The challenge of organizing many stock-keeping units (SKUs) on a website is complex because the organizing principles will have a direct impact on the buyer experience. That is why it is important to get the product taxonomy mutual exclusivity right. Mutual exclusivity is an organizing principle for taxonomies, which require every SKU in a product catalog, to be filed under one category.
In other words, a product taxonomy is a collection of categories that represent the products sold on a website. However, these taxonomies are built around product categories and hence an SKU can be filed only under one category. This concept of “each item can be classified to a single product category” is what defines mutual exclusivity. However, the larger challenge here is to get mutual exclusivity, right.
There are many ways to ensure that the mutual exclusivity organizing principle has been correctly implemented. One of them is doing a store walk. This would involve looking at a product taxonomy from a buyer’s point of view. This exercise would provide valuable insights on how to improve site navigation.
Another place to examine would be the product detail pages. If the mutual exclusivity principle has not been implemented correctly, it will have an impact on the information displayed there. For instance, if the website’s taxonomy is not mutually exclusive then SKUs of the same product type may appear in multiple categories where different specifications are shown. Consequently, comparisons would be difficult. One way to facilitate comparisons would be to combine the duplicate categories into a single mutually exclusive master category. This would improve the user experience by making it easy to compare in one place. These are some of the approaches to adopt to test a website for mutual exclusivity.
However, if the website has not been developed, it would be the perfect time to build keeping mutual exclusivity in mind. In addition, the website should be regularly reviewed and the taxonomy refined to make it mutual exclusivity compliant. Furthermore, care must be taken to vet new items so that they fit into one, and only one, category. If not, it is going to create additional work in the near future.
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