Standardizing sizes has always been a challenge in resale. With brand inconsistencies, manual data entry, and tricky international conversions, customers often struggle to find the right fit—and merchants spend too much time fixing errors.
A smooth, accurate sizing process isn’t just a nice-to-have in resale—it’s a must. In today’s competitive market, clear size data is key to reducing errors, optimizing inventory, and ensuring buyers find exactly what they need.
That’s why we created Ribbn’s 4-Tiered Size Taxonomy. This structured system standardizes size data, improves product discoverability, and makes shopping frictionless. Whether your sellers are uploading sell requests or your team is using our admin product upload, our size taxonomy ensures every product gets a correct, standard size from the start.
Sizing inconsistencies create hurdles for both buyers and sellers. With brands using different size conventions and international variations adding to the confusion, shoppers struggle to find the right fit. Unstructured size data also limits discoverability, making filters unreliable and search results cluttered. For sellers, manually entering and managing size information is time-consuming and prone to errors, leading to mismatched inventory and frustrated customers. A smarter, standardized approach is needed to streamline the process and improve the shopping experience.
A “Medium” in one brand might be equivalent to a “Small” in another. Add international differences (EU vs. US sizes) into the mix, and the disparity grows—leaving buyers uncertain about the true fit.
A “Size 10” might be a US measurement or a UK one—the raw labels can be misleading and add an extra layer of confusion for shoppers.
Without a structured system, size filters can become unreliable. Buyers may end up sifting through irrelevant listings, making it harder to quickly find products in the right size.
Manually entering size data for hundreds or thousands of listings is both time-consuming and error-prone. The manual process can quickly overwhelm your workflow and lead to mistakes.
Different brands often use varied sizing conventions, leading to duplicate or conflicting listings. This inconsistency complicates inventory management and confuses potential buyers.
Our approach to solving sizing challenges was to borrow inspiration from our Product Taxonomy—a feature already proven for its ability to broadly categorize products in a standardized way—and repurpose it for size management. By leveraging the principles of a tiered or hierarchical taxonomy grouping—where your first tier corresponds to generic groupings and each subsequent tier gets more detailed associations—we developed the 4-Tiered Size Taxonomy to address the complexities of sizing in resale.
For a while now, our AI engine has been working behind the scenes to classify products into standard measurement categories. But we asked ourselves—what if we could take those AI-driven measurement categories, combine them with a product’s unique size label, and link everything to a standardized general size?
That question led to a breakthrough! We realized that the 4-tiered taxonomy structure we built to help merchants standardize product categories could also be adapted to standardize label sizes and general sizes for a given measurement category.
If our system could recognize a size label from an image, or take a user-supplied free entry, and if we could supply it with a standardized set of size labels and their corresponding general sizes within a given measurement category, then it could seamlessly determine the correct standard general size.
The key to making this work for Ribbn was ensuring alignment with a merchant’s custom product taxonomy. Since merchants define their own taxonomies, we needed a simple, universally applicable key to bridge the two systems. The primary segment—the top-level product category in a merchant’s taxonomy—proved to be the most effective choice. By using this as the foundation, we created a clear, structured approach for the new size taxonomy structure.
By standardizing sizing using a 4-tiered taxonomy, we can offer a framework that creates a universal sizing system that works consistently—regardless of brand or region. This structured approach enhances product discoverability, making size filters more intuitive and search results more relevant. AI-powered automation reduces manual data entry, minimizing errors and saving time. With a unified inventory structure, conflicting size labels are eliminated, keeping your catalog organized. The result? Clearer size information, smoother inventory management, and a better shopping experience for buyers and sellers alike.
The taxonomy maps varied size labels to a clear, universal Standard Size. This means that no matter the brand or region, sizes are harmonized—so a “Medium” truly means the same thing every time.
By organizing size data into a structured, four-tier system, the taxonomy creates intuitive and reliable size filters. This alignment with how buyers search for sizes boosts discoverability and improves the overall shopping experience.
Predefined Measurement Categories and AI-powered mapping reduce manual data entry. The system automatically interprets and assigns raw size data, minimizing errors and saving valuable time.
A unified structure ensures that all size data is recorded consistently. By eliminating duplicate and conflicting listings, the taxonomy simplifies inventory management and keeps your catalog organized.
The taxonomy converts raw, ambiguous labels into a clear, customer-friendly Standard Size. This standardization demystifies confusing size information—making it easier for buyers to understand and compare products.
In the resale industry, clear size management is essential. The 4-Tiered Size Taxonomy not only unifies diverse sizing conventions but also creates a more intuitive shopping experience for buyers. By addressing inconsistencies, automating data entry, and clarifying size labels, this approach makes it easier for customers to find their perfect fit every time.
If you're already using Ribbn, you can start using the 4-Tiered Size Taxonomy right away by importing a CSV file or updating individual listings in your dashboard.
Here’s how:
💡 Get more detailed instructions here
No more inconsistent sizes, manual data entry headaches, or frustrated customers. Ribbn’s 4-Tiered Size Taxonomy does the work for you, so you can focus on running your business.
Ready to optimize your size management? Log into your Ribbn Dashboard to get started today!
Got questions? Our support team is here to help—reach out anytime.
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