The Seller Portal Catalog is the module where you configure your store's product assortment. So that customers can see your products on the marketplace, you need to add and configure these products using the Catalog.
Catalog Architecture
The Seller Portal Catalogue architecture is based on fundamental concepts distributed throughout the following hierarchy:
- Categories: ways in which your products can be organized. You cannot add your own categories; the marketplace defines the categories that are available to classify your products under. Each product will necessarily be linked to an already existing category.
- Brands: part of the attributes that characterize your store's products, allowing your customers to also find what they are looking for in a more specific way. You cannot add your own brands, the ones shown in the Brands tab have already been imported from the marketplace.
- Products: the items available in the marketplace display window. We can understand them as a broader definition of the items that are sold in your store.
- Shared products: products that are shared between your catalog and the marketplace. You do not need to add these products; you can simply set their price and inventory in the Shared Products module. The Shared Products dashboard automatically informs you of any product that the marketplace has made available to your store as a seller. Learn more on how to manage shared products.
- Specifications: additional properties that can be applied to your store's products. Product specifications are usually used to create filters for the marketplace or display additional information on the product page.
- Variations: characteristics that define a specific product type and distinguish it from other options available in your store (items already available in your inventory).
- Offers: seller products or variations, with their own price conditions and inventory that are sent to the marketplace. More info on Offers.
Examples of category, products and variations
Fashion
Let's use a fashion store as an example. This store's catalog may contain a product called Men's printed T-shirt. For customers to buy this item, they must choose the T-shirt size. The variations linked to this product can therefore be as follows:
Men's printed T-shirt - Size Small Men's printed t-shirt - Size Medium Men's printed t-shirt - Size Large
The product is what is available in the marketplace display window. When an item is available, a marketplace does not usually display its specific details, such as size, on its display window. What is sold is "Men's printed T-shirt", but what customers actually buy is the "Men's printed T-shirt - Size Medium". A customer will not simply buy a "T-shirt". The product's physical unit, the item sent to the shipping address will be, for example, a "Red T-shirt - Size Medium".
Understanding the product concept directly influences how items are displayed on the marketplace display window. Products are displayed in window displays and variations are selected on the product page.
Home appliances
Now, let's look at the household appliance scenario. One of a marketplace's most popular departments for this industry segment is "home appliances". One of this department's subsegments is the "Microwave" category.
However, there are many different types of microwave ovens. You can therefore choose, for example, a "Microwave with LED display", whose voltage option can be selected as either "127V" or "220V". We can subsequently understand the voltage as being the specification that distinguishes the "Microwave with LED display" product variations.