31 Oct Connection of various product data sources – the perfect marriage of product data via CatalogExpress

For many lovers, the wedding is the deepest connection that two people can establish. Furthermore, it belongs to one of the most beautiful days in life. In the daily routine of product data management, the connection of multiple data sources is often not one of the most beautiful days of your business life.

You probably know it from your day-to-day work: product information is managed in the PIM, media data in the DAM or MAM, and sales prices are in your ERP or warehouse management system. However, for your industry portals, wholesalers or customers, you need this data simultaneous and differently combined or structured (such as BMEcat ETIM, BMEcat or a JSON, CSV file). Alternatively, there may be interfaces between your different systems. However, these are often rigidly and inflexibly programmed, so you still need too much time to prepare your product data.

So a marriage between the data entails a lot of work. Your own wedding is like child’s play there. Of course, depending on the size and the celebration, there are some tasks to be done. However, the classic marriage is simple: a registrar, two people, possibly witnesses and in half an hour the job is done.

With CatalogExpress as registrar, the connection of various product data sources becomes more relaxed. The “marriage” is done within a few minutes.

Here’s how connection of various product data sources in CatalogExpress works:

For a wedding, the registrar alone is not enough. The two marrying parties should also be present. In CatalogExpress, unlike the traditional marriage, you are able to connect more than two sources. There are no limits to the amount you can use. Connection of various product data sources allows you to connect data from a PIM system, such as Contentserv, Pimcore, or VIAMEDICI, data from ERP, data from an EXCEL, and assets from a DAM/MAM.

You select the sources in CatalogExpress and then specify an identifier. This identifier must be present in all your sources, e.g. the EAN or article number. CatalogExpress will then be able to correctly link your data.

Using the Magic function, CatalogExpress automatically reads the product attributes.

For instance, from your ERP, price information, stock levels or customs tariff numbers are used. From the PIM, attributes such as item description and other product properties are imported. The DAM/MAM provides CatalogExpress with information about the various assets.

Connecting different data sources for electronic product catalogs

Once you have defined the sources and determined the unique identifier, you need to map the attributes from the source systems to your desired target structure once. CatalogExpress lets you choose between various format templates, including BMEcat 1.2, BMEcat 2005, BMEcat ETIM, Shopware 6 Connector or Amazon Marketplace. Of course, you can also map to an individual EXCEL, XML, JSON or CSV structure.

After mapping you can define different sortiments for industry portals, customers or even your online store. You can create the assortments as a file or by using other sources where the assortments are stored.

Afterwards you can export the electronic catalogs in the selected target format. Using the defined identifier, CatalogExpress brings together the data from the various source systems on an item-by-item basis.

Data delivery can then take place either manually or automatically. In the case of the last-mentioned, you can even set a time control. Any changes you make in your source systems are then automatically and regularly updated in your various target channels (Amazon, industry portals, marketplaces or your own online store). This gives you a high level of data currency with your customers and more visibility or successful listings in stores and ordering systems.

Why you should marry your product data via CatalogExpress

With the dream marriage of product data via CatalogExpress, your product data from different sources can be prepared in a stress-free procedure- for any target. There are no limits to what you can do, regardless of whether you need to prepare data – as BMEcat – for stores – for product feeds from marketplaces or for internal purposes. CatalogExpress marries them all and makes your data recipients happy. As a result, you as a data provider benefit not only from huge time savings, but also from more visibility and higher-revenue customer relationships. Ultimately, all of these factors pay off in your revenue and sales goals.

Want to learn more about CatalogExpress? Then schedule a free consultation now.