Skip to main content
Blog PIM

Ecommerce Product Attributes: Everything You Must Know to Kick Start Online Selling

Muthukumar Kannan
November 17, 2021 |
eCommerce Product Attributes

No doubt eCommerce is set to rule the market in the years to come. In such a crowded space, how do brands make their products stand out? With more customers opting online for a comfortable and low-effort shopping experience, the spotlight is on each retailer to ensure they provide quality service to shoppers. And eCommerce product attributes play a significant role in reinforcing your brand value.

What are Product Attributes, and why do they matter? 

Before going deep into the intricacies of eCommerce product attributes, we should know something about Product Hierarchy.

What is Product Hierarchy? 

A product hierarchy explains relationships between products and groups at different hierarchy levels. Product hierarchy is a logical structure that helps boost user experience, SEO value and provides your employees with consistent information.  Product HierarchyProduct Hierarchy can be classified into:

  • Attributes 
  • Attributes Groups
  • Attribute Family
  • Product

Read further to understand why eCommerce product attributes, product attributes groups, and product family, along with a powerful PIM, play a prominent role for any business striving to attain excellence in the digital space.

What are eCommerce Product Attributes?   

Increased brand awareness and customer enlightenment made shoppers look for specific information on the product. Shoppers these days know what they want to buy, and they search accordingly for particular details.Product and its features are not the only things defining the quality, especially in this online space. eCommerce product attributes, display images, and descriptions help customers arrive at a buying decision.eCommerce Product Attributes are a set of characteristics that define a particular product or a group of goods. This means size, color, flavor, package type, etc. constitute attributes. Product attributes are not just about the general description of a product, but it speaks the value of products that makes it unique.Philip Kotler, Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University said, “Product attributes are the ingredients necessary for performing the product or service function sought by consumers.” They are not to be confused with features.

How is eCommerce Product Attributes Different from Product Features?

Both the eCommerce product attributes and product features help to describe your product to your customers. 

  • Product attributes reside in the product, while benefits reside in the customer. Moreover, it helps to analyze and identify growth opportunities. 
  • Product attributes are usually concrete characteristics of a product. It can be abstract at times. Whereas product features are a cluster of various attributes and they are always abstract in nature.

Why eCommerce Product Attributes Matter in Online Marketing?

A person searching for filesAttributes are what influences or affect a consumer’s decision to purchase something. If the right fit of characteristics is given for the right set of products, then you are making the buying process hassle-free and convenient for customers, thus charting out the low-effort experience everyone talks about these days.If rightly optimized, product attributes let you build a competitive standpoint. It makes your products 

  • Searchable on the SERP
  • Improve onsite search performance
  • Boost SEO

Every eCommerce product attribute should either have a point of parity or a point of difference. That is either it should have a similar attribute that matches with that of the competitors or else unique attributes that help to stand out in the market.  

Types of eCommerce Product Attributes

Generally, attributes can be classified into two types for every product – tangible attributes and intangible attributes. 

Tangible Attributes

Tangible attributes include the physical characteristics of a product, something that can be seen and felt by the user.Tangible Product Attributes Examples:-

  • Size
  • Color
  • Weight
  • Quantity
  • Material Composition
  • Height

Intangible Product Attributes

Intangible product attributes are those which cannot be seen and felt but are subject to change based on the consumer’s preferences and market scenario.Intangible Product Attributes Examples:-

  • Style
  • Quality
  • Strength
  • Beauty
  • Model
  • Price

What is eCommerce Product Attribute Groups

Attribute Groups are a collection of similar attributes grouped together for a common characteristic.For example, there are usually many attributes related to the colors of a car, like a car’s body color, wheel, disc, seat color, and so on. All these attributes can be bundled together and put in a single group titled ‘Colors,’ making it easier for the concerned teams to present details aesthetically on the front end (online store).

What is eCommerce Product Attribute Family

eCommerce Product Attribute Family The attribute family is a collection of attribute groups required to create and curate a whole product. Only when all the characteristics mentioned in the attribute groups are placed in tandem can the final product be manufactured efficiently.In any mobile or computer, the memory attribute group (RAM, ROM) is a typical existence, whereas the display attribute is entirely different from the other. So what we do is categorize them into two different characteristics for mobile and computer respectively. This improves the product attribute classification and enhances the customer experience in the online store with accurate details on the display, making shopping seamless for the customer.

Attribute Types in PIM

Product Information Management is a system that stores ALL the product information and data your company deals with. By all, we really mean all, as vast amounts of data can be fed in seamlessly and securely – pictures, documents, product descriptions, attributes, product categories, manuals, tech specs, SEO attributes, and more.Having all the attributes stored in a single place helps teams in multiple ways during production, and also for marketing prospects to optimize product visibility and brand growth.Below are the attribute types which can be created and stored in a PIM:

  • Number – Numeric values like Product Quantity Count
  • Text – Short descriptions like Product Name
  • Text Area – Long text like Product Description
  • File – File size values like Product Document
  • Image – Image type, image size, etc.
  • Identifiers – Unique value attributes related to product identification
  • Metrics – Product weight, power, height, width, capacity, etc.
  • Price – Product price, special price, offer price type attributes, etc.
  • Select & Multi-select – Ability to choose multiple options in attributes like color, size, etc.
  • Radio – Radio attributes are used to create value attributes.
  • Date – Product manufacture date, launch date, etc.

