Case study: Classification of Products for an Online Fashion Store

80,000 products were sorted by Clickworkers for an online store into the appropriate product categories. As a result, it made it easier for customers to find what they need, thereby helping boost your SEO ranking.

In this article, clickworker will provide a brief overview of what goes on behind the scenes of executing a task.

The Challenge

It is obvious that no two products are exactly the same, hence each warrants its own marketing plan. However, certain products share similarities in terms of their price range, the similarity of competing brands, and how customers approach them when making a purchase. It can be helpful to organize these related products into categories in order to develop marketing plans for each market segment. Product classification is the process in question.

Many store operators are faced with a huge task: They have a large range of products and want to optimize their store by editing category trees and providing more detailed information. Within a very short period of time, thousands of products must be examined with regard to their classification in the new category tree. These need, where necessary, to be corrected and expanded.

In addition, new products that must be reassigned are continuously being added to the range.

The Solution

Numerous Clickworkers take a look at the pictures, names, and descriptions of the products and classify them into the correct categories and sub-categories of the store. All of the classifications are carried out to the lowest level of categorization possible in the category tree provided by the customer.

Each product is classified by two Clickworkers independently of one another. Concordant results produce a clearly correct classification. If there are differences, the product is classified by further Clickworkers to ensure an accurate result based on what the majority decides.

To further optimize the store, the Clickworkers mark product photos that are of poor quality, that lack a product description, or that display a description that does not match the product photo.

Project Data

1. Clickworker qualifications:

• German and English native speakers
• Successful completion of the first three tasks as test tasks

2. Tasks:

• Categorization of products, i.e. classification of products based on product photos, product names, product brands, short descriptions, target groups, and links to the appropriate product categories and sub-categories (up to four levels) of the store.
• Marking products that do not fit into the range of products sold by the store, that do not have product descriptions or are unsuitable, as well as marking poor quality pictures of products.

3. Quality assurance:?Majority decision and injected testing

4. Project volume:?80,000 products

5. Data transfer:?Via API

Project Workflow — In Brief

To carry out the project with greater efficiency and better results, clickworker carefully structured the project management workflow.

1. Project meeting with the customer: ?The customer defines the job as well as the scope of the project and provides access to the product photos, links, and information as well as the category tree via an API interface.
2. Defining the tasks to the Clickworker: ?clickworker then draws up the project ensuring that, per task given, one product with the product name, 1 – 4 product images, a short description, and a link to the product, as well as the category tree of the store, are displayed to every Clickworker.
3. Classification of products by the Clickworkers: Clickworkers classify the products in the appropriate categories and sub-categories by clicking on the respective field of the category tree. Poor-quality product photos or inappropriate product descriptions are marked.
4. Verification and sending of final data: Each task is handled by two Clickworkers simultaneously. The data are proper if the results match. The correct data are sent to the customer via API.

Benefits of using clickworker

• Efficient optimization of online-shops
• Speed – quick assignment of products
• Categorization with human logic
• Quality assured results
• Scalable throughput, flexible workforce
• API connection

Conclusion

It is obvious that no two products are exactly the same, hence each warrants its own marketing plan. However, certain products share similarities in terms of their price range, the similarity of competing brands, and how customers approach them when making a purchase. It can be helpful to organize these related products into categories in order to develop marketing plans for each market segment. Product classification is the process in question.