The Bazaarvoice Product Catalog application allows you to view and manage your product catalog, which includes data about the brands, product categories, and products that you offer.

Using the app, you can:

  • View product catalog data to ensure that it is correct and complete
  • Fix catalog data errors that originate in your feed or from Dynamic Catalog Collection (DCC)
  • Add missing product data such as UPCs or EANs to ensure Bazaarvoice syndication is working correctly
  • Add and manage products, product families, brands, and categories
  • Move a product from inactive to active status

Catalog data precedence

It is important to understand how changes made with the Product Catalog app work with catalog data coming from product feeds (XML or TXT), DCC, or both.

A common question is whether subsequent feeds will overwrite changes made when using the app. All updates to catalog data using the Product Catalog app take precedence over data coming from feeds and DCC. Catalog data between the app and feeds/DCC is merged, but if the same data value is provided by the app and a feed/DCC, the data value provided by the app will take priority.

If you use the app to delete data coming from feeds or DCC, the system flags this data so that it will not be added back by a subsequent feed or DCC update.

Watch the following video for a detailed discussion about the topic.

Read the following sections in this topic to learn how to use the app to manage and optimize your product catalog:

Tip: In this and other knowledge base topics, look for Role Labels to see which roles can perform certain tasks.

Required solutions and roles

You must have:

One of these solutions: And one of these roles:
  • Ratings & Reviews
  • Sampling
  • Product Catalog Administrator
  • Account Administrator
  • Product Catalog Viewer
Note: Learn more about how solutions and roles are assigned in the Bazaarvoice Portal.

Capabilities

The following table lists tasks you can perform and the roles needed for each.

Task Product Catalog Administrator
Account Administrator		 Product Catalog Viewer
View products ✓ ✓
View product details ✓ ✓
Edit products ✓
Add products ✓
View brands ✓ ✓
View brand details ✓ ✓
Edit brands ✓
Add brands ✓
View categories ✓ ✓
View category details ✓ ✓
Edit categories ✓
Add categories ✓

Get started

To view and manage your product catalog:

  1. Sign in to the Bazaarvoice Portal .

    If you cannot sign in, contact Bazaarvoice Client Care for assistance. Learn more about Portal permissions and user accounts.

  2. Select the menu  hamburger menu  located in the upper-left corner, and then select Product Catalog.

The Products list appears.

Work with products

The Products list provides at-a-glance information about products in your catalog, including:

  • Total number of products in the catalog (active products or all products)
  • Product name
  • Product ID
  • Assigned brand
  • Product category

The default view shows active products. You can change this view to include all products in your product catalog. Select the Status filter, and then select All products.

If your company has more than one instance, use the client picker, located near the upper-right corner of the page, to move between them. Type the name or scroll through the list to select the instance you want.

The Products list refreshes to display products associated with your selected instance.

Find products

Use the search field to locate products by product ID. Enter a partial or complete ID and press Enter or Return to narrow the list.

View product details

Product Catalog Administrator Account Administrator Product Catalog Viewer

Select a product in the list to view product details. Displayed product information includes:

  • Product ID, name, and description
  • Product page and product image URLs
  • Product identifiers, including UPC, EAN, ISBN, model number, and manufacturer part number
  • Product catalog status (active or inactive)
  • Assigned brand
  • Product family
  • Product category
  • Custom attributes

Add products

Product Catalog Administrator Account Administrator

To add a product to your product catalog, select Add product on the Products list page. The Add product page appears.

Enter a value for Product ID. The product ID must be unique within your selected client instance, and can include only alphanumeric characters, hyphens (-) and underscores (_).

Note: The product ID is a unique identifying code for a product. Once you have created and saved a product, you cannot change this code.

Continue to add and select information to define the product. For instructions and more information, refer to the Edit products topic section.

Edit products

Product Catalog Administrator Account Administrator

To edit a product, select it from the list. Edit product information in one or more page sections:

Details

The Details area shows the product ID, assigned brand, and product category. It also indicates the product’s catalog status (active or inactive).

Assign a product to a brand

Although not required, Bazaarvoice recommends you specify a brand for each product in your catalog. This allows you to get the most from your Bazaarvoice syndication program.

To assign a product to a brand in your product catalog, select a brand from the list of active brands. You can search the list by brand name.

If your catalog does not include any brands, then the list of brands does not appear. Go to the Brands tab and select Add brand to add a brand to your product catalog.

Assign a product to a category

To assign a product to a category in your product catalog, select a category from the list of categories. You can search the list by category name.

If your catalog does not contain any categories, then Bazaarvoice will assign the product to the default BV_MISCELLANEOUS category. Alternatively, go to the Categories tab and select Add category to add a category to your product catalog.

Change catalog status

To change the current status of a product in your catalog, select Active or Inactive.

For more information about how Bazaarvoice manages active and inactive products in your catalog, read Control the active set of products.

Localization

The Localization area shows product attribute information. The information for each product attribute can differ for each locale.

Note: Find detailed descriptions of each product attribute in this topic.

