- Created by Елизавета Шепелева, last modified on Nov 11, 2024
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Display defaultThe functionality of the PIM system allows you to:
- store, process and manage product data;
- manage product information, perform data quality control, check that the content of product cards meets the company's requirements for their quality and content;
- detect and correct errors, avoid duplication of data, standardize product descriptions and reduce the risk of marketing errors;
- reduce the time it takes to bring new products to market, thus increasing the competitiveness of the business;
- set up the most complete presentation of information about products and content to external users of the site for further work;
Next, we will consider in more detail the process of uploading and moderating products on the platform. The functionality is available on all AGORA projects.
Product moderation functionality is enabled through the Platform settings in the admin panel.
You need to find the setting Turn on product moderation on the portal and activate it.
Enabling this setting may affect the logic of the platform. For advice, please contact AGORA technical support.
Next, in the Field in the product setting, you need to select the fields, when changed, the product will be sent for re-moderation. To select multiple fields, hold down the CTRL (or Command on Mac) key. Re-moderation is a re-check of a product previously published in the catalog when important data on it changes.
Save your changes for the settings to take effect.
Role model of users participating in product moderation
There are several user roles on the platform that are involved in the PIM system. Consider the features of each of the roles, and what tasks they solve.
The platform administrator is the client_amin user who has access to the platform's administrative panel. This user can administer the product moderation status model, adjust the available catalog sorting options, set the weight of product fields, and change any other settings that are set through the admin panel.
Responsible manager (Marketer) is a user for the head of the content department. He has the following rights:
- Setting up the import of products.
- The ability to manage the master data of the nomenclature as part of the import of products.
- Ability to view data on products published for buyers.
- Ability to view data on all loaded products.
- Full rights to edit product cards.
- Full rights to edit product statuses (moderation).
- Rights to bulk upload product data using an XLS file.
- Formation of a report on the quality of work of brand managers (subordinates) in the form of exporting an XLS file with a report.
- Formation of an XLS file for exporting goods from the public section.
- The user has three types of displaying the catalog, one of which can be customized to suit his needs.
A brand manager is a role for an employee of the content department who performs direct verification and enrichment of the product card with the necessary data for publication in the buyer's catalog. A user with this role has the following rights:
- Editing the content and parameters of product cards in the area of his responsibility, with the exception of master data on products. The area of responsibility for each brand manager is configured by the platform administrator.
- Bulk loading of product data by importing from an XLS file. Additional data loading is available for products in the area of responsibility of the brand manager and products that are not master data.
- Manual editing of product card parameters, except for the master data selected by the manager.
- Possibility to change the publication status of a product.
- Ability to generate an XLS-file of export from the open part of the catalog.
- View a list of published products.
- Viewing information about the quality of filling in the product card.
- There are three types of catalog display available to the user, one of which can be configured by the end user himself.
Adding and configuring new system users
The roles described above are created automatically on the platform. But to work with them, you need to create a user. To do this, in the administrative panel, click on the Add button in the Users section.
Or go to the Users section, and then click the Add User button.
A page will open where you need to fill in the required fields. To register, it is enough to set a username and password, as well as check the verification box if it is used on the project. It is best to use an email address as the username.
Complete the registration using the Save button.
Next, you need to give the user a set of rights for his role. To do this, go to the Groups section.
Then select the desired group. Consider the example of the Responsible Manager. For the Brand Manager, the algorithm of actions will be similar.
On the page that opens, in the Users field, you need to find the previously created user who should receive this role. Use the right arrow to move it to the selected users column.
Next, you need to Save changes.
After that, you need to associate the manager with the supplier. To do this, go to the Users section. Next, click on the username of the user we are setting up.
On the page that opens, in the Supplier field, you need to specify the Platform Supplier and then Save changes.
After that, the user will have buttons to go to the supplier profile and to the marketer or brand manager profile. Click on the Marketer Profile button.
Next, in the Suppliers with an accessible catalog field, move the supplier to the right column using the right arrow. Setting up the Responsible Manager ends here. After saving the changes, he can start working on the platform.
