Are you a retailer, manufacturer, store operator or general data supplier? Would you like to expand your eCommerce or optimize data preparation for your retailers? Are you constantly encountering new challenges and time eaters in product and data management?
- Every customer, every merchant, every marketplace or even your own store has different requirements for your product data or data syndication.
- You have to merge product data from different systems (e.g. ERP and PIM) or files in a time-consuming way
- Classification, industry as well as data standards can only be prepared manually and with extensive IT knowledge
- Despite data maintenance in the PIM system, you still do not have the data structure you need for your different sales channels
We know your problems all too well. Many of our customers have had the same challenges. That’s why we developed CatalogExpress.
With CatalogExpress, you can export item and product data to anywhere, without any hassle:
- You will no longer spend time manually preparing product data in complicated editors or Excel.
- You will be able to prepare and distribute product data in more complex industry standards, such as BMEcat ETIM, in an easy and automated way.
- You can make your product data easily available for any eCommerce platform (such as mercateo, Amazon or Conrad) or procurement system.
- You can combine and merge data from different source systems and files easily
- Your product data processes run fully automatically at the push of a button
- You can process even a few million product data easily and quickly
- Your data quality is repeatable and always up-to-date, as manual errors are eliminated
- You get data into any system you want, whether PIM, ERP, online store, etc.
Would you like to simplify and accelerate your product data management in future?
Then arrange a no-obligation get-to-know-you meeting with Fabian Fischer now.
Dreams come true – your future with CatalogExpress as …
Manufacturer
As a manufacturer, you supply data to retailers, business partners and eProcurement platforms in B2B sales. The requirements for electronic product data catalogs vary in different industry standards such as BMEcat, internationally valid classifications such as ETIM/ECLASS or even various versions of EXCEL lists. In your own B2B store, the most up-to-date product data should also be imported. The eCatalogs are made available to the customer by mail, via an (S)FTP server or via a supplier portal.
For additional sales to your end customers, you usually provide your online store, stores of customers and marketplaces with data as CSV or EXCEL file. The data transfer can also be done via an API interface or an upload.
For each market participant, you use the article and product data from your various source systems such as PIM and ERP. You have the data merged automatically and bring it into the correspondingly necessary target format with the desired data structure. Finally, you store the determining article assortment for product selection.
In this way, you reduce time-to-market and increase customer satisfaction through optimal data service. You minimize the number of errors even before uploading the product data and, if necessary, even avoid contractually regulated penalties for non-delivery or poor delivery of electronic product data catalogs.
Trader
As a trader, you process supplier data on one hand, which you receive in different data structures as well as in different file formats. You create a mapping for each supplier file. Here you bring the respective supplier data into the format and structure that you need for your sequential systems such as ERP and PIM.
On the other hand, after assorting the articles and enriching the product data in the PIM, you prepare the data channel-specifically for your sales department. In eCommerce, you create electronic catalogs for external marketplaces and other trading partners. Likewise, your data is prepared for your own online store as well as for your possible corporate and foreign companies with appropriate classifications and data standards.
The assigned assortment is either taken directly from one of your systems or stored as an assortment list in the catalog profile. Data provision depends on the sales channel and is often done via e-mail, (S)FTP server or API interface.
You avoid the transfer of unstructured supplier data into your systems, so that intensive data preparation is prevented and the time-to-market is considerably shortened. Brick-and-mortar retailers and online stores can start selling your products much faster.
Supplier
As a supplier, you will bring together your data from PIM, DAM as well as ERP and prepare it accordingly in the way that each individual customer or channel requires the data from you. In addition to the classic product information, exchange formats and industry standards such as ETIM, ECLASS and BMEcat determine the topics around your product data. You define the sortiment for the channel once or use already defined sortiments in your systems. The electronic catalog created in this way contains only those items that are intended for the customer. Format and structure of the product data are the same as those that can be imported by the customer’s processing systems.
Data distribution is done via mail to the customer’s contact person, via (automated) upload to a (S)FTP server at the customer’s site or via API interface. Often the data is received from supplier portals or other web portals.
As a supplier of article master data and product data, data quality is a relevant competitive factor for you. With a high and consistent data quality, you will not only achieve a high level of customer satisfaction among the data recipients, but much more a prioritization in the procurement processes. With punctual and qualitative data delivery, you avoid agreed contractual penalties and possible non-deliveries to retailers. You establish yourself as a reliable supplier in all evaluation levels of purchasing at the customer.
