By Christi Helm, Project Coordinator
Recently, non-profit Junior Achievement of Chicago gave Sitation the opportunity to participate in a financial literacy workshop for first through third grade students. The organization’s primary goal is to inspire and prepare youth for success. Learning about money, commerce, and related careers was the focus of this remote event especially prepared for students participating in a summer program at a low-income neighborhood school. We gleefully accepted! Brian Kelly and myself were excited to volunteer remotely, sharing knowledge and advice on wants vs. needs, choices to make with money, and how money cycles through a community.
As a part of the program, we also shared information about our careers. While Sitation team members can often explain what they do, it can be tricky to explain what the company as a whole does. This is in part because Sitation does a number of things but also because much of it is work that many consumers have never considered, even though they leverage the final results often. Breaking down the function and value of Sitation and PIM solutions had to be done in an easily accessible and relatable way.
To simplify what Sitation does, the value of taxonomy, and ultimately how PIM solutions affect our purchasing, students were shown a picture of a grocery store aisle. The photo showed rows of products, each displayed well, and organized immaculately. The children recognized the aisles and packages they are already familiar with.
When you walk into a grocery store, you never have to wonder where to find your favorite products. There are large signs adorning the top of each aisle. The products are organized in ways to make shopping as thoughtless as possible for the consumer. Everything is stored in a way that makes sense. For many grocery store customers, the worst part of the shopping experience is forgetting something on your list. The actual shopping process is easy and sometimes even pleasant.
This is essentially what we do at Sitation. We make the shopping experience easy for customers of our ecommerce clients. By making sure that a retailer’s product data is stored correctly, in a way that makes sense, we establish clarity and convenience, just like the grocery store. When a customer visits an online store, they should have an easy time navigating to the product that they are looking for. No need to look through pages and pages of products. A PIM solution serves as a tool to organize your products onto a digital shelf. Customers are able to find what they are looking for quickly and efficiently.
While for these students the grocery store gave them a clear picture of what Sitation does, we often support products that can be found on grocery shelves, both physically and digitally through shopping options like Instacart.
We led students through a simple exercise to demonstrate taxonomy and organizing products digitally. Using the classic shirt buying example, students, as young as six years old, were engaged and excited to learn about how grown ups shop for products online.
While it’s hard for many of us to imagine, this generation of children will soon be the next generation of consumers. Some students were already familiar with navigating ecommerce sites. Children are more tech-literate than ever before and are looking for digital experiences that are fast, easy, and fulfilling. As more students grow up, it will be more important than ever to organize your digital shelf in a way that makes sense.
For better understanding through simplified comparison, check out Why Better Taxonomy Is a Delight to Merchants and Consumers Alike by Autumn Demonet.
