Product Catalog is stored in Postgres SQL database. Product data is categorized on three levels: Supplier product – this is equivalent of a supplier pricelist entry for any given supplier SKU. Inventory product – this is equivalent of a unique manufacturer product and can be sourced from multiple suppliers (supplier products). Catalog product – external product catalog for each marketplace or website. Each marketplace catalog may include a subset of inventory products, e.g. website catalog, Amazon catalog, GSA catalog, etc. Each catalog may use different pricing and categorization. B2B Online performs mapping of supplier products to inventory products based on sophisticated mapping algorithm that includes available data (UPC, MPN, Brand, etc.). Products are organized in a multi-level category tree. Every product may be assigned to one of more categories.
Detailed product information contains: Product name. Brand and category. Images. Text description (html). Technical specification (attributes, features). Price. Availability/ inventory. Supplier sourcing. Product codes (UPC, MFN, COO).
Product information can be imported from several sources: External product catalogs (e.g. Etilize Spec Plus). XML catalogs – custom XML catalogs can be imported. XLSX importer – B2B spreadsheet format for catalog import.
The structure of categories is unlimited, a catalog can include any number of categories and sub-categories. Categories can be visible or hidden. Categories can have assigned pictures. One product may belong to many categories. Products may have other variants, each variant having its own price, availability and photos. There is a possibility of specifying attributes to every category: Fixing the parameters using the list available in a panel, fitting to product group (e.g. for IT hardware it will be a kind of a processor or operating system). Facility is useful in comparing, filtering or searching products by categories by their parameters.