7 replies to this topic

[pinline]

Hi everyone - thought I'd ask your opinion. Im going through verifying our stuff on Sage. I have a question about how you'd like to see product images.

Almost all our products are custom made - the shapes, finishes, colors, etc are all done to your designs. Consequently, for each manufacturing process shown in our catalog, the image contains many examples for each product. When Sage input our products, they cropped our images to show only one item as the image for each product. It doesn't seem right to me to show one image for an item that could be done many ways. (e.g. they may show a gold finish when that same item could be done in silver. Or they may show a round piece, when it's also available in custom shapes).

How do you like to have your images in sage. One item images or an image that shows multiple examples?

Thanks
Dave

[cusimpsol]

I like multiple examples. I often delete the image on Sage and go to the supplier's website and copy and paste a different image to my presentation.

Hope that helps!

[Chris Miller]

Dave,

I think it would benefit you and us both if you treat yourself like a magnet supplier. Create MANY products from your product line, and list them all on sage. I realize this is a ton of work, but by listing different combinations, as different products you greatly improve your chance of being found, and we get more "options" to present to our customers.

Just my $0.02

[3Koi Maui]

I agree with Chris that having multiple listings improves your chance at being noticed in SAGE.

But for pins, I like the multiple item pictures, because often when we are quoting the client has yet to choose a shape.

Can you get SAGE to list each shape as a separate listing, but have the multiple item photo? Then offer isolated photos on your website for those who want to use them.

[pinline]

Thanks everyone. I guess I'll have to find some happy medium.

Coming up with different items for every possible combination isn't really possible. The number of possible permutations is mind numbing to even consider (e.g. gold vs. silver vs. pewter vs. brass finish X round vs square vs rectangle vs oval vs custom shape X polished vs sandblasted vs color filled vs dome or no dome X etc, etc...)

I think my first step is going to be to put back the multi-product images. Step 2 will be to figure out some of the more "popular" variations and try to put in "items" for each of those... how does that sound?

[3Koi Maui]

Sounds good. I think you know what best to list, but remember not everyone considering pins will know there are all those options, unless listed or described somewhere.

You could list each shape, then in the description say, "gold, silver, or pewter finish."

i would say list domed separately, or at the very least have it in the text and searchable. When we were looking for domed nametags, it was surprising that the word was not always in the searchable text.

[Chris Miller]

I am working on a site for a supplier and they have a number of color options for their products. For SEO, and SAGE and ESP, we're listing each color as a separate product. Since we never know which one they will land on, each product will also have color options. So if they land on the red one, they also see that it comes in green, blue, purple, etc and visa versa.

To take it a step further, I am encouraging suppliers and distributors to get creative with how they list their products. Let's keep in mind no one is out there searching for "lapel pin". They are searching for "10 year anniversary pin" or "years of service pin". Now distributors in SAGE may not necessarily search just like that, but you better believe that's how end users search. It makes for a little extra work, but the more you think like an end user, the more often you're going to come up when end users search.

Tradenet has realized this and now they take their most popular products and create new products from them. So their 4x4 magnet becomes their baby announcement magnet, save the date magnet, etc. Again - it is extra work, but man is it worth it!

[Chris Miller]

Just to kind of sum up what I said above, I think suppliers need to remember that listing their products in a search engine, is not the same as listing their products in a catalog. In a paper catalog, it is best to sum it all up on one page. In searchable medium, it's the exact opposite.