Work with catalog entries
The Catalog interface in Optimizely Commerce Connect enables you to work with catalog data. Marketers may want to create new products and variants, and merchandisers may want to enrich products as they are added to ecommerce channels. Ecommerce solutions integrated with an external ERP system may have products with core data that only needs to be completed within Optimizely Commerce Connect. In other scenarios, you can create new products from scratch.
When working with catalog entries, you typically complete the following tasks.
- Locate incomplete products added from integrated systems, add content and media, then categorize and publish them.
- Create products, add content, and media from external sources, then publish them.
- Add missing information to variants: product codes, internal and display names, properties, media, pricing, and inventory information.
Create a catalog entry
Create a new catalog entry from the catalog tree's context menu or the Create content button. When you expand the catalog tree, context-sensitive options appear. For example, after selecting a category, you can create a new category, product, variant, package, or bundle. After selecting a product, you can create new products or variants.
The following example shows how to create a catalog entry.
- Expand the catalog tree and navigate to the desired category.
- Select the category within which you want to create the new catalog.
- From the context menu, select New > Category, Product, Variant/SKU, Package, or Bundle. See also: Types of catalog entries.
- Enter a name for the item.
- If your Commerce Connect system supports multiple product types, the system suggests a default one based on the context and previous similar actions. Choose a product type.
- Complete the product's or variant's properties. See Catalog entry properties. Commerce Connectsaves the item automatically, but it is only available on the website once published.
Because variants belong to the lowest level in the product hierarchy, you cannot add sub-entries for them. Instead, you only can edit them.
Note
The catalog tree does not display products or variants; only category nodes. Use the catalog item list to work with products and variants.
To learn about other catalog entry tasks, such as editing, deleting, or moving, see Edit catalog entries
Types of catalog entries
Each catalog entry has a type.
- Category – A way to group products, such as Art Books or Cocktail Dresses. See Work with categories.
- Product – Merchandise you can display on a front-end site. A product typically consists of several variants which customers can purchase.
- Variant or SKU – A purchasable product with specific characteristics, such as size, color, sleeve length, and price.
- Package – A purchasable item. For example, a shirt and hat combination is wrapped and sold as a unit. Although a package has multiple variants, it has a unique SKU number and displays as a single line item in a shopping cart. See Packages and bundles.
- Dynamic Package – A content type extended from a package. Although a dynamic package has multiple products, each product contains one or more variants as an option. This lets customers select variants from configured packages. See Packages and bundles.
- Bundle – A collection of variants, letting customers purchase two or more items at once. Each item is priced separately. For example, a matching shirt and hat are presented together on the front-end so a user can buy both items at once. Each item displays on its own line in a shopping cart. See Packages and bundles.