Industry
As part of the manufacturing sector or industry, you are increasingly confronted with data requirements. As a data supplier, you are in a position to deliver corresponding branch standards and industry standards. Depending on the industry, classifications such as ETIM, ECLASS, UNSPSC and others represent a key data focus for you and your data recipients. For the provision of classifications and other comprehensive product information and content, you use BMEcat and other XML derivatives in addition to EXCEL and CSV.
The consolidation of different data from several sources supports the creation process of electronic catalogs. Data recipients receive consistent and structurally high-quality data from you.
When transferring data, you are guided by the specifications of your customers, trading partners, or central industry platforms. You choose whether the data is sent by mail, to an (S)FTP server, or to an API.
Overall, you streamline your data management processes and use automated workflows, eliminating the need for manual intervention and manual searches for the right data.
B2B-companies
As a B2B manufacturing and distribution company, you are confronted with very different requirements for your product data. Your customers are both classic business partners from industry, trade and administration as well as online-driven companies. However, the development shows that even the classic companies are increasingly focusing online and you have to provide your article data enriched with marketing and sales data. You are also becoming more active online yourself and using B2B marketplaces as an additional sales channel.
The expectations on your data quality and data content are various. Depending on your industry and those of your customers, you create the EXCEL list or the JSON or XML structure, in some cases even BMEcat data with a classification according to ETIM, ECLASS or UNSPSC. Even DATANORM still occurs from time to time.
In addition to the individual customer requirements for the data, you want to define the assortment for the respective customer or marketplace. With the help of separate EXCEL lists or a direct connection to the corresponding system for assortment management (usually ERP systems), your customers also receive only the range of articles intended for them.
The provision of data is again customer-dependent. You react with a flexible data distribution via mail to your contact person at the business partner, via sending the data to the (S)FTP server of the customer or by addressing the web service or the API interface. If automation is not possible, simply download the electronic product data catalog to store it in the customer-supplier portal.
In this way, you offer customers a further service advantage and can respond flexibly to data requests. In addition, data provision takes only a few hours, so your customer can work with the data promptly. You can even offer your dealers a portal where they can compile and download the data they need themselves.
Company without PIM
As a company without a PIM system, you prepare your article and product data from one or more EXCEL files or your ERP system for different customer groups and for digital sales channels. Previously, you kept one EXCEL file for each customer, wholesaler and marketplace, which you had to update manually from a central file.
These business partners give you quality guidelines and specifications for file creation. The implementation is now automated and each file for the data recipient no longer has to be filled out manually. You only need to maintain the central master EXCEL file or your ERP system. Based on the stored requirements, both the corresponding data structure and the desired format are created automatically. In addition, you can now initiate the data transfer in a time-controlled and fully automated manner.
You gain time for more important issues and can rely on data quality and consistency. As a result, you can serve your customers and other sales channels such as marketplaces, eProcurement platforms, and (supplier) portals in a timely manner. Customer satisfaction increases and your products are found on the market much sooner, which improves sales.
Market leader
As market leader of your industry, you are proud of your products and sell through various channels. The shift from offline-driven sales channels to online-driven sales channels continues. Even with traditional retail partners with stable sales, lists with article and product data will be required from you from now on. After all, it is not only the offline channel that generates sales for the retail partner, but also the online store. The answer to the question of further sales potential that confirms and expands your market position will be answered internally with B2B marketplaces, eProcurement platforms and online stores.
In both cases – expanding sales through further potentials as well as existing customer relationships – the quality of your product data will project your demand for high-quality products. You deliver exactly what you are expected to deliver as a quality supplier: Excellent product data just exactly as your customer requires them. EXCEL and CSV represent the standard. JSON, XML or BMEcat will be the next level. In your industry, of course, you provide one of the desired classifications such as ETIM or ECLASS.
Thus, you continue to increase customer satisfaction with a new high quality service. Your listings with major distributors are secured, sales can continue to expand as your competition has not yet gone the distance, and lastly, you can grow your D2C business.
Would you like to learn more about CatalogExpress?
Then arrange a no-obligation consultation with Fabian Fischer now.
How to easily prepare and distribute data with CatalogExpress
1. Create a catalog profile in CatalogExpress
You assign a unique name as an identification to your customer, marketplace or target channel. Likewise, you map the catalog profile to the internal person responsible for mapping and to the responsible customer consultant.
