Manual: Brand Editor in Icecat Vendor Central (PIM)

By
Manual

This brand editor manual is a quick guide for a Brand Owner’s product manager or brand editor to OK, comment, or manage its product content in the Icecat Vendor Central or PIM (Product Information Management system).

Updating a Product Data-Sheet

To add or change the content in a product data sheet (PDS), please follow the next steps:

1. Notifications

If you (as brand contact) receive product update notifications via emails, you can enter the product details through the links to the PDS that you receive. Just click “Edit Product”.

If the product content is OK for you, just click on the “Accept” button.

2. PIM login

Alternatively, you can log in via the Icecat Vendor Central (PIM) (if you do not have login details, please register here first to get authorized), and search for the product you need by its product code or name. After that, you will get a search result with an overview of products. You can click on a product to update its PDS.

The checkbox “Active products” allows you to filter products that appear at least in one of the live price feeds from channel partners or your connected ERP system.

3. Please, enter the product details by clicking on a product line.

4. In the product details screen you will find several forms:

  • General – for general information about the product such as identifiers, category, model name, pictures, etc.,
  • Publication restrictions– overview of active product publication policy and accessibility by authorized channel partners
  • GTIN (EAN/UPC) – the bar code
  • Media gallery– for images, videos, energy labels, and other digital assets.
  • Descriptions – for marketing texts, PDFs, and warranty information.
  • Specs – any specifications of the product.
  • Related products – such as accessories, options, etc.
  • Reasons to Buy – possibility to highlight particular product features with their respective descriptions.
  • Post a ticket – possibility to request an update of a product data-sheet and communicate with an Icecat editor.
  • Product history – The journal with the past updates of the PDS.

5. General

To change data in the “General” form you do not need to click on the “Save” button. Changes are saved automatically.

Category: If the product is in the wrong category, you can find the correct category starting by typing its name in the category field. In case you do not find the desired category, please press “+Search for any Icecat category”. This will show all available categories.

Product model description: This is the name by which a Brand is promoting a specific product. You can also change this field. Please, note that the general (INT – international) product model description has to be understandable in any language. So, please avoid language-specific words or word combinations. In case you want to have a language-specific product model description, you can select the respective language or locale (see the image below). You can update only the language-specific product model description. In case you would like to change the general product model description, please create a ticket.

Furthermore, note that Brand (+ Family) + Product model description is used to automatically generate a Product Title.

Picture: You can upload a high-resolution picture in JPEG format by clicking on “Add”. You will see a new window. Please, click on “Choose file” and select the appropriate file. Alternatively, you can put a link to the product image in the “Pictures URL” field. Before clicking on “Add picture”, choose the correct Localization (language) for the image and indicate the expiration date if needed.

When uploading a picture, ensure it isn’t smaller than 200x200px and that it has a white background. If the image is relevant only for specific locales, you can indicate that accordingly.

Product families and series: If relevant, select the “Product families”. This is the product family as shown on the official vendor site.

6. Publication restrictions

Via “Publication restrictions” one can limit the accessibility of the PDS to particular channel partners by setting Publish to “Limited” and selecting authorized resellers. You can also indicate the Release date and the End of life date of the product.

7. GTIN

You can add “GTIN”, i.e., the bar code, by just entering the code and clicking on the “Add” button.

8. Media Gallery

If videos or additional digital assets are available for the product, please add them via “Media Gallery” (see below). This option is to help consumers to better understand what they are going to buy.

You can add the MMO (multimedia object) by clicking on “Add”. You will see a new window. The Multimedia Objects menu is intended to add extra information about the product. For example, manuals, leaflets, videos, 3D, product stories, and/or energy labels. It is a simple process of copying the link to the object and pasting it in the “Object URL” field. Alternatively, you can upload the MMO file directly from your computer by clicking on “Choose file”. Before clicking on “Add object”, choose the correct Localization (language), add a short description, and indicate the expiration date if needed.

9. “Descriptions”

If descriptions are already added, you still can make some corrections by clicking on one of them. If you want to add a new description, to the English text for example, just choose the language and fill in the fields presented. Then click on the “Add” button.

10. “Specs”

You can correct, add or remove specification values. To implement the changes you do not need to click on “Save”. Changes are saved automatically. Enter localized spec values, in the same way as localized product names.

Important specs adding requirements (please, read it if you are going to add specs also)
If the feature is highlighted green (or marked with *) it is a mandatory field. Numerical data should use the dot – ‘.’ – as a decimal separator. Textual specs are available by using the dropdown box. The standardization of these attributes is critical as they can be used for searching for products.

If you think that there are not sufficient specs in a certain category, please create a Ticket.

Values in a spec value field should contain the indicated measure mentioned next to the right of the field. E.g. feature: “Height” has as a measure “mm”. So its value should be only in “mm”.

Please, avoid English words in text values and use international symbols. E.g. use ‘-’ instead of ‘to’. Use ‘&’ instead of ‘and’.

Spec values should not be redundantly used.

11. Reasons to buy

Reasons to buy” enables you to highlight particular product features. Click the “Reasons to buy” icon

  1. Select the language of the text you want to add
  2. Fill in the title of the product feature
  3. Write the feature text
  4. Enrich your feature text by adding a feature logo or picture (this picture should be of high quality)
  5. Click ‘save’ to store the reason-to-buy

Repeat the sequence to add more “reasons to buy” one by one.

12. Post a ticket

If the product is already described and you don’t have time to correct it, please post a Ticket. The Icecat editors will apply all the changes you suggest. Just click on the “Post a ticket” button in the Product details section. Enter your remarks in the shown fields.

Important note: the support of certain functionalities, service levels, digital assets, and publication restrictions (digital rights management), might not yet be supported by your contract with Icecat.

By clicking on “LIVE PREVIEW” button you can check the product data-sheet in languages available for your Icecat user account.

In case you have any questions, please contact us.

Chief Operating Officer at Icecat

  • commented on February 10, 2023 by Yuri

    How to delete a product?

    • commented on February 13, 2023 by Irina Popa

      Hi Yuri, thanks for reaching out. Why would you want to delete a product?

    • Hi Yuri, depending on the case, an End Of Life date can be set, a product can be made “Hidden”, or can be mapped away by the icecat team in case of a non-existent part number. In the latter case, a ticket can be created by you.

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