| Comestri term | Definition |
| 3PL | Third Party Logistics (3PL). This is a service where some or all aspects of the supply chain (e.g. distribution and storage) have been outsourced to a third party. |
| Alias products
|
An Alias product is a version of a SKU (known as the Master product) that shares stock with its Master but has a different name and Code and may also have a different description or other Attribute values. Alias products allow retailers to sell the same product under multiple listings online, e.g. retailers can list generic car brake pads under various car makes and models to take advantage of online searches for branded parts. |
| Alias Products (Product tab) |
For the currently open product, this tab displays a list of Alias Products for the current SKU product. This is also where you can create Alias Products.
Note: The Alias Products tab only appears on products that belong to a SKU Class, which has been designated as a Class that “Can be Aliased”. |
| API | Application Programming Interface. Comestri has its own API, which can be used by external systems to send and retrieve product, order and shipment data to and from Comestri. |
| Array | An Array is a list or group of similar data points associated with an Attribute or product. For example, if a product has three images, and these image values are listed one after another, then these images are in an Array. Another example is a product’s prices: a list of all prices from the relevant price books for that product is an Array. |
| Associated products
(Product tab) |
For the currently open product, this tab displays information about:
Note: if the product has Alias products, these appear under a separate “Alias Products” tab. |
| Attributes | In Comestri, Attributes act as “containers” for product data. They hold the different properties of a product and are the base elements for describing any product. An example of an Attribute is the “Colour” of a product.
There are a number of system Attributes that come predefined in Comestri e.g. “Description”, “Short Description” and “EAN”. You can also create many different custom Attributes to hold details about your specific range of products. You assign Attributes to products at different Class levels. |
| Bulk Edits | Bulk Edits are a function of the Comestri PIM that utilise conditional logic to set Attributes, assign Categories and generate prices across filtered products. |
| Catalogs | A feature in the PIM that is used for grouping products. Catalogs are then used primarily to filter products into Channels. For example, you may have a different Catalog for each marketplace or online platform. |
| Categories | Categories provide a way of classifying similar or related products into a series of groups. In Comestri, Categories form a hierarchy represented by a tree structure. Categories make it easier for merchants to collate products for sale on different marketplaces and platforms.
Categories are a part of a Category Tree in a Category Set. |
| Category ID | Category ID is a unique identifier generated by Comestri for each category across all category sets. So once a Category ID “123” has been generated within Comestri, it will not be re-used for any other Category. |
| Category Leaf
(or Leaf Category) |
The most specific point of a Category Path in a Category Tree. For example, in the following Category Path, “Pleated Skirts” is the Category Leaf:
Womens > Clothing > Skirts > Pleated Skirts. Many marketplaces require you to assign products to their Leaf Categories. |
| Category Mapping | Many Channels, for example The Iconic, have a pre-defined Category structure that your products must conform to. Category Mapping matches your Categories in the PIM to the pre-defined categories in Channels such as The Iconic. |
| Category Path | The series of Categories in a Category hierarchy that classify a product. A Category Path begins with the Root Category and continues with a series of categories that further refine the classification of the product. For example, a women’s long-sleeved t-shirt might have the following Category Path:
Womens > Apparel > Shirts > Long Sleeved |
| Category Set | A collection of Categories in the PIM. The PIM can contain multiple Category Sets. For example, you may have a Category Set for each channel, or share a Category Set among channels. Also, each Category Set contains its own Category Tree. |
| Category Tree | The hierarchical structure of categories in a Category Set. The Comestri PIM can have multiple category sets, each of which will have its own Category Tree. Each channel may also have its own Category Tree. Category mapping is used to match a PIM Category Tree to a channel’s Category Tree. |
| Channels | Channels are used to import and/or export product data and/or orders between Comestri and external systems. These external systems include marketplaces, online platforms, ERP solutions and 3PL services. |
| Channel Item | A Channel Item is an aspect of a product defined by a set of fields. Some channels also include Channel Items for orders, brands and Categories. |
| Channel Item ID | Channel Item ID is a unique identifier generated by Comestri for each Channel Item across all channels. So once a Channel Item ID “789” has been generated within Comestri, it will not be re-used for any other channel item. |
| Channel Manager | This is where Channels are configured and modified in Comestri.
The Channel Manager is one of the three components of Comestri, along with the PIM (Product Manager) and Order Manager. |
| Child Class
(see Parent Class) |
The Parent-Child relationship is an aspect of the hierarchical Class structure in Comestri.