2. Mapping
Determine the systems (e.g. PIM, ERP, DAM) and files (e.g. EXCEL, CSV, XML) from which you want to use the data. Select the desired format (including XLSX, XML, CSV, JSON) and create a free data structure. Even easier: You can use already stored templates for data standards (e.g. BMEcat, PBSeasy, DPB) or marketplaces (e.g. Amazon).With the help of more than 60 functions and rules you refine your data perfectly tailored to the data recipient.
3. Define your sortiment
Each customer and marketplace will be provided with an individual assortment. Either you use an existing article/customer assignment from one of your source systems or you create the assortment within an additional file list (e.g. EXCEL).
4. Data verification
You have the possibility to store verification schemes for each catalog to ensure that your customers receive only validated product data.
5. Catalog distribution
For each catalog profile created in this way, you define a desired form of data distribution. Now you determine the schedule for automated data provision. Save the catalog, and you're all set. From now on, data provision runs at the push of a button or even fully automatically. Grab a cup of coffee or tea: CatalogExpress will do the work for you.
What possibilities does CatalogExpress offer you in product and data management?
Bring product data easily into shop/e-commerce marketplaces
Automatically handle order and warehouse processes
Import your supplier data into the PIM system
Bring product data easily into shop/e-commerce marketplaces
Automatically handle order and warehouse processes
Import your supplier data into the PIM system
CatalogExpress features
- Standard interfaces to e.g.
- Contentserv
- MongoDB
- Pimcore
- VIAMEDICI EPIM
- Time-controlled updating of eCatalogues
- Change trigger from the source system
- Externally triggered via API (e.g. from portals/customers)
- Manual eCatalogue generation on request
- Creation of individually designed mappings for
- specific customer catalogs
- standardized data preparation
- eCommerce feeds
- customer portals
- Functions and rules for data transformation
- Assortment definition is possible by
- Definitions saved in the catalog profile (EXCEL or XML files)
- Information coming from source systems ERP or PIM
- Manual upload at the start of the eCatalog creation
- Integrated data validation for source data
- Standardized XSD schemas for e.g. BMEcat/DPB exports
- Validation against customized XSD files
- Reporting of incorrect catalogs
- Integration of various classifications & their versions:
- ETIM
- ECLASS
- UNSPSC
- GPC
- and many more
- Free configuration of individual data structures & formats, such as:
- EXCEL
- CSV
- XML
- JSON
- BMEcat
- Parallel integration of source systems
- Merging of data sources (golden record)
- Possible data sources:
- Files: EXCEL, CSV, XML, BMEcat:
- Systems: PIM, ERP, DAM, databases
- Automatic readout of attributes for source systems & formats
- Automated & agile data exchange between
- own systems/files (e.g. ERP, PIM, EXCEL)
- and external platforms (e.g. online marketplaces)
- Direct dispatch by e-mail
- Distribution to an SFTP server
- Addressing an API interface
- Order process handling with e-commerce platforms as add-on
- Templates for data standards, such as
- BMEcat with ETIM, FAB DIS, DPB, DATANORM etc.
- Use of stored eCommerce templates, e.g.
- Amazon, conrad.de, Mercateo Unite, Shopware 6
- Download delivery
- Transfer as referenced URL within the data
- Functions for individual & automated image editing
- Creator role
- Provide required product catalogues
- no data know-how required
- Manager role
- definition of data sources
- Data mapping onto target structure
- Admin role
- Administration of users/authorisations
- Standard interfaces to e.g.
- Contentserv
- MongoDB
- Pimcore
- VIAMEDICI EPIM
- Free configuration of individual data structures & formats, such as
- EXCEL
- CSV
- XML
- JSON
- BMEcat
- Time-controlled updating of eCatalogues
- Change trigger from the source system
- Externally triggered via API (e.g. from portals/customers)
- Manual eCatalogue generation on request
- Parallel connection of source systems
- Merge data sources (golden record)
- Possible data sources:
- Files: EXCEL, CSV, XML, BMEcat:
- Systems: PIM, ERP, DAM, databases
- Automatic readout of attributes for source systems & formats
- Creation of individually designed mappings for
- specific customer catalogs
- standardized data preparation
- eCommerce feeds
- customer portals
- Functions and rules for data transformation
- Automated & agile data exchange between
- own systems/files (e.g. ERP, PIM, EXCEL)
- and external platforms (e.g. online marketplaces)
- Direct dispatch by e-mail
- Distribution to an SFTP server
- Addressing an API interface
- Order process handling with e-commerce platforms as add-on
- Assortment definition is possible by
- Definitions saved in the catalog profile (EXCEL or XML files)
- Information coming from source systems ERP or PIM
- Manual upload at the start of the eCatalog creation
- Templates for data standards, such as
- BMEcat with ETIM, FAB DIS, DPB, DATANORM etc.
