Prepare Your Product Catalog

Introduction

The product catalog makes a vital part of the digital Product Finder. This is from where Product Finder 360 will take information to suggest your potential customer's products that match their needs best.

If you have used the Product Finder 360 template to create a draft digital Product Finder, the initial product data will be uploaded automatically. It will contain all the attributes that are used in the template flow, and you can simply edit it. However, you can also prepare your own product catalog file and upload it. 

If you have chosen to create your Product Finder from blank, the product collection will initially be empty.

You can manually fill in the products in the catalog or upload a product catalog file. 

1. Manually Add Products to the Catalog

When adding information about your products to the catalog, you will basically edit the product catalog in the UI. 

2. Create a Product Catalog File

2.1 File Types

The data file can be created in .xlsx, .xls, or .csv formats.

2.2 Product Catalog Attributes

The product catalog must contain some mandatory attributes without which Product Finder 360 Product Finder cannot be enabled. Such attributes must be defined for each of the products. Files that don't have such attributes will not be uploaded. 

There can also be some additional attributes. These are the attributes required by your Product Finder to distinguish between the products and recommend them to your prospects.Say, you produce beverages and plan the Product Finder to ask your prospect if they want to choose from gassed or non-gassed ones. - Your product collection should have a corresponding attribute (e.g. a boolean attribute "sparkling") that would let Product Finder 360 know which items to offer for each of the prospects' answers. 

2.2.1 Types of the Product Catalog Attributes

The attributes may be of different types. When adding values of the attributes, you need to keep their type in mind. Once you've uploaded the file, Product Finder 360 will analyze it and define the types of the attributes. Should there be such a need, you can always edit attributes and change their type.

The following types are supported:

• Boolean: The attribute can only be true, false or n/a. Such attributes may, for example, define if the product contains some ingredient or belongs to a specific type (e.g. waterproof or not waterproof)

• Text: Values of this attribute are a piece of text, e.g. the product name.

• Decimal: This attribute's values are decimal numbers, e.g. price.

• Integer: This attribute is a whole number (no fractions), e.g. an SKU id.

You can find a more detailed description and examples for each type in the Select the Attribute Type article.

Computed Attributes

Computed attributes are such attributes that their values are not entered to Product Finder 360 directly but are calculated based on the values of other attributes. For example, you can add an attribute "Suitable for children" that will be calculated based on the content of specific ingredients and/or size of the product. 

You don't need to add computed attributes to your product catalog file and will have to add them manually from the UI. However, if you already know what computed attributes you want to use, make sure that the catalog provides for values required for the computation. 

You can learn more about computed attributes in the Set Up Computed Attributes article.

 TIP

Don't worry if you've forgotten to add an attribute to the collection. You can always edit it in the future.

2.2.2 Mandatory Attributes of a Product Catalog

 The following values are mandatory and must be provided for each of the products: 

ATTENTION

If several products have the same SKU, the AI and Reporting Engine will treat them as one product. (The statistics will be merged).

3. Facilitate Creation of the Product Catalog

3.1 Use Sample Product Data

To make it easier, we recommend you download the sample product data file:

The file will contain all the mandatory and several sample additional fields. You can use it as a basis for your file.

 TIP

If you have used the template, the file will contain additional fields recommended for the chosen business field and product category. 

3.2 Use Product Catalog Created in the UI

You can also edit your product catalog in the UI, and then download the file, edit it and upload it back.

4. Next Steps