In the PIM, each Child Class has one Parent Class, and each Parent Class has one Child Class. However, a Parent can also be a Child of another Parent Class. For example, often a “SKU” Class will be a Child of a “Colourway” (Parent) Class. In turn, the “Colourway” (Parent) Class could be the Child of a “Style” (Parent) Class. In a Channel, a Child Class can reference the Attributes and information of its Parent Class using contextual mapping. A Child can reference the values of its Parent using the “Ancestor” context marker. |
| Class
(see Product Model) |
Classes are an aspect of the Comestri Product Model and provide a way of collecting product data (i.e. Attributes) into different levels to reflect the variations in a product range. For example, “Style”, “Colourway” and “SKU” are common product variations and these are often used to create a three-level Class structure. |
| Class Structure | The collection of Class levels used to classify products. Each PIM can have one or more Class Structures to suit the types of products sold. “Style”, “Colourway” and “SKU” comprise a commonly used three-level Class Structure. Two-level or single-level Class Structures are also frequently used. |
| Class Types | There are four different Class Types in Comestri:
|
| Code
(as used in PIM) |
A unique identifier assigned to a product. It is labelled “Product Code” in Channels, and labelled “Code” in the PIM. |
| Configure the Channel | Act of setting up a Channel. This includes the defining of endpoints, and the mapping of PIM fields/categories to destination fields/categories on external marketplaces or platforms. |
| Configure the PIM | Act of setting up a PIM in Comestri. This includes the defining of Attributes, Classes, Categories, Brands, Inventory Sources and Pricebooks. You can also set up Product/Price Rules and Bulk Edits. |
| Contextual Mapping | A Comestri function that allows you to reference Attribute values on products above and below a current product in a Class structure using the context markers “Ancestor1” (for Parent Class products), and “Descendant1” (for Child Class products). You can also use “Ancestor2” to reference a Parent’s Parent, and use “Descendant2” to reference a Child’s Child. |
| Custom Attributes
(Product tab) |
This tab contains Custom Attributes that have been assigned to the product at this Class level. Custom Attributes are Attributes that you can create as needed to suit the products that you sell. Some examples of Custom Attributes are: “Colourway”, “Size” and “Material”. |
| Delta | Deltas are changes made since the last transmission of product data.
In the PIM, Deltas are product updates made since the last Comestri Heartbeat. In Channels, Deltas are updates made since the last transmission of data to an external system such as a marketplace. |
| EDI | Electronic Data Interchange |
| Data Enrichment | Act of adding further details to a product in the PIM. For example, adding a missing description or image to a product is enrichment. Uploading a CSV file to the PIM is a common way of enriching products. |
| Dimensions and Packed Dimensions (PIM) | In a product, under the Shipping tab, Dimensions and Packed Dimensions hold details of the physical dimensions and weight of the product. Both sets of Dimensions appear only if the dimensions and weight are assigned at this Class level. |
| Entity Identifier | A code that is similar to a product code in that it uniquely identifies the product. Entity Identifiers are external codes used by some marketplaces to track a product in their own systems. |
| Export | Act of sending data from Comestri to external systems using a channel. Data is often exported by a channel in CSV, JSON or XML formats. |
| Export Channel | A channel that pushes product data from Comestri to external systems. In an Export Channel the customer defines the product data content. The data can be sent in either CSV or JSON format, and can be transmitted via email, FTP or SFTP, or uploaded to an Amazon S3 bucket. Additionally, export data can be hosted on Comestri itself for remote access. |
| Export Items
(Channel tab) |
In a channel, the Export Items tab contains a list of all the channel items that have been staged in the channel.
(Note: A channel item is an aspect of a product defined by a set of fields. Some channels also include channel items for orders, brands and categories.) The types of Export Items can vary between channels.
|
| Filter | A channel function that utilises conditional logic to set parameters that define whether products/orders are included or excluded from the channel. |
| (Currency) Final Price | The lowest possible price for a product in a channel based on a comparison of all relevant Pricebooks.
Note: For any currency, the relevant price books are the Normal and Sale Pricebooks. These must be added to the channel. An example of a final price would be “AUD Final Price” for Australian currency. |
| Grouped Class | One of the four Comestri Class types. A Grouped Class defines a Class that allows you to create grouped products. |
| Grouped Products | The concept of Grouped Products allows you to create a product that contains a collection of other products. A Grouped Product comprises other products, but the various products that constitute the group are purchased individually. For example, a collection of complementary shirt, pants, shoes, scarf and jewellery could form a “Get the Look” Grouped Product, with each article available for separate purchase. |
| Heartbeat | The Comestri Heartbeat is a regular communication between the PIM and the Channel Manager. The Heartbeat pushes changes on products in the PIM to channels at 10-minute intervals. During each Heartbeat, Comestri looks for changes (deltas) on product data and sends that information through to relevant channels. |
| Import | Act of pulling data into Comestri using either a CSV file or a Channel. |
| Import Channel | An Import Channel can be used to import a variety of product data including whole products, images, prices and inventory information. The Import Channel can import data from FTP and SFTP servers, and also from Amazon S3 buckets. Data can be imported in the following formats: Excel or CSV files, URLs (for images), and from structured data in other text files. |
| Import Items
(Channel tab) |
In a channel, the Import Items tab contains a list of all the items that have been imported from the service the Channel connects to.
(Note: An Item is generally some kind of product detail imported from an external service, and can be related to prices, images, inventory, orders or categories.) Import Items will vary between Channels. |
| Import Jobs
(Channel tab) |
In a Channel, the Import Jobs tab contains a list of all the past Import Channel jobs that have been run, as well as Import Channel jobs that are currently running, e.g. orders, products and images.
