What is Catalog Management and how do I work with multiple catalogs?
With Catalog Management you can connect multiple product sources side by side in one EffectConnect environment and keep track of all your catalogs.
Go to:
- What can you do with multiple catalogs?
- Catalog Management in your dashboard
- How does a catalog work?
- What to keep in mind with multiple sources in one catalog
- Product selections and conditional custom attributes
What can you do with multiple catalogs?
With additional catalogs you can, among other things:
- Supplement and enrich existing product data from a second or third source.
- Create new products through an additional source, for example with a CSV import.
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Each source fills a catalog with products and product information.
Good to know: not every connection supports multiple catalogs from the start. Please check per connection whether this option is available.
Catalog Management in your dashboard
In your dashboard you’ll find the Catalog Management section. It gives you a single overview of all catalogs connected to your account, including the sources that fill each catalog.
How does a catalog work?
A catalog is a container for products and their product information, such as attributes, values, categories, and images.
Important to know: products are unique within a catalog, not automatically across your entire account. This means the same EAN can exist in two different catalogs.
Good to know: do you use product selections with conditions based on EAN? Make sure to add a catalog condition as well. Without a catalog filter, an EAN-based selection may unintentionally match products from multiple catalogs.
What to keep in mind with multiple sources in one catalog
Not every source behaves the same way. Keep the following in mind:
- Some sources replace the entire contents of the catalog with every import: all products are removed and recreated based on the supplied data. Don’t combine such a source with other sources in the same catalog, as products from those other sources will be lost.
- Other sources update products dynamically and can safely exist alongside other sources in the same catalog. These sources can also remove products, so stay alert when multiple sources fill the same catalog.
There is a fundamental difference between multiple catalogs and an additional source. Additional sources, also known as enrichment sources, cannot create products. They are intended to supplement existing products in the catalog with additional information.
🔗 See also: would you like to know more about additional sources? Read this article.
Product selections and custom attributes
Since you can have multiple catalogs, you can specify in product selections and custom attributes which catalog (and therefore which products) a condition applies to. This prevents a condition from unintentionally matching products in another catalog, for example when the same EAN exists in multiple catalogs.
Need further assistance?
Please feel free to reach out to the Support Team and we’ll be happy to assist!
📩 Email us at support@effectconnect.com
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