WikiMaven

Product Categorization

Considerations for creating a categorization system include:

• Different brands/manufacturers often create virtually identical items.
• People will be looking for products by name, as well as by function.
• Products often have many official and unofficial names.
• Each product will probably have a store-specific SKU or item number, as well as a global product number. These also may be the same number, as it is with books at Barnes & Noble.

Store/Vendor Categorizaton

Keep in mind that there are tons of ways to purchase items. You can find it specifically in and isle at Wal-Mart or Sears. Some items are negotiable, wholesale items may not have solid prices. Many times, products can be sold in "Bulk", or include a Price Break structure (like [Digi-Key|www.digikey.com]).

Product Pages

Instead of having users try to find their part in WikiMaven by brute force (i.e., some unique part # or name), we can have a live page. So, when a user types in "chewing gum", they get a list of all the stores within 5,10,15 miles that sell chewing gum, in addition to online vendors. Next, when they select "Orbit" in addition to chewing gum, they get a list of all the stores within 5,10,15, et cetera. This goes on and on.

[Summit Racing|www.summitracing.com] does a good job of making the searching process useful from beginning to end.

Merchant Pages

Each merchant page should have a general description and history of the merchant, its reputation, and layout. Brick-and-mortar stores can even have a description of the store layout, general sections (for example, Health/Fiction/Science Fiction & Fantasy are "official" section labels at Barnes & Nobles). These should be geared towards facilitating conversations between the customer and store personnel.

Product Page Format

Vocabulary

Merchant - The name for stores, individual dealers, and online sellers. Customer - The customer, our website user. Product - What the customer is trying to find. The definition of the physical product starts out vague in the beginning of the search process, and is clarified as the user whittles down the options

Structure

My idea for the general structure:

• Top - A general description of the product (as it has been defined thus far in the search process). Here are some examples as a user whittles down the description of a bolt they're trying to find:
  • Fastener - A device used for holding two mechanical parts together
  • Bolt - A type of fastener that uses male threads in conjuction with female threads on a nut or a part as the fastening mechanism
  • ARP Bolts - A type of bolt used in racing vehicles that meets and exceeds ISO standards for bolt quality.

• Middle - Brick-and-mortar stores are listed here in table format, like so:

Brick-and-mortar Merchants

Name	Type	Store Section	Price	Nearest Address and Contact Info
Sears	Retail	Hardware	$0.25/Piece $6.25/Package of 100	1234 Soso Street West Lafayette, IN 47906

• Bottom - Online merchants are listed here in table format as well

Online Merchants

Name	Section	Price	Shipping	URL
amazon.com	Movies>DVDs	$75.00	List of shipping options.	[1]

See Also

Already existing projects:

• Shopping Wikia