Name: Backoffice Product Cockpit - SAP Commerce Cloud
Uploaded: 2019-5-28
Duration: 360 s
Description: In this video, view will give you an overview of the Backoffice Product Cockpit. We will talk about the Search & Browse view and the Assortment view, catalog versions, how to edit or create a product, data validation and synchronization.

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<div><div><div>In this video, view will give you an overview of the Backoffice Product Cockpit. We will talk about the Search & Browse view and the Assortment view, catalog versions, how to edit or create a product, data validation and synchronization.</div></div></div>

Backoffice Product Cockpit - SAP Commerce Cloud

Let's start with the BackOffice Product Cockpit. This user-centered design tool allows you to manage all your product content, including categories, and catalogs.  You can store them in one place and give your customers a compelling content experience across all channels and geographies. It brings together all capabilities you need, to ensure faster product introductions,  lower operational costs, and perfect data consistency across all channels.  In the BackOffice PCM, all functions –  from search, validation, quality checks to collaboration, import & export and editing –  ensure an intuitive and rapid work experience for your users.  Let's have a look at some of these features in action!  The cockpit provides two views on the same data set.  The "search and browse" view allows you to manage single product information  and the assortment view allows you to manage catalogs and categories.  You'll notice that there are two versions for each of the catalogs:  the staged version and the online version.  Now I´m looking at the staged version of my Electronics catalog in the search and browse view.  The staged version is used to do all updates and changes.  And the online version is used to publish those updates and make them available to customers on your web shop.  You can also edit the online catalog directly but in general this is only for emergencies and critical changes.  Other than that, the best practice is to edit the Staged catalog version and then replicate the changes to the online catalog.  Ok, let's say I want to change some information on that Powershot camera that we saw earlier... I´ll search for it using the color filter criteria below.  Here it is.  I could use the search bar here and search by name or by another specific filter.  Now I'll select it along with other products and click the edit icon.  On this screen, I can update my product.  There are a lot of entries here that I can update, from the article number and product description  to categories, prices, multimedia, and so on.  Some fields, such as the article number are mandatory and an error is shown if an entry is missing or incomplete.  On the right-hand side, I have a data quality area that directly tells me what should be improved for this product.  Further to the right, I can quickly switch between products I've previously selected.  Now let's go back and create a product. Here I have three possibilities,  I could clone an existing product and edit it.  Create a product from scratch using this plus icon and follow the wizard.  Or I could use the Excel import feature.  Let's go with the Excel import.  I'll download the Excel template here.  The template has different tabs for different types of products and shows me which fields are required.  I can also add any field I would like based on the list here.  Skipping ahead, I've prepared a product with both an English and Japanese description and price.  Also note that I've left out the article number.  Let's import it and see what happens.  Right away the system blocks the import and tells me the error.  These validations guarantee that essential data is provided.  I'll quickly go back and fill in the information.  Now my import should work and I'll look for my new product.  Let's search by article number.  Here it is.  If I search for the product in the store now, I won´t find it because I haven't synchronized my catalog.  So my new product is not yet visible to my customers.  This is a good safety mechanism to make sure that you only publish information that has been verified and is accurate. So what I have to do now is to first approve the product for online release... And then synchronize it to the online version of my catalog.  On the top right, I see that my synchronization was successful,  and a quick refresh confirms that my product is synced.  Now that the product has been copied from my staged catalog to my online catalog,  I´ll be able to find it on the shop.  If I search for it now with the article number:  there it is.  If I switch to Japanese -  I get the Japanese description.  But the price is still in dollars,  so I can switch to Yen - and I´ll see the relevant price.  And if I check the breadcrumbs, I can see that my new product is categorized as a digital camera.  This is the category I entered in my excel import.  Speaking of categories, let´s have a quick look at the assortment view.  The view here is a little different.  I´m looking at the same data but starting with the catalog,  navigating through the categories, and then looking at products in those categories on the right-hand side.  Let's create a category for my product.  I´ll name my new category "my Awesome Category".  And I´ll add my new product to the new category using drag and drop.  No changes yet because - yes, you guessed it - I haven't yet synchronized.  Since I want to synchronize the new category as well as my product assignment to it,  I'll synchronize the whole catalog.  Now, I´m showing you this for demonstration purposes but please be careful with synchronizing entire catalogs manually.  Doing so, you may override content of other editors doing significant damage.  Usually your synchronization jobs are automated and should run at times when traffic on your website is at its lowest to avoid performance hits.  Ok! The synchronization is done...  there you go!  The breadcrumbs on the storefront show the new path to my product,  including the new category I created.  This short demo gave you a glimpse of the BackOffice Product Cockpit.  Of course, there is much more to it!  To find out more, check out the links below this video.