I’d like to suggest an opportunity to improve the consistency and usefulness of SIM data within Cloud MT by providing participating brands and suppliers with basic guidelines for categorizing and tagging their products.

As I work through reviewing and correcting the categorization of products on our website, I’m finding that similar products can be categorized differently depending on which supplier provided the SIM data. This creates inconsistencies within Cloud MT and, ultimately, on retailer websites.

E-bikes provide a good example.

Cloud MT already provides a useful structure for categorizing an e-bike, including fields such as Primary Category, Google Category, Department, Item Group, and Browse Filters such as Electric Bike Type.

However, the value of that structure depends heavily on suppliers applying those fields consistently.

For example, Citrus-Lime could provide participating e-bike suppliers such as Velotric, Pedego, JBI, QBP, PGW/BikeCo, and others with a standard set of guidelines for SIM e-bike data. Those guidelines might specify that an e-bike should consistently use certain baseline classifications, such as:

• Primary Category: Shop > For Bikes > Electric Bikes

• Department: Electric Bikes

• Item Group: Electric Bike

• Google Category: Sporting Goods > Outdoor Recreation > Cycling > Bicycles

Citrus-Lime could also provide definitions or guidance for the Electric Bike Type Browse options, such as:

• Electric Cargo Bikes

• Electric Folding Bikes

• Electric Full Suspension Mountain Bikes

• Electric Gravel Bikes

• Electric Hardtail Mountain Bikes

• Electric Hybrid and City Bikes

• Electric Road Bikes

• Electric Trikes

• Moto/Café Style

For example, suppliers could be given a simple definition explaining that a typical upright commuter or recreational e-bike belongs under Electric Hybrid and City Bikes, while Electric Road Bikes should generally be reserved for performance-oriented road bicycles. Likewise, a bicycle should not be categorized as a Cargo Bike simply because it has a rear rack; the bicycle should be specifically designed for significant cargo or passenger carrying. I'll attach an example below.

The suppliers know their products better than anyone. If Citrus-Lime provides the taxonomy and basic rules for using it, suppliers should be in the best position to correctly categorize their products when they provide the SIM data.

I believe establishing these guidelines could have several benefits:

• More consistent SIM data across brands and suppliers

• Better Find & Filter and Browse Filter functionality

• More consistent website navigation and product presentation across Citrus-Lime retailers

• Less manual data cleanup for individual bike shops

• Fewer retailers independently making different decisions about how the same type of product should be categorized

• Better scalability as additional brands and products are added to SIM

Most importantly, it would allow SIM to do more of what I believe it is intended to do: reduce the amount of product setup and maintenance required at the individual retailer level.

Without common guidelines, each supplier may make perfectly reasonable but different decisions about categorization. The retailer then inherits those differences and has to identify and correct them one Item Card at a time. When hundreds or thousands of products are involved, that becomes a significant workload.

E-bikes are simply one example. The same concept could eventually be applied to other common cycling products such as helmets, locks, lights, baskets, bags, tires, vehicle racks, child seats, trailers, and other accessories.

I’m not suggesting that Citrus-Lime needs to dictate every field for every product. Rather, providing suppliers with a relatively small set of standard categorization requirements and definitions for the most important SIM fields could significantly improve consistency throughout the system.

I think this would make SIM more valuable for suppliers, Citrus-Lime, and, ultimately, all of us retailers who rely on that product data to build and maintain our websites.

Thank you for considering the suggestion, and thank you for continuing to help me better understand Cloud MT and how all of these pieces work together.

Best regards,

Toby, Owner

Pismo Bikes