Best Practices for Formatting and Displaying Attribute Data
The following is a collection of best practices to keep in mind as you input item attribute data. These are not hard and fast rules, but rather guidelines to consider.
Don't Overwhelm Your Customers
When leveraging your item data--attributes especially--it is important to keep in mind what information your customers will actually find useful; a surplus of information for its own sake can often be confusing or frustrating for users.
Number of Attributes
The PIM-Enterprise enforces a limit of 25 attributes per category, but that is not to say that every category needs to have 25 attributes. In order for your customers to have an equable, gratifying shopping experience on your site, you will need to make a decision on which attributes are the most relevant to each category. It is better to have 5 extremely useful attributes than 25 which your customers will never touch.
Start Collapsed
The PIM-Enterprise gives you the option to force your Filter attributes to load into the page collapsed or expanded. If you do have a large number of Filter attributes (>10), you might choose to set them to "collapsed". That way, your customer can decide which attributes are most useful to them in their particular use case. In addition, too many expanded attributes can sometimes extend well beyond the item list on your site, which can be exasperating for users.
Alphabetical Order
By default, the Filter attributes for a given category will appear in the Left Navigation of your Categories in alphabetical order. You have the ability to change the order of the attributes, and you can read about how to accomplish that by reading this article. However, the average website user expects to see a list such as this in alphabetical order, so while it can be helpful to bring the most notable attributes for a category to the top of a list, having a non-alphabetical order to all of your attributes might prove to be frustrating to some users from a navigation standpoint.
Too Many Subcategories
A common pain point for internet users is a roundabout, meandering browsing experience. Most internet users want to take the path of least resistance, and will find it tiresome to navigate pages and pages of subcategories. Subcategories are very important, but having more than three levels of subcategories is discouraged.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
The PIM-Enterprise is a powerful program, and there are a few things to keep in mind that will streamline and simplify your experience when working with attributes.
Attributes are Inherited
It's important to remember that if you associate an attribute to a top-level category, all of its subcategories will inherit that attribute. This is not only a time-saving measure but an effective way to keep your attributes organized. You can use the Attribute Optimizer tool to move attributes to parent categories if you so choose.
Optimize Your Attributes
The PIM-Enterprise is equipped with tools like the Attribute Optimizer and Attribute Lookup tool. Use these when you want to rename attributes or simplify your attribute hierarchy.
Single-Value Attributes
By default, your attributes in the PIM-Enterprise are both Filters and Specifications (Specs). If all items assigned a particular attribute have only one value for that attribute (i.e., you have assigned an attribute to your Drills category called "Battery Type", and all of the items have a value of "Lithium-Ion"), that attribute probably would not be very useful as a filter, as there is only one value. Consider changing such attributes from "Both" to "Spec", as this will help cut down on clutter in your Left Navigation and reduce confusion for your customers. The "Spec" is a useful classification for attributes when you want the information to be readily available to your customers, but you don't have more than one value available for an attribute.
Attributes Follow Items
It is important to note that while you can have items in multiple categories, an item will retain its attributes from its original parent category. You cannot have a set of attributes for an item while it is in one category, and a completely different set of attributes while it is in another.
No Attributes Left Behind
If you assign an attribute to a category, it is recommended that all items for that category have a value for that attribute. If there are a few cases where that attribute does not apply, then those items might be best served in a different category or subcategory.
Formatting Your Attributes
Poorly formatted attributes can lead to a negative browsing experience for your customers. Below are some tips that should be acknowledged when creating your attributes.
Casing Matters
Your attributes in the PIM-Enterprise are case-sensitive; if you have an attribute called "Color" and another attribute called "COLOR", they will be treated as separate attributes by the PIM and by your website. This can lead to confusion and clutter, so consistent casing between attributes is encouraged and the use of Pascal case (Like This) is recommended.
Special Characters
As these can cause formatting and display issues on the website, the use of special characters (e.g. !@#%^&*(), trademark symbols, or any special Unicode characters) is strongly discouraged with the exception of the forward slash "/" character.
The Proper Formatting of Numerical Values
WebAlliance can parse and order mixed numbers along with whole numbers if they are formatted correctly. They must be formatted with a dash (-) between the whole number and fraction in order to maintain fractional sort capabilities. For example, 1 1/2 is incorrect; 1-1/2 is correct.
You can also get ranges and attribute values with multiple entries to sort numerically (provided the values are numbers) by formatting them as "# - #" or "# x #".