OpenCart Community

Just interested to find out how different people organise categories and products in their store. I am mostly interested in auto parts as that is what we do but would still be good to hear from other types of stores.

Do you organise by product type, car make/model, use multiple entries for each make/model or have one entry but use options? I have tried a few different methods over the years but each one seems to have some sort of drawback. How do you do it?

So no one on here uses any form of category/product structure in their store?

Japparts wrote:So no one on here uses any form of category/product structure in their store?

It depends on the type of product. I've built car covers and boat cover websites and I break those down by the manufacturer but I add filters for the style of cover, vehicle years, models, etc.

I personally don't like when the menu gets so big because it's broken down into every tiny little sub category and I prefer filters but everyone is different so you have to sort of build it in multiples ways to trying to figure out how to please the majority of visitors.

I've built others by the "type of product"

I think if I was building an auto parts store, it'd make the most sense to break it down by the types of parts (Engines -->> transmission, engines -->> oil filters, headlights --> bulbs, etc) but again it depends on how many different categories you're covering, how many different brands, etc.

Do you have a site that's live now?

Thanks for the reply! I`m pleased at least one person took the time to answer

I do have a site that is live now but the organisation is bit of a mess at the moment. The site was built on V1.5.1.3.1 so I am now building a new site on V1.5.5.1 using a new mobile friendly template and want to make sure I get the structure right from the start as I know it will be a nightmare trying to put it right later down the line.

Coming back to this topic.

I have made some progress with the structure. The thing I am now wanting to get right is whether to use multiple product listings or 1 product with options. Take a clutch for example, it will fit 1 make and model of car but there is 5 variants depending on usage. Should I.....

1. Use 5 different product listings for each of the 5 variations

or

2. Use one product listing with 5 options.

Each has pros and cons. If I do method 1 it could potentially be easier to add products by using data import module. One designer was also saying it is better for SEO doing it this way. On the other hand the site could end up looking very "messy"

If I use method 2 it wont be so easy to enter everything, if what the designer said is true then the SEO wont be so good but on the plus side it will be a lot neater on the front end and hopefully should make it easier for customers aswell.

What are peoples opinions on this and what method would you use?

So out of 765 users currently online not one person has any suggestions on the best way of doing this?

You probably could use product options to list the variants of the product. Just my 2 cents. In the product description you describe what those variants are.

Product Categories and User Friendliness - Attached is a Small Chart I made up for you in Powerpoint. I suggest you do the same. Until you see it it will not make sense. Being in that abstract zone makes me crazy so I follow Warren Buffet's system and Keep It Simple; my brain is not a computer so I need to write it out and draw it out.

I have only recently started working in E commerce and am new to this community. My background is in Accounting and Taxation. As a side project I am launching LEVELHOCKEY.COM.

While I am swimming against every current possible with my websites development, I can tell you that "details and organization" is the golden thread to a successful presentation of data and information to your audience. The key concept here is to understand that your audience will accept or reject your presentation ( even on a sub-conscious level) depending on the way it is arranged in the particular medium ( in this case being an eCommerce site). It is fundamentally paramount to take this into consideration when presenting any data to another party for acceptance. The notion taught to us in high school English of never assuming the reader knows something is a perfect analogy.

Example: Just because Tom my best friend comes over to watch Hockey twice a week and sometimes on occasions just to hang out, I can not assume that he knows that the beer is on the 3rd shelf of the fridge behind my orange juice.

Despite being voluminous and abundant it is key that individual items are identified from the largest category to the smallest identifiable category with clear and visual description at every level. The saying less is more is the complete opposite when organizing data. More is more and details will make your site enjoyable and easy to navigate. Back to Tom's dilemma of not having a cold one; if I had taken the time to arrange the items in my fridge by liquids and solids and then juices and liquors, Tom would have less trouble grabbing a cold one. Instead of his beer acquisition being easy and less headache for me, he had to call me over ( email from your client about a part they can not find) and I had to take out the OJ, grab the Beer, put the OJ back, and Ovechkin just scored a goal and we both missed it. Always try and diagram to your self how you see it. Because as the owner of the store no one knows your product better than you and drawing out a small map 9 like the one I had attached) will only solidify your knowledge and give you some insight into your own products.

Users, whether friends, financial statement readers or my friend Tom all subconsciously want and desire order in their lives. Research and my experience shows that when data is presented to users in simple organized piecesit is more likely to be accepted and processed by the user ( we don't really talk like that but accounting books read like this) than random chunks of the same data. What is more interesting that un-organized data that has more favorable elements ( price point) will be less likely to be accepted by a user than organized data with less favorable elements. Google this or take my word for it.

The concepts of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles can be easily applied here and do lend some meaning. Simply From a user / client stand point data must be detailed and organized, Just as in accounting, when setting up a chart of accounts, whether for a small mom and pop shop with basic income and expense line items in their Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet Statements, or for a multi-million dollar company with over 200 account lines, the same holds true: success is in the details.