.
Many of the pages may still look exactly as they did when the project finished.
But the range may not.
New products have been added.
Some older products have disappeared.
Suppliers have changed specifications.
Replacement products have been introduced.
Customer service has answered questions that were not anticipated when the pages were written.
Some changes will have been updated immediately.
Others may still be waiting.
A discontinued hardware component might still be recommended from an older product page.
A footwear page may still generate the same fit question.
A furniture page may still contain a dimension from an older supplier file.
An electronics accessory may work with devices that are missing from its compatibility information.
The launch project did not need to predict every future change.
The catalogue needs continued attention as those changes occur.
A catalogue can be properly prepared and genuinely ready to go live.
The products can be loaded. Information can be checked. Categories can be built. Images, specifications and attributes can be reviewed. The launch work can be completed.
Afterwards, products and supplier information continue changing. New products arrive, older products are discontinued and relationships between products change. Customers ask questions that reveal where existing information needs improvement.
These are not necessarily unfinished tasks left over from launch. Many of them did not exist when the catalogue went live.
They were created by what happened afterwards.
A live catalogue requires ongoing work because the catalogue continues to encounter change after publication.
Once a catalogue is live, its information is being read and interpreted beyond the people responsible for maintaining it.
Customers use it to understand and compare products. Search systems use it to understand what those products are.
AI systems increasingly use that same catalogue information to understand products, their characteristics and the relationships between them.
But AI does not necessarily read a catalogue in the same way a customer does.
FP-011 — AI Reads Your Catalogue Differently examines what that means for product information.