Attributes in a PIM Diagram

Attribute Properties

Any robust PIM comes with the option to create a predefined set of properties to classify attribute labels, default values, maximum and minimum products count, active and inactive fields attribute, and so on. Using these fields, brands can define attribute behavior and make work less time-consuming.Below are the various kinds of attribute properties, which can be added to streamline product data management.

  • Attribute Label – Used to show your attribute field name on the products attribute page.
  • Attribute Code – A unique code that is set for every product/project and acts as an identifier for this attribute module.
  • Minimum and Maximum – Defines the minimum and maximum numeric values for any given set of attributes.
  • Attribute Group – Possesses the Attribute Group Name.
  • Default Value – A preset value that will remain static for the chosen set of products or attributes.
  • Status – Helps to identify the current status of attributes.
  • Unique – The current attribute is either unique or not.
  • Required – This option can be useful to denote if there is a mandatory requirement in the field.
  • Decimal – It helps to define the decimal values in numeric fields.
  • Maximum Character – Loads the count of how much character length can be entered for the attributes.
  • Validation Rules – Defines the regular expression for attribute text validation.
  • Editor – Defines the type of editor used in text area fields on the product page.
  • Maximum File Upload Size – Sets the size limit of a file not yet uploaded.
  • File Extension – Helps to validate the uploaded file type on the product page.
  • Metric Family – Select the scale values of attributes like weight, length, etc.
  • Metric Option – Select how the metrics should be displayed. In case of weight – such as kg, gm, milligrams, or pounds.
  • Options – Ability to add multiple option values for select and multi-select attributes.
  • Allowed Future Date – Enables the future date values in the Date attribute.
  • Allowed Past Date – Enables the past date values in the Date attribute.

How to Optimize eCommerce Product Attributes to Create Rich Product Information?

1. Group the Attributes

Grouping your eCommerce product attributes on the backend platform will help you streamline product descriptions to enhance customer experience and transparency. You can amplify data quality and attribute management by placing attributes into groups based on shared characteristics. You can group it based on characteristics like:

  • Physical attributes
  • Technical attributes
  • Marketing attributes
  • Logistics attributes

To ease the manual difficulty in applying the attributes to each product individually you can set up an attribute family to automatically add attributes to each product.  

2. Set Attribute Types

Attribute types help to add data quality by allowing you to specify what kind of data input an attribute will allow. Examples of attribute types are:

  • Boolean
  • Date
  • Decimal
  • Formatted Text
  • Integer
  • Location
  • Single Select
  • Multi Select
  • Multiline
  • Pattern

3. Create High-Level Attribute

Creating high-level attributes will help you eliminate incomplete product fields on your catalog and time wasted on repeated attribute setup. Moreover, the high-level attribute will help you set standards that make anyone working on the product data ensure all the attributes are filled before proceeding.  This might be a little bit confusing for you. Let’s clarify it through an example. You are selling shirts. There might be shirts from different brands. But all of them will be sharing similar attributes (color, size, etc.). So you cannot add a product without entering values for each of them. It might be difficult to create an attribute column each time you add a product. In such cases creating attributes to the higher level in the structure (categories or catalogs) will work.

4. Create compound Attribute

Some products might contain multiple data like height and width. These attributes need to be presented together, not in separate columns. Compound attributes come in handy in such places where you need to provide multiple. 

5. Limit access to Attribute

A robust access policy is necessary to fix the responsibilities. Your product information will be handled by catalog admins, suppliers, or external agencies. Deciding on who can access and view your product attributes is crucial to avoid confusion and create high-quality data.   

Product informationHow do the attributes in DCKAP PIM differ from other PIMs?

Any PIM system aims to provide excellent product maintenance possibilities, along with all the above-said attribute options coupled with the necessary powerful integration, to manage all the product data. As an enterprise-level PIM system, DCKAP PIM houses stellar features to help brands increase productivity and sales by storing all the company data in a single repository that is easy to access by all. When compared to other PIM systems, DCKAP PIM stands out by providing exceptional product attributes. Some of which are listed below.

  • DCKAP PIM has separate attribute properties for Metrics, Identifiers, Images, and Files.
  • The Attributes Module in DCKAP PIM is more user-friendly in comparison with competitors.
  • A Mass Assignment option is available for the attributes module, which eases bulk operations.
  • A Future Date Limitation feature is available in DCKAP PIM.

Recommended Reading: Top 6 Reasons Why eCommerce Retailers Need A PIM Solution

Optimize Your eCommerce Product Attribute to Streamline Sales Revenue

Rich product information drives more sales. As users’ expectations about online sales are rising, precise and accurate information is the need of time. You need a faster product information management solution to optimize attributes. eCommerce product attributes play a significant role in refining search results, enhancing visibility, and boosting customer experience.  DCKAP PIM solution helps you optimize hundreds of product attributes for each product to seamlessly distribute data across different channels. We help you deliver an excellent customer experience through our PIM product management solution. To know more about our PIM solution and other end-to-end eCommerce solutions, reach out to us. Why the wait? Contact us right away to explore how DCKAP PIM can enhance your brand and complement the business.

Muthukumar Kannan

Muthukumar Kannan AKA Kmg Kumar, a Product Associate at DCKAP, is a passionate Laravel developer. He is a core flexiPIM developer who loves playing cricket and online games.

More posts by Muthukumar Kannan