- Use of stored eCommerce templates, e.g.
- Amazon, conrad.de, Mercateo Unite, Shopware 6
- Integrated data validation for source data
- Standardized XSD schemas for e.g. BMEcat/DPB exports
- Validation against customized XSD files
- Reporting of incorrect catalogs
- Download delivery
- Transfer as referenced URL within the data
- Functions for individual & automated image editing
- Integration of various classifications & their versions:
- ETIM
- ECLASS
- UNSPSC
- GPC
- and many more
- Creator role
- Provide required product catalogues
- no data know-how required
- Manager role
- definition of data sources
- Data mapping onto target structure
- Admin role
- Administration of users/authorisations
Technology of CatalogExpress
No need to worry about anything – Software as a Service (SaaS).
- You do not need extra server capacity or your own servers. CatalogExpress runs entirely in a German, data protection-compliant data center or in our cloud environment.
- We take care of monitoring your system, so you can focus strictly on using it.
- All users can access CatalogExpress from anywhere.
High performance and flexibility thanks to cloud-ready system
- You save costs and computing power.
- Millions of product data can be processed quickly and easily.
- CatalogExpress pulls the cloud resources it needs on demand – always only as much as it needs at any given time.
No downtime during updates through CI/CD technology
- Updating requires no downtime for you, as this technology allows us to update all systems at the push of a button.
- System availability is over 99%.
- Updates are continuous, so your systems are always up to date.
Perfect customer experience through headless integration into your own portal
- You can also use CatalogExpress without frontend only through the API to make the functions available in your own CRM, customer portal or store.
- Offer customers or even employees additional services and functions in your familiar environment.
You want to know if CatalogExpress is suitable for you?
Then arrange a non-binding consultation with Fabian Fischer now.
Service packages
Our CatalogExpress service packages vary
- according to the number of catalog profiles or feeds set up,
- the desired degree of automation in catalog generation and distribution,
- and the number of eCatalogs that can be created in parallel.
There are three different service packages in CatalogExpress
- You have a manageable number of customers, marketplaces and platforms to connect.
- There is no need to automate data provisioning.
- You create data catalogs for a large number of customers, marketplaces and platforms.
- Automation is important to you and data transfer should be handled by software.
- Supplying your customers, marketplaces and platforms has a high company-wide priority.
- Countless distribution channels, simultaneous creation processes and full automation should dominate your daily routine.
Each service package takes into account SaaS operation and can be functionally extended from the other packages with booster options. There are no further limitations such as the number of users and articles.
Would you like to learn more about CatalogExpress?
Then arrange a no-obligation consultation with Fabian Fischer now.
Your next steps with CatalogExpress
1. Get to know each other
In a first short conversation you get to know us better. At the same time, you describe your challenges in product data management to us.
2. Non-binding demo with Fabian Fischer
Get to know CatalogExpress. Together we will see if and how CatalogExpress makes sense for you.
3. Contract signing
We will provide you with a customized offer to help you solve your challenges with CatalogExpress.
4. Start with CatalogExpress
We set up your own instance in just a few hours and you can get started right away. You'll have a constant support person for the time during and after the setup of CatalogExpress.
5. Project implementation
Do you need individual adaptations for your data syndication? We discuss your individual requirements in a joint workshop. Afterwards, we implement your wishes in an agile manner. This allows you to flexibly adapt the solution to your current circumstances.
Take the first step now!
Do you want to continue investing huge amounts of time and nerves in manual data preparation?
Or do you want a simple and automated process for your data management. Imagine being able to play data wherever it’s needed with the push of a button. Changes to your product or order data are automatically synchronized to the appropriate sales channels or internal systems. Your data management practically becomes child’s play and even gives you pleasure. You have time again for the important issues, such as marketing and increasing sales.