For the brand manager, at this step we also set up his area of responsibility. To do this, in addition to the supplier, we also fill in the Categories and Product properties. In the Categories field, select the categories for which the brand manager is responsible. And in the Product properties field, select specific properties by which the products available to the manager will be filtered. For example, you can set a property to a specific brand that an employee is responsible for. When selecting several different properties, products that fall into both selections at the same time will be selected. For example, if you specify the brand as Casio and the color as black, then the manager will see only black Casio brand products.
After filling, click the Save button.
Now the platform administrator can provide the employee with his account information and the user will be able to work on the platform. For security reasons, the manager can set his own password for his account, for this you can use the password recovery form.
Importing products to the platform
Import of products to the platform can be performed by a user with the role of Responsible manager, that is, the head of the content department. To do this, he needs to log in to his personal account, go to the My catalog section and click on the Data loading from EXCEL button. Catalog download is also available in YML format or from an ERP system. In addition, manual loading of products is available.
Next, by clicking the Add file button, a window will appear where you can select a file from the local storage of the device.
Then you will need to set up the fields for importing goods. More details about downloading a file are described on the page. For correct import, a unique identifier must be specified, for example, an article, and the Supplier Category, Name, Prices and Remains must also be specified. The name of the price and stock type is taken from the first line of the file, which assumes column headings. In addition to the standard settings, the responsible manager can also specify in which columns the Master data will be indicated. Master data is the data that will not be editable by brand managers. For example, you can select the article and product name as master data.
After filling in all the import parameters, you need to set the Skip the first line checkbox so that the row with column headers is not processed. Next, you can start processing the file. The file processing status can be seen in the File processing section. If the file has been processed successfully, the product data will be written to the platform. After that, they will become available to brand managers for editing and moderation.
Products moderation
Setting up moderation statuses
In the PIM product, a status model has been developed for conducting the moderation process and publishing products to the end user of the platform. Product moderation statuses are configured in the Product moderation statuses section of the administrative panel.
The section contains all product moderation statuses, the settings of which the platform administrator can manage.
Awaiting moderation - the product has been uploaded to the site and fell into the manager's area of responsibility. This product is not displayed to customers because it has not yet been verified.
Awaiting fix - this status is assigned to the product if the brand manager has taken it to work, but there is not enough data for publication. For example, a brand manager may not have enough images, and he requests them from another employee of the company, or clarifies some details about the values of characteristics or details of the description. In this status, the product is not published in the open catalog and is not available to customers.
Product rejected - the product has been uploaded to the platform, but under no circumstances can it be verified and published in the open catalog. For example, this is a product that does not fit the theme of the site, or an erroneously uploaded product. In this case, it can be assigned this status. The product will be saved in the database, but it will not be available in the customer catalog.
The product has been moderated - this status is assigned to the product when the responsible employee has checked and edited the product card and made sure that all the parameters of the item and the content meet the requirements of the company. In this case, the product is given this status and it becomes available to buyers. The buyer can find a product in the catalog using the search tools, view the product card, compare it, add it to favorites, buy and add it to the export file to upload content.
The product has been moderated - delayed publication - this status is used if it is required to postpone the publication of the product for a specific day and time. For example, a company introduces a new product to the market. In this case, the products can be imported to the site and checked in advance. For the product, the date and time are selected when it should be published in the buyers catalog and the product is published automatically at the specified date and time.
To change status settings, click on its name.
The page that opens will display the current settings.
You can change the name in Russian and other languages if they are connected. You can also change the status color using the palette or by entering a six-digit color code.
For the changes to take effect, Save the changes.
If you need to restore the original settings of product moderation statuses, you need to select Products sorting by default in the bulk operations panel. It is not necessary to select individual statuses with checkboxes.
Setting the weights of product fields
To visually see the percentage of product card filling, you need to set up Product field weights. Configuration is performed in the admin panel section of the same name.
On the page that opens, there will be a list of product fields for which you can set the weight when calculating the percentage of filling the product card.
Name of the service - the weight coefficient of the product name in the calculation of the percentage of filling.
Description - the weight coefficient of the presence of a completed product description in the calculation of the percentage of completeness.
Availability of a picture - the coefficient of weight of the presence of an image of a product when calculating the percentage of fullness.
File presence - weight coefficient of file presence (Files block) when calculating the percentage of fullness.
Tag presence - coefficient of weight of the presence of a tag for a product when calculating the percentage of fullness.
