Consumer-Driven Product Categorization: Using Internal Data, Emerging Trends, and Keyword Research

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Effective product categorization is a key element of any eCommerce website. However, once categories are set up, many brands pay little attention to them, rarely reviewing them to ensure they are relevant to customers.

In a competitive and ever-changing digital world, shoppers are constantly changing their preferences for product descriptions and searches. It is therefore critical that product categories in an online store are easily accessible and attractive to users, and also contribute to improving SEO performance.

We explore why adopting a customer-centric approach taiwan b2b leads to product categorization is key to optimizing user experience. This approach improves site usability, improves product visibility, and increases company revenue. It also helps you gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Before you begin working on product categorization, you need to rethink traditional classification methods.

Before we get started, traditional classification of products
The classification of products on most e-commerce sites usually looks like this:

Parent categories, which act as the main navigation of the site. These pages contain a wide range of products from one category.
Screenshot of the main navigation menu and the drop-down menu showing parent categories.
Subcategories are more detailed categories that group products together based on similar characteristics.
Faceted navigation is used on product pages to help users refine their search results and find the products they want.


The technical side of faceted navigation
At the technical level of faceted navigation, there are strict guidelines that are important to follow to prevent indexing and duplicate content issues - these aspects can significantly affect the performance of an online store. One of the strictest guidelines is not to index all filtered categories so that search engines focus exclusively on pages with the main product categories.

Today's online shopping experience is becoming increasingly personalized, making it easier for shoppers to find what they want almost instantly. However, this also makes them less tolerant of sites that don't provide a user-friendly experience.

Today's consumers value personalization, convenience, and want to find the products they need quickly and with minimal effort. However, traditional product categorization does not always meet their expectations, forcing customers to weed out unnecessary options before finding the right product.

Classification of goods based on the principle of taking into account the wishes of the client
Classifying products based on customer preferences means adapting product categories to the actual needs of customers. Faceted navigation moves from a simple filtering system to a data collection tool that can more accurately determine customer needs and preferences.

Faceted navigation provides convenience for users, allowing them to easily filter search queries and get a list of products that fully match the criteria. This concept is simple, effective and close to personalization for both new and experienced users. Active interaction from the user is still required to use this feature.

Customer-centric categorization takes the personalized approach of faceted navigation one step further by eliminating this extra work and allowing the user to get to the desired page directly from the SERP. You can achieve this by creating PLPs that are more tailored to the products your potential customers are looking for.

Every time a user filters search results by PLP or searches for something using the internal site search, it indicates that the product is not as easy to find as one would like. The beauty of a consumer-centric approach is that these products tend to be frequently searched for, and therefore, they can bring significant traffic and revenue to an online store.



Benefits of Consumer-Oriented Product Categorization
A customer-centric approach makes sense when you consider that 15% of search queries are unique; that’s about 1.275 billion unique queries per day. That’s 1.275 billion potential new ways to find (or describe) something that already exists. Couple that with the trend toward greater personalization (mentioned above), and it’s easy to see that parent categories (or even subcategories) are potentially no longer the most relevant pages for customers.

By taking a customer-centric approach to product categorization and multi-faceted navigation, you can:

Increase visibility with long-tail keywords
By their nature, long-tail keywords are more descriptive and specific than titles. In the past, long-tail keywords were thought to be informational and therefore better suited for blog content. However, in many cases, users are searching for keywords with commercial intent (i.e. when the product is more complex or technical), and this is where the real opportunity lies.

By creating categories that focus on keywords with high commercial value, you can increase visibility and get ahead of competitors whose pages are not as relevant or optimized for searches for these niche products.

Use internal data to gain a competitive advantage
It may not surprise you to learn that very few companies reported taking lessons from site search data and using it in other areas of their business. This means that a huge number of companies have insightful internal data that they don’t even pay attention to — and these companies most likely include competitors.

Companies that rely on third-party data to analyze user behavior tend to overlook the value of internal data. While it’s worth using third-party tools to understand industry trends and track competitors, internal data provides an even greater competitive advantage because it’s data that no one else has access to and is specific to your audience.

Customer-centric product categorization leverages this concept by combining internal data with keyword data to gain insight into what customers (and potential customers) are actually searching for. It can also help you understand whether behavior is specific to your business or part of a broader industry trend that has yet to be capitalized on.