How do you structure your categories?

fuzzylizzie

fuzzylizzie

Alumni
For those of you who have websites, ebay stores, mall stores, how do you handle categories?

I've recently changed my categories. I did have them arranged according to garment type, but since I've been doing some major cleaning out and restructuring, I've switched to historic eras.

I was just wondering if anyone else has tried both ways, or why we structure things the way we do.

Lizzie
 
Lizzie, I organize by era. I even do it on the storage racks. It' s just how my mind works and I find it easier to find things that way.

Hollis
 
very good point lizzie, i was only thinking about this yesterday as i contemplated a huge reorganise of my own (in this slow summer selling period it seems like a good time to do it)!

currently i have everything arranged by type too, and although it seemed like a good idea when had quite a lot less stock :BAGUSE: it now proves less useful.

case in point, my mum came around yesterday evening and needed to borrow an outfit from about 1935 which i do have a few of, took me half an hour to find a few dresses, another 10 minutes to find my box of suits, and i gave up trying to find handbags as i have so many boxes of the darn things it would have taken forever and she decide not to bother with one after all... so when it comes to listing things or getting requests from buyers it takes me hours!!

i am almost at the point where i could split it onto gender, period, and then type but do you think that's a bit 'over' categorized? it is such a huge task anyway (well done lizzie!) that i am not really looking forward to it....

;)
 
Also, to add another point, I first organized my store by fashion movement (Edwardian, New Look, etc) and some of my vintage friends thought it was too confusing. They suggested going with straight decades.

Laura
 
A good tip that I learned from Marie is to make your categories specific/detailed. Search engines love it.

Instead of:

"Dresses"
Try:

Womens Vintage Dresses
Womens Vintage Day Dresses
Vintage Party Dresses
Vintage 1940s-1980s dresses
Roaring 20s Flapper Dresses

or whatever.

I have no rhyme or reason. I really need to restructure mine
 
Okay, I'm pretty convinced that I'm going to go with eras. Here's what I've got so far:

Gibson Girls & the Modern Woman ~ 1900-1919
Jazz Babies & Glamour Girls ~ 1920-1936
Liberty Belles ~ 1937-1946
Lovely New Look Sophisticates ~ 1947-1964
Mod Dollies & Today's Woman 1965-1980s

Laura, I hear what you are saying about decades versus movements. I think most people tend to think of fashion, and history in general, in decades. Back several years ago in eBay there was a great debate about restructuring the categories. At that time the categories were according to decades.

But on the VC&A board, there was a constant stream of questions about how do you determine if a dress is 1959 or 1961? And the general feeling was that a dress made in 1961 probably will have more in common with a dress made in 1959, than a dress made in 1965. And after the new categories came out, those types of questions all but stopped, because it no longer really mattered.

I'd appreciate any input/suggestions/criticisms of the way I have this structured, as it's not in stone.

Another thought. I've been doing a lot of research (That means web surfing) into how other websites are structured. It seems to be pretty much half and half, but I've noticed that people who carry mainly 60s and 70s vintage are much more likely to have their categories according to garment type, and people who carry older things do it according to age of clothing.

I was amazed at one site - a fairly well known one. It had 27 categories. I'd think that in this case, less would be better???

Lizzie
 
I think you have the right idea on making up titles for your categories along with year.

there is a school of thought for more categories too on the other hand.

The selection of each category helps people get specifically what they want, and gives the impression of more items. But what you do is you have overlap:

A suit from 1942 would go in:

Ladies Suits
Wartime Clothing
Fall Clothing
Lilli Ann (if you have enough to specialize in it)

So you are hit with seeing the item several times repetitiously.

I have "All Ladies Clothing" and "all men's clothing" for people who have time and just want to see it all, but any given item can fall in more than one category, with repeatedly seeing an item, it works just like advertising where you see the name a bunch of times before you call the number, it sticks in your head.

Is it annoying? effective? well, i can't say, but you might have someone see an item that they missed before as long as one is not too rediculous about it.

I will admit, if i am just looking for a belt, it helps if there is a belt category that i can just zip in and out of if there is a large inventory of different items. The category name grabs me if i am on a mission and am not out to browse the racks.

But then again...way too many categories....again it might be a happy medium
 
Okay, I've got it down to 6


Gibson Girls & the Modern Woman ~ 1900-1919
Jazz Babies & Glamour Girls ~ 1920-1939
Liberty Belles & New Look Ladies ~ 1940-1964
Mod Dollys & the Woman of Today ~ 1965 -1980
The Designers
Vintage Accessories ~ Hats ~ Shoes

That pretty much breaks them up along decade lines, except fot the 60s. Here's the page I'm working on for my website. What I REALLY need are some of Lei's ancestresses!

http://fuzzylizzie.com/shopfuzzylizzie.html
 
your website is looking nice Lizzie, its really coming along!

Are the photos from the different decades your family :) ?
Or "Instant relatives".

Makes me want to start over with all new pictures and design for my site!
 
Ha! These are the real deal - my grandparents, Mom & Dad, and Tim and Me. But the only pictures I have of my greatgrandparents wouldn't do much to help sell nice clothes! In fact, most people would be scared silly at the sight of my great-grand-mother's face!! But I need to check with my brother, as he may have some pictures from another branch of the family.

Chris, I appreciate your kind words. I think it is exciting looking at all the new websites that are being developed here. I love yours!

Lizzie
 
I like both ideals that you guys have.

I guess it comes down to how organize you want to be and how you want your categories setup. At this time on my website, I like how I have things setup. I have alot of ideals on how I want things to look and be organized in the future, but foremost, I just want to sell more.
 
Lizzie,

Do you want to change the page you linked to to have a pic for each of the 6 categories? I may have a grandma you can borrow for the early years. ;)

xoxoxo
leisa
 
I like your departments, particularly the descriptions.

My stuff is by category: Day Dresses, Cocktails etc. I revised it about a month ago as I did not have much outside of the 50s and 60s. I have also stuck in a couple of extra categories like RAB and Drama Queens as sometimes, I think, people are lookin for a certain look whether it's Audrey elegance or bohemian funk.

If and when I get a website going... well, I don'w know what I will do.

Basically, I've heard approximately half the lookers say the like by era and half by item. Probably can't go worng either way.

Sorry for this useless advice. In a funk here, Kelly
 
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