The setup of products within an organization will vary depending on the systems available and the orders in which they were implemented. Some organizations will have the items initially mastered in the ERP system but then managed in a PIM system or Completely managed in PIM. However, the relationship between the products, the organization and how they are managed in typical retailers can be summarized in the following diagram.
Product Hierarchy 1 through n: Represents the levels within the product hierarchy, similar to the category hierarchy setup in a retailer, which might also be known as departments or class-subclass setups.
Item Level 1 through n: Represents the sellable item setup and makeup of the sellable product, including the various sizes and colors that might exist. It also relates to the identifiers used to scan the item, indicating that each item level corresponds to items that can be sold to customers.
Orderable Item Level 1 through n: Represents how the items may be packaged from a supply chain logistics point of view and will be used to refer to the product when dealing with third-party vendors.
Supply Chain Organization: Represents the organizational structure within the supply chain. This hierarchy is crucial for organizing products and is used to analyze replenishment, overstocks, out of stocks, and other supply chain metrics. This hierarchy will typically aligne with supply chain management structure within the organization
Merchandizing Organization: Represents the organizational structure within the merchandizing department, indicating its connection to the product hierarchy. This hierarchy is crucial for organizing products and is also used to report sales, typically aligning with the managers of these categories. Managers use this hierarchy to track and analyze sales performance at different levels, from overall departments down to specific subclasses.
Demand Group and Supplier: Represents the relationship between different vendors, the lead time for replenishment, and the orderable items. This provides clarity on why a particular supplier might be preferred, based on factors such as lead time, reliability, and cost.
Supplier: Positioned lower in the hierarchy, indicating its role in supplying goods.
Breakouts: Indicates the relationship between the orderable and the sellable items and how, when items are delivered into a location, the number of breakout units expected to replenish the location is determined.
Hierarchy of the shop model
In the context of NewStore, this model is streamlined to accommodate direct-to-consumer operations, which means it focuses primarily on product hierarchies and the setup of items. This means there is currently no support for complex replenishment models within NewStore; meaning those parts of the model can be ignored.
To cater for multiple channels selling in multiple regions, NewStore places the merchandising hierarchy under the construct of a shop with the potential of one or more locales associated with the shop. The term shop is used to shorten the description of a shopping catalog; it doesn’t mean store location.
Shop Construct: The top-level structure representing the shopping catalog.
Locale: Defines the region and language (e.g., EN-US for English in the United States). Each catalog is associated with a locale to cater to specific regional requirements.
Locale Definition: Locales are defined in the data import payload to ensure the catalog caters to specific regional markets.
Master Locale: Each catalog must have a master locale, designated by the "isMaster" flag. This master locale serves as the primary reference for product information.
Non-Master Locales: Products in non-master locales must also exist in the master locale to maintain consistency across different regions.
Category (Merchandising Hierarchy): Organizes the products into categories and subcategories, enabling easy navigation and management.
Products: Represented at the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) level. Each SKU is a distinct product variant that can be tracked for inventory and sales.
Variants: (Might also known as Style) Each product can have up to four variants, such as size, color, and custom attributes (e.g., hand size for hockey equipment). These variants allow for detailed product specifications and customization options.