The following attribute conditions apply:

  • Product name—Required for the Default locale only. The product name cannot contain HTML characters, and should be unique within the selected client instance.
  • Product description—Cannot contain HTML characters.
  • Product page URL—Must be a valid URL. The URL cannot contain HTML characters.
  • Image—Must be a valid URL. The URL cannot contain HTML characters.

Edit and add locales

To edit product information for another defined locale, select the locale name located just above the edit area. The selected locale is underlined.

To add product information for a locale not yet set, select the locale from the Add locale list of options.

To delete a selected locale, select Remove locale.

Identification

The Identification area shows product identifiers for the product.

Note: For detailed information about each product identifier, refer to the table in DCC data attributes.

Edit or add valid identifiers. Values for UPC and EAN are required for syndicated content.

Product family

Product families let you share consumer-generated content (CGC) among multiple, related products. By grouping products into families, you can display CGC written about one family member on the product display pages of all family members.

See Share reviews using product families for more information about product families.

To add a product to a product family:

  1. Select Add family.
  2. Enter the family name, which is the unique ID for the family. All products in a family must share the same family name value.
  3. If all content should be shared with this product from other products in the same family, select Expand.
Note: Product families can be defined by product feeds or the Workbench Family Management Tool. Families created by product feeds show a Type value of Feed. If created by the Workbench Tool or Product Catalog app, families will show a Type value of WB/Portal.

For more information, read Share reviews using product families.

To delete an existing product family, click X in the row.

Custom attributes

Use custom attributes to define custom product catalog data attributes. You can use these attributes to customize reports and dashboards.

For more information, read Filter catalog data based on custom product attributes.

To add a custom attribute to a product:

  1. Select Add attribute.

  2. Enter values for the following fields:

    • Attribute ID—Must be unique for the product within the selected client instance. The value is limited to 32 characters, and cannot be any of the following values:

      • BV_FE_FAMILY
      • BV_FE_EXPAND
      • BV_WB_FAMILY
      • BV_WB_EXPAND

    • Value—Limited to 65535 bytes. You cannot leave this value blank.

To delete an existing custom attribute, select X in the row.

Select Save to save changes to the product and return to the products list.

Work with brands

Associating products with specific brands in your catalog improves reporting and potential syndication of reviews on the Bazaarvoice network.

Select the Brands tab to see brands in your catalog.

View brand details

Product Catalog Administrator Account Administrator Product Catalog Viewer

To view brand details, select a brand from the brands list.

Add brands

Product Catalog Administrator Account Administrator

To add a brand to your product catalog, select Add brand on the brands list page. The Add brand page appears.

Enter values to define the brand:

  • Brand name—Enter a unique name of no more than 255 characters. The name cannot be blank or contain HTML characters.
  • Brand ID—Use the auto-generated ID or de-select this option to enter your own unique value.
Note: Once you have created and saved a brand, you cannot change its ID.
  • Catalog status—Select Active or Inactive to set the status of the brand in your catalog.

Select Save to create the brand.

Edit brands

Product Catalog Administrator Account Administrator

To edit a brand, select it from the brands list.

Localization

The Localization area shows the brand name for the Default locale. Edit this value as needed.

Edit and add locales

Brand names can be different for each locale. To edit the name for another defined locale, select the locale name located just above the edit area. The selected locale is underlined.

To set a brand name for an undefined locale, select the locale from the Add locale list of options.

Details

The Brand ID is a unique identifier associated with a brand. Once you have added a brand, you cannot change this ID.

Change catalog status

To change the current status of a brand in your catalog, select Active or Inactive.

Select Save to save changes to the brand and return to the brands list.

Work with categories

Grouping your products into appropriate product categories helps with reporting and gives your customers a way to browse for other similar products they want to review.

You can associate each product with a single parent product category entity in your product catalog.

View categories

Product Catalog Administrator Account Administrator Product Catalog Viewer

To view categories in your product catalog, select the Categories tab.

Add categories

Product Catalog Administrator Account Administrator

To add a category to your product catalog, select Add category on the Categories list page. The Add category page appears.

Enter values to define the category:

  • Name—Enter a unique name of no more than 255 characters. The name cannot be blank or contain HTML characters.

  • Category ID—Use the auto-generated ID or de-select this option to enter your own unique value. Once you have created and saved a category, you cannot change its associated ID. The ID:

    • Must be unique within the selected client instance
    • Is limited to 255 characters
    • Cannot contain HTML characters
    • Cannot contain / (slash)
  • Catalog status—Select Active or Inactive to set the status of the category in your catalog.

Select Save to create the category.

Edit categories

Product Catalog Administrator Account Administrator

To edit a product category, select it from the categories list.

Localization

The Localization area shows the category name for the Default locale. Edit this value as needed.

Note: You cannot edit the name for the default BV_MISCELLANEOUS category.

Edit and add locales

Category details can be different for each locale. To edit category details for another defined locale, select the locale name located just above the edit area. The selected locale is underlined.

To set details for an undefined locale, select the locale from the Add locale list of options.

Details

The category ID is a unique identifier associated with a category. Once you have added a category, you cannot change this ID.

Edit the parent category

To select a different parent category in the category hierarchy, select it from the Parent Category list of options.

Change catalog status

To change the current status of a category in your catalog, select Active or Inactive.

Select Save to save changes to the category and return to the categories list.