Every store has a personality. Brightly colored kids toys, sleek and sexy swimwear, or maybe some tasty looking chocolates. When we go shopping we create an association between a niche of products and the store that sells them. The power of habit brings us back and quickly that place becomes our ‘go-to’ store.
A long time ago I went shopping for a pair of glasses. I was used to paying about $300 every two years because that’s what they had always cost. But then I heard from a friend that you could get the same style online for $25. That’s amazing! They sell glasses. Just glasses. Not contact lenses, not laser surgery, and they make it easy to see what you’re buying. They have focused their product line.
Product curation is the process of selecting products which fit a merchant’s niche. It is very strategic and defines the store. In the good old days a merchant would go to the supplier and buy products, box them up, and bring them to his store to sell. But today this is much more virtual. We have drop-shippers and marketplaces with lots of button clicking.
There are many innovative ways to select products from supply data feeds.
– Choose products by categories. Perhaps the merchant has a supplier who provides all kinds of clothing – kids, women’s, men’s, and chic pet cardigans. A simple form of curation is to choose the categories which will look good in his store.
– Choose specific products. Sometimes there are very specific products so we can select them by their title or SKU.
– Choose by keywords. Each product has a description which contain valuable information. Keywords can be used to narrow in on specific products. Perhaps the merchant wants all ‘garden’ related products.
In a future article we will look at what it means to automate Product Curation. How can we choose products on behalf of the merchant?