“…your taxonomy has to reflect the terminology used by your customers, business partners and visitors to your site and anticipate the purpose of clients coming to your site…”

Taxonomy design:

Companies are often more focused on selecting and implementing eCommerce technology than they are in the design of the taxonomy that will drive the access to the products and services it will contain.  Yet, the technology can only process the data that is entered in the system.  When a customer searches an electronic directory to locate a bank, the term has to exist in the system.  When a customer fails to get a response from searching terms such as bank, financial institution, credit union, he/she may try a bank name such as RBC, CIBC, BMO, etc.  If all those search attempts fail, it may be time to consider building a taxonomy – an authoritative, restricted list of terms, names, labels and categories that support and facilitate the retrieval and findability of information contained in the system.

Leveraging standards as accelerators:

A natural reflex when considering a taxonomy for business applications is to look for standards such as The American National Standard (ANS) ANSI/NISO Z39.19 guidelines and ISO 25964-1.  Standards are certainly a good foundation but, because of their general application and particular intent, they often fall short of addressing the specific and unique needs of an organization.  Standards such as these tend to be good accelerators and guides.  However, your taxonomy has to reflect the terminology used by your customers, business partners and visitors to your site and anticipate the purpose of clients coming to your site, whether they are searching for something specific or looking to browse your site in the hope of finding the appropriate item.   A taxonomy for content management and retrieval, especially when it is product/service-focused, should be custom-designed and developed to reflect the nature of the content, goals, and desires of its users.

How many levels to a hierarchy?

A retail or eCommerce taxonomy is typically organized by hierarchical categories, including the store’s many departments and broad product categories.  There could be as few as 2-3 for a specialty retailer or as many as 12-17 for a general/mass merchandize retailer. Usually the hierarchy extends one or two more levels deeper, although a very large retailer may find the need for an occasional fourth level (Hedden 2012).

Use of facets:

Next come the use of facets – sometimes referred to as attributes, filters or dimensions.  The facets are the additional characteristics that cut across multiple categories.  They may include size, color, price range, material, brand, style or special features.  These facets will vary depending on the department or broader category type. The terms within a facet, known as “facet values” or “attribute values,” are usually in a flat list (Hedden 2012).  When browsing, the user selects a value from each of multiple facets in combination until they drilldown to the level of detail they require.   In a search, the user will look for a term and the business application will provide a list consistent with the search term.  In the bank example, the application will associate the word “banks” or “banking” with the list of banks contained in the application.

Summary:

Building eCommerce applications are very specific to the particular business need and will benefit greatly from a taxonomy adapted to the particular conditions and requirements of its users.  Taxonomy specialists will ensure the term selection is relevant, exhaustive and adapted to the needs of its users.