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E-Commerce Taxonomy
Taxonomy is defined by Websters as the study of the general principles of scientific classification and as orderly classification of plants and animals according to their presumed natural relationships. E-Commerce taxonomy in its simplest form is the classification of products and services into a hierarchical model and should include relevant and valuable attributes of those classifications.
Taxonomies
Taxonomies can also be referred to as hierarchies or trees. My favorite is 'trees'. It is simply easier to spell. The internet is full of taxonomies. Some good - most bad. When you shop at some of the bigger sites most users don't even realize that they are using a taxonomy to find the products that they are looking for. For example if you look at Walmart.com, on the left hand side you will see the top levels of their taxonomy. It is broken down by their departments. i.e. Baby, Electronics, Toys, Apparel, Food & Grocery, etc. Once you click on a department, it takes you to a category level or view of that department. Each additional click will narrow your search until either you have found the product that you are looking for or until you run out of levels in the hierarchy to narrow that search. Depending on the tools available to the retailers, there can be as few as two levels in the hierarchy. I have seen some hierarchies as deep as 9 levels. It all depends on the tools available and the analytics that the site owner wishes to place their faith into.
Attributes
What I specialize in is the creation of those hierarchies and the related attributes for each child or end node in the hierarchy. My experience has led me to the belief that the work is not done with just the hierarchies. The attributes and their formats are just as important if not more.
Today's internet savvy buyer is not just interested in color, price and a 100 word marketing copy. Although those are important, they want more information. They want to know the finer details of the product. But they don't want to have to search though a bunch of technical pdf's. What is the freezer capacity of that side-by-side refrigerator? How many shelves does it have? Are the shelves movable? Can the shelves hold the weight of their Thanksgiving turkey or a pot of soup? How much ice will the ice maker produce in a day? How many shelves or compartments are there in the doors?
Whether you are talking about kitchen appliances, home electronics, garden seeds or canned corn, they all have relevant attributes that the consumer wants to find.
Past Experience
I have been involved in the creation and maintenance of display hierarchies for The Home Depot, Lowes, Better Homes & Gardens, and am currently finishing a contract with Sears Holdings on one of their sites.
From 2006 until 2009, I worked for Big Hammer Data/Edgenet Inc out of Waukesha Wisconsin. It was there that I worked on the display trees and data collection trees. And yes there is a huge difference between a tree that you are using for collecting data compared to a tree that you are using for displaying it.
In January of 2009 I began my current contract with Sears Holdings working on the taxonomy for their new store - MyGofer.
If you have an upcoming project that could benefit from my experience please email me so we can discuss the options.
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