How to set up the Botmaker catalog?
In this article, you will learn how to configure the product catalog of the Botmaker platform.
Estimated reading time: 06 minutes
The e-commerce feature and the product catalog of the Botmaker platform bring together features to integrate products and stores in a chatbot, enabling a complete conversational experience from the beginning of the customer journey to the completion of the checkout process.
The setup process consists of three steps:
- Integration and loading of the catalog into Botmaker
- Intents creation
- Customization of the site's look and feel and brand identification (by Botmaker).
Step 1: Catalog integration and upload
You can perform the catalog integration in two ways:
Via API:
- Useful for large projects with lots of SKUs and frequent updates.
- No manual action is required.
Via spreadsheet (Excel):
- Useful for cases where the update frequency is low.
- Requires manual actions.
- Does not support combos/packages.
- Requires Botmaker´s assistance to send the Excel template.
- Botmaker performs the Excel upload to the bot.
In both cases, to create the product catalog, you must upload the following data:
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Products (required): The items that will be presented to customers, including their features and prices.
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Categories (optional): This allows you to categorize products and then offer filtering options to the customer.
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Stores (optional): Stores or branches allow to manage delivery options and inventory availability. If no stores are loaded, products are displayed globally regardless of the customer's location.
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Service zones (optional): This allows you to define service ranges and add geolocation capabilities. You can assign specific stores and prices to these zones.
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Pricing schemes (optional): This entity allows you to overwrite prices for products and relate them to Service Zones. That means that the price defined by default at the product level can be modified for a specific area using this structure.
Catalog Upload via API
On the platform, go to Menu>Channels and Integrations>Botmaker API (https://go.botmaker.com/#/integrations/api) and access the API to review the Endpoints and documentation. These endpoints describe the previously mentioned resources.
Catalog Upload via Excel
You need to create a spreadsheet in Excel Template catalog EN.xlsx with the following columns (see image below):
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Product identifier (SKU)
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Item title (short descriptive name)
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Brief description of the item
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Additional keywords to help with the search
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Item availability
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Quantity of inventory available (optional)
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Condition (new/used/refurbished)
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Link to the item's website. URL linking to a site where the item is offered for sale is recommended.
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Link to the product image. The URL must redirect to a valid image of the item (not a web page).
Step 2: Intent creation
You have to set up the Show Smart Ecommerce action within the intent that will invoke the catalog and then activate the e-commerce Portal switch .
Within the e-commerce Portal, you should adjust configurations according to the characteristics of each business:
Step 3: Customize the look and feel
As a final step, you should contact your Account Manager to customize the look and feel of your business site and the features that identify the brand.
Offer your customers a simple and dynamic shopping experience by integrating your catalog into the Botmaker platform's E-commerce Portal. For additional information on e-commerce functionality, you can refer to the article: What are Botmaker's product catalog and e-commerce features?
Remember to visit our Help Center for further information.
Written by: Botmaker Team
Updated: 6/01/2022