Using product reports to keep a product catalogue up to date
Purpose and scope
Your product catalogue contains products that you wish to sell, either in a B2B or B2C capacity. Its quality, in terms of completeness1, consistency2, conformity3, accuracy4, timeliness5 and integrity6 is vital for you to run a successful business. The Product Administration section within Aphix Management Interface aids in maintaining product catalogue quality by providing you with a set of features that allow you to create, update and maintain your product data.
| 1 | Completeness | All products you wish to include in your product catalogue have been included. |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Consistency | The product information is the same across all systems. |
| 3 | Conformity | The product information use the same format and rules for identical data elements. For example, the date format is DD-MM-YYYY where dates are required. |
| 4 | Accuracy | The product information describes the physical product precisely |
| 5 | Timeliness | The product information is kept up to date, and reflects current reality. For example, stock amounts are kept up to date. |
| 6 | Integrity | The product information is stored in such as way that it and the relationship it has with other data elements are logically valid. For example, a product that has a description but no product code is not a valid product. |
In particular, identifying products which may not have appropriate images, keywords or metadata can be difficult to locate in large product catalogues. It may also be difficult to find products that are not in a category. The Product reports feature allows you to identify these products, and then you can take remedial action to improve the completeness of your catalogue.
Step by step
Step 1: Log into Management Interface
Log into Management Interface using your username and password. This opens the dashboard of your Management Interface.
Step 2: Open Product Administration
Click Catalogue on the left side menu.
Step 3: Open Product Reports
Click Import & Export from the left side menu.
Click the Export tab. This opens the Export tab on the Products Import/Export page. This lists the data that you can export.
Click Reports to open the Product Reports page.
You can determine how to maintain your product catalogue by looking at the Product Reports screens. Product Reports are only listed for download if issues with specific products are identified.
Key points
The Product Reports page provides a list of reports that you can download:
Uncategorised: products that are not associated with any category
Without images: products that do no contain any images
Without keywords: products that do not have any keywords
Without meta description: products that do not have any metadata
No parent products: product options that have non-existent parent products. We recommend that here are deleted.
Deleted options: options that are no longer valid for a particular product. For example, you may no longer stock red shoes, so the red product option should be removed.
Malformed options: product options that are missing elements. For example, a shirt needs a colour and a size, and only the size is provided. We recommend that you correct the product options so that all missing elements are included in the product description.
Orphaned kit products: Uniform management only - kits that can no longer be found in the product catalogue
The product code and product name for all Active products is downloaded.