eCl@ss
One of the standard classifications is eCl@ss. It is suitable for different industrial branches, internationally successful and available in multiple languages. eCl@ss contains 41 000 product classes and almost 17 000 attributes.
eCl@ss operates on the principle of a hierarchical system and classifies products and services into four-step categories (main groups, groups, commodity classes, properties). Each of thus classified product or service is labelled by an eight-digit number.
ETIM
Another example of a standard classification is ETIM. It is more suitable for fields in electrical engineering. It contains around 2 500 product classes.
ETIM, as well as eCl@ss, is based on a hierarchical system and classifies products into a two-step segments (group, class). ETIM enables to describe products unambiguously in a technical manner because each class has individually defined properties and keywords.
UNSPSC
UNSPSC is classification used mainly in the English-speaking countries. It is suitable for different branches and can be used as support for electronic processes connected to sales and purchase.
The UNSPSC classification classifies products into 5 categories (segment, family, class, commodity, business function). The first 4 categories are standardized. Nevertheless, UNSPSC supports no attributes.
Other systems
It is very often that customers do not want to apply a standard classification and they create their own internal one. Alternatively, they can use the own classification of Amazon or eBay. However, most of the time such classifications are not done properly and they don’t achieve qualities compared to the standard classifications.