Catalog Prioritization

CNET customers are able now to influence the queue of their SKUs waiting to be processed by the CNET Data Production team.

As we align production resources with incoming customer catalog requests it’s important to know which products in your catalog are most important, so that we can process those first. Currently we are using FIFO (First In, First Out) principle and usually process SKU requests in the order we receive them. As a result a catalog of several thousand new software license products might create a “traffic jam”, and more urgent digital cameras or notebooks would have to wait until all these software SKUs are produced.

To make the production process more predictable and transparent for our customers, we now have production priorities. Each SKU can be assigned priority 1 (the highest), 2 (medium) or 3 (the lowest). The prioritization can be done either through column #6 in your standard PRC request files or online via Extranet.

Although the team cannot guarantee that all the SKUs will be produced strictly according to the defined priorities, this visibility into what you consider priority is a way to influence the production queue as we take these priorities into consideration.

You can find the ‘Priority Update button’ and ‘SKU search by Priority’ on the ‘Search your SKUs’ area of the DataSource Customer Extranet.

If you previously used the Extranet Claims System to manually send through prioritization requests, please use this new prioritization feature instead.

Distribution Format

The CNET Content Solutions team continues to expand the coverage of multi-angle Product Images, Key Selling Points, and Product Features across our catalog and especially in the most popular categories. We would like to encourage you to use the Digital Content delivery method for all Product Images, Key Selling Points, and Product Features to ensure you are getting all the rich content available to you.

These newer data components are distributed solely via the Digital Content module within the Download.zip file, and are not being received by many customers using the Download.zip legacy images folder. Similarly, new detailed Key Selling Points and Product Features are not included in the legacy cds_Mktxx table where we used to distribute marketing texts.

Another reason to migrate to the Digital Content module of Download.zip is that over the years the DataSource product catalog, as well as customer catalogs, have grown significantly, resulting in slower downloads and database updates on the client side.

Next year, beginning September 1, 2011 the Export schema will change and we no longer be delivering the cds_Mktxx tables with marketing texts, and any images in Download.zip. All these components will be available via Digital Content module only. This planned change is over a year away to ensure you have plenty of time to schedule the necessary migration changes. We are available to assist with any questions you may have around this migration.

Please note that the easiest way to integrate all the new DataSource content components provided in Digital Content module of Download.zip is by utilizing our free tool called the DataSource ContentConnector. The ContentConnector will dramatically reduce the complexity of managing your daily catalog uploads, as well as your content downloads by seamlessly transferring the data into your database tables.

Please refer to the DataSource Integration Guide for more information on DataSource ContentConnector and integration practices.

Introducing TV Product Finder

The analysis of ecommerce user behavior and abandoned shopping carts suggests that users often leave a site without making a purchase not because they cannot find the right product, but rather because there are so many products, and so many features and attributes to consider that they cannot make up their minds.

TV Product Finder is a new hosted tool intended to provide guided search to assist your users in finding the right TV for their needs and preferences.

The Product Finder’s interface takes users through a series of questions and product characteristics explaining the value and meaning of various product features to help the users make an informed buying decision.

This solution is available as a hosted service that can be integrated either in an iframe, or as a pop-up window on your website: View Demo

TV Product Finder is a new service that requires an additional subscription to your current contract. Please contact your Account Manager or Customer Service for additional information.