In the process of creating a food catalogue, it is essential to be as organised as possible. Through this, not only do you save time from scanning an endless list of food products, but you also can give on-point advice to customers. This fact brings us to the importance of organising food catalogues like coles catalogue by categories to not overload choices. Based on research, presenting to customers too many choices at once leads to the inability to decide in the end. Especially with food catalogues based on supermarkets, organisation through food categorisation is vital to improving customer experience.
In a general sense, you should first identify what kind of product you have on hand when creating catalogues. This is also known as the “getting to know” stage, in which you get a broad idea about the items that are to be categorised. In this case, it is a food item since we are on the topic of food catalogues. After identifying what the item is, you can further identify what the product can be used for. For items under a food catalogue like that of coles catalogue, the use is usually for consumption purposes. You can then ask yourself the last question of who will be using this food product and why?
Having a strong grasp of what food item you are selling is essential because you will later use it to create parent categories. In case you are not yet familiar with parent categories, they are broad classifications of distinct items from each other. This distinction between parent categories needs to be a sharp contrast because it will be easier for the customer to find what they are looking for. Before this distinction between parent categories can be clear, a person must first get to know the products to know what makes each different from one another.
Once you have a good idea about the food items in your soon to be food catalogue, creating categories and subcategories is the next step. When creating categories, they must be broad or general to make room for further classification in the later stages. Usually, as seen in food catalogues, food items are categorised based on food groups. Some to name are dairy, protein, also known as meat, fruits and vegetables. If you may have noticed, these food categories are very broad, mainly because it creates subcategories, an easier task since there is more room for segregation and classification. With this being said, it is truly up to you whether you would like to categorise food items by food groups. Otherwise, you may choose other category names such as “in-season”, “what’s new,” or “just arrived” to show customers what food items are popular at the moment.
Another tip to keep in mind when creating food categories is the need to be mutually exclusive. This means that one category should not coincide with another because this will only lead to confusion—also, the simpler the category name, the better. If food category names are easy to read and understand, most customers will find what they are searching for without much help. Additionally, remember to avoid categories like “miscellaneous” because most customers would avoid this category since it is just a mixture of all kinds of products.
So, once the food catalogue’s categories are already set, creating subcategories from the categories or parent categories is important. With the use of subcategories, what the customers are searching for are further narrowed down. This increases the chances of reaching what they are looking for. One important tip to keep in mind when creating subcategories is to ensure that at least thirty products fit inside. If you create a category with five products or less, this will be an extra category that will make your food catalogue more complicated than it should be. So, aim for simplicity by making sure that each category can accommodate enough products.
The organisation is key in any catalogue, especially that of a food catalogue. But before organising a food catalogue, you must first get to know the items so that categorising in the later stage is easier than a daunting task. Simplicity and distinction are key during the categorising stage, though it is fine to have two or more similar subcategories under one parent category. Through simplicity, customers save time from figuring out what the category label means and with distinction, searching and eventually finding the food item becomes faster and more efficient. Overall, by categorising a food catalogue, you break down the items into different sections and through these sections, customers may easily navigate the catalogue with ease.
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