Property presence - the weight coefficient of the presence of a property (characteristic) of the product when calculating the percentage of occupancy.
Presence of a balance - the weight coefficient of the presence of residues for the product when calculating the percentage of fullness.
Price Availability - the coefficient of weight of availability of prices for the product when calculating the percentage of fullness.
The logic for calculating the percentage of occupancy is as follows:
Each field has its own weight. All property weights are summed up, the resulting number will be 100% full.
If we take a field and fill it in, then the percentage of fullness that this field will give = Weight of the field / Sum of the weight of all fields.
Therefore, initially it is best to decide what the total weight of all fields will be. For ease of calculation, you can fix the total weight of 100, then each unit specified as the weight of the field will be equal to 1%. You can set another total weight, but it is best to have some kind of round value for ease of calculation.
All fields for which the weight is specified participate in the calculation of the percentage of occupancy. For example, it is necessary that only 5 fields participate in the calculation of the percentage of occupancy: Name, Description, Image presence, File presence, Property presence.
The sum of all fields will equal 100%.
Next, we distribute the total weight of all fields, that is, 100, to the 5 fields that we have chosen. For example, the title will have a weight of 50, Description - 10, Image presence - 20, File presence - 6 and property presence - 14. After distribution, we check that the total weight of the fields is 100. If everything is correct, then the name will give a percentage of completeness of 50 %, specifying a description will give another 10%, and so on.
After all the calculations are done and the data on the weights are filled in for all fields, you need to Save the changes.
Setting available sorts in the catalog
The platform administrator can also configure the sorts that will be available to users in their directory.
To do this, go to the Platform Settings section.
Scroll the page to the Products block. In the Sort types field, use the checkboxes to select those that should be available to platform users. After making changes, you need to Save them.
Setting available columns in the catalog
Platform users can personalize the columns that will be displayed in their catalog.
With the help of checkboxes, they can enable and disable the display of certain columns in the catalog.
In addition, using the drag-and-drop functionality, you can change the order of the displayed columns. To do this, you need to hover over the square symbol with dots and drag the column to the desired location.
From the side of the platform administrator, you can configure which columns will be available for selection by platform users. To configure them, you need to go to the admin panel in the Platform settings section.
Scroll down the page to the Catalog block. In the Available columns in the catalog (table) field, you can select which columns will be available for selection by the user when viewing the catalog Table. In the field Enabled by default catalog columns (table), you can select which columns will be displayed by default to the user when the catalog display mode is Table. After making changes, you need to Save them.
Moderation of products by a brand manager
After the Responsible Manager has imported products to the platform, the Brand Manager can start moderating them. He logs in to his personal account and goes to the My Catalog tab. The brand manager sees only the list of products that was assigned to him at the user setup stage. Uploaded products are automatically assigned the status Awaiting moderation. You can filter by this status and thus see a list of recently uploaded products that are awaiting review. If necessary, you can find the desired product through a catalog search or filtering by properties.
You can moderate a product and change its status using bulk actions or manually for each product. To do this through bulk actions, you need to select products using checkboxes, and then select Change status in the drop-down list. A window will open where you will need to select a status for the selected items. For example, this way you can bulk reject products if they were uploaded by mistake.
In order to change the status for an item manually, you need to switch to edit mode.
Product editing
Manual editing of a product
Product editing mode allows the brand manager to make corrections to the product, if necessary, as well as change the moderation status. To do this, click on the edit button.
A product card will open, where the percentage of fullness will be visible and it will be possible to correct the necessary data. The data is on several tabs: Attributes, Properties, Files, Prices, Remains, Images.
The Attributes tab contains the following data:
- Item type - product or service
- Name of product
- Product description - text description of the product
- My catalog category - product category imported when uploading a file by the Responsible Manager
- Product SKU
- Product tags - additional product tags that can be used to tag products in the catalog for buyers.
The Properties tab contains all imported properties for a product, as well as their values. In this section, the Brand Manager can change the property of the product or its value using the drop-down list. He can also remove redundant properties if necessary, or add a new property using the Add Property button.
On the Files tab, it is possible to add additional files such as Certificates, Specifications, Instructions and any other files that should be displayed to the end user in the product card. To add a file, click the Add file button, and then select it on the local computer.
You can also delete a previously uploaded file if it is no longer relevant.
On the Prices tab, you can change the price value for a product. You can also add another price type and its value by clicking the Add price button.
On the Remains tab, you can edit the remnants of goods in a particular warehouse or delete them completely. At the bottom of the page there is also an Add remainder button, which allows you to add the remainder in the new warehouse.
The Images tab contains a list of imported images for the product, and also provides the ability to upload images or delete outdated ones.
If a product has several images, it will be possible to set the order in which images are displayed in the product card using the drag-n-drop functionality.
Required fields are marked with a red asterisk. If you do not specify data for them, then you will not be able to save the changes and an error will be indicated in the Fill errors area.
The master data that the Responsible manager noted when importing products cannot be edited.
After making changes, you can immediately indicate the desired status for the product, for example, if there is enough data for publication, then you can immediately set the status of the product has been moderated and it will be published in the buyers catalog after saving the changes.
Before saving changes, make sure that there are no filling errors for the product. After that, you can click on the Save button.
Editing a product by importing an xls file
If a number of products have undergone massive changes, for example, a new feature has been added or images have been updated, you can upload an XLS file that contains the product ID and columns with updated values. Thus, the user does not need to edit each product manually, and changes can be made in bulk. To import an XLS file with changes, go to the My catalog section and click on the Data loading from EXCEL button. More details about downloading a file are described on the page.
The identifier must be the same column that was used by the Responsible Manager during the initial import of products (for example, Article).
The Brand Manager can only update data that is not selected as master data by the Responsible Manager. If changes are loaded according to the master data, then an error will occur in the processing of the package.
The responsible manager can also moderate and edit products, for example, if one of his employees is on vacation.
Data export
The functionality for exporting products and media content allows users to upload a file with products that are displayed to them on the platform. Export is available to users with the following roles:
- Responsible manager
- Brand Manager
- Buyer
Each user can solve their own problems with the help of export. The responsible manager (leader) receives a report on the work of his employees (brand managers). The brand manager receives product information and can obtain files and images for each product for review. The buyer gets the opportunity to upload a file with goods for subsequent uploading to trading platforms, for example, if he buys from a supplier on the platform, and then sells it at retail.
Unloading of text information on products is made in the form of an XLS-file. The file is a table with all the data that the product card contains.
Unloading of media content is carried out in the form of an archive, which contains nested archives with media (images, files) for products. Each archive with the media content of a product has a name that matches the article, so you can conveniently find data on a particular product.
Export of products for the brand manager
To export a file by products, the user needs to go to the My Catalog section. Next, select the desired products by marking them with checkboxes, and select Products export from the drop-down list.
You will be prompted to add products to an existing export list, if one has been created before, or to create a new list. Choose the option that suits you.
After saving, you need to go to the Export section and select the desired list of products.
Next, you need to choose what you want to upload: Download product list or Download product images and files. In the first case, only a table with products will be generated, and if you select the second setting, then archives with media content will also be added.
After selecting the desired settings, you must click on the Form button and file generation will start.
After the file generation process is completed, a link will appear where it can be downloaded.
When you click on the link, the archive will be saved to the local machine. After unpacking the file, the user will receive:
- XLS file with all product parameters
- Archive with media content for products from the generated export list
Export a brand manager performance report
The responsible manager has the opportunity to upload a report on the quality of work of his subordinates (Brand Managers). To download the report, the Responsible Manager can log in to the personal account on the platform and go to the My Catalog section.
Further, using the search tools, he can form a list of products for which he wants to view the report. For example, you can filter products by their status Awaiting moderation.
With the help of the Select all checkbox and the Products export mass action, you can add products to an existing export list, if it was previously created, or create a new list.
Next, you need to go to the Export section and select the desired list.
On the page that opens, an additional setting Moderation status will be available. When it is enabled, the manager will receive information in the file about the article, name, percentage of completion, moderation status of the product and the brand manager responsible for this product.
To generate an export file, click the Form button. Next, the system will start generating the file, and after the completion of its formation, a link for downloading the archive with data will be available. Thus, the Responsible Manager can at any convenient time check the quality of work of his subordinates by generating a report in his personal account.
If you have any questions about using or configuring the functionality, please contact AGORA technical support.
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