Import Jobs will vary between Channels. |
| Inventory Sources | Inventory Sources are entities that hold stock for products. They can either be physical locations (e.g. warehouses, from which online marketplaces source their stock), or physical retail stores (e.g. when stores are used for Click and Collect purposes on eBay). |
| K Type | This is an Attribute relating to car parts that identifies the various car models compatible with the parts (used only for car parts on eBay). |
| Liquid template | Liquid is an open-source template language created by Shopify. It is primarily used in channels to create field-mapping rules, but can also be used to formulate Product Rules in the PIM. Liquid is used to build the contents of a Channel field from multiple product Attributes. You can also build complex conditional rules to populate Channel fields using Liquid. |
| Lookup Tables | A Lookup Table is a way of storing tabulated data in Comestri. You can use Lookup Tables to automatically populate a second Attribute value based on the value of a first Attribute. For example, in the PIM, a Lookup Table containing custom colours could be used to populate the Colour Family Attribute for a product.
In a Channel, Lookup Tables can be used with Liquid rules to populate field values. |
| Media Tags | Tags that can be used to filter images and videos in Channels. For example, a tag of “swatch” could be assigned to an image and the tag then used to assign that image to the “swatch image” field in a Channel. |
| Multilingual | The Comestri PIM can store product data in multiple languages. For each language, you can define a fallback language. This means that, if a field is not populated for a language, the fallback language will be used. |
| Order Manager | This is where orders are held and accessed in Comestri.
You can access orders via API, and Order Manager can also send them to Channels that export orders. The Order Manager is one of the three components of Comestri, along with the PIM (Product Manager) and Channel Manager. |
| Parent Class
(see Child Class) |
The Parent-Child relationship is an aspect of the hierarchical Class structure in Comestri.
In the PIM, a Parent Class can only have one Child Class. A Parent can also be a Child of another Parent Class. For example, often a “Colourway” Class will be the Parent of a “SKU” (Child) Class. In turn, the “Colourway” (Parent) Class could be the Child of a “Style” (Parent) Class. In a Channel, a Parent Class can reference the Attributes and information of its Children. A Parent can reference the values of its Children using the “Descendant” context marker. |
| PIM (Product Manager) | Product Information Manager (also called Product Manager). This is where product data is stored, accessed and edited on Comestri. Products can be uploaded or imported to the PIM via API, CSV or a channel. Additionally, products can be created via the Comestri UI.
The PIM is one of the three components of Comestri, along with Channel Manager and Order Manager. |
| POS | Point-of-Sale software |
| Pricebooks | Pricebooks are used to allocate prices to products. They define the “Type” of a price, the “Currency”, the “From” and “To” time period the price is active for, and whether it is “Tax” or “Duty” inclusive. Common types of Pricebook are Normal and Sale. |
| Price Items | A Price Item is a price on a product. A product can have multiple Price Items. Each Price Item has a Pricebook associated with it, and the Pricebook defines the currency and price type. Price Items can have a “From” and “To” date.
A product can only have one Price Item per Pricebook per time period. Commonly, a product will have a Price Item using a Normal Pricebook, and will also have a Price Item using a Sale Pricebook. |
| Price Rules | Price Rules are a function of the Comestri PIM that utilise conditional logic to create new Price Items on products based on their existing Price Items.
For a new Price Item you can specify a “From” and “To” date, and select from three types of discount: percentage off, fixed amount off, and fixed price. For example, you can write a Price Rule that creates a new Price Item that is 20% off the Normal Price for the specified sale period, for all items in a particular Catalog. |
| Primary Image (or Primary Video) | If an image/video is assigned in the PIM as the Primary Image or Primary Video, it means that the image/video can be mapped in a Channel to display as the default image/video online. |
| Products | Comestri supports the management of standalone products and products with variations.
Standalone products are those that have no further options for customers to select from. Examples of this kind of product could include a shoehorn, a bowtie or cufflinks. Products with variations are products that are alike in some ways, but also have differences. For example, a ladies’ shirt of one style could come in different colours and sizes. In Comestri, a product can be divided into a number of Class levels that represent the variations in the product. For example, the ladies’ shirt could be divided into three Class levels: “Style”, “Colourway” and “SKU” (the SKU Class includes the various product sizes). The Comestri PIM stores and recognises each Class level of a product as a separate product. These variant products are then linked together in the PIM in a Class hierarchy that utilises Parent-Child relationships. These relationships can be viewed under the Associated Products tab for each product in the PIM. |
| Product Code | A unique identifier assigned to a product. It is labelled “Product Code” in Channels and labelled “Code” in the PIM. |
| Product ID | Product ID is a unique identifier generated by Comestri for each product. So once a Product ID “456” has been generated within Comestri, it will not be re-used for any other product. |
| Product Kit | A Product Kit is a collection of SKUs that are purchased as if they were a single product. To the marketplace platform, a Product Kit looks like a single product and Comestri handles the decrementing of inventory for the products that comprise the Product Kit. |
| Product Kit Class | One of the four Comestri Class types. A Product Kit Class defines a Class that allows you to create products that contain a number of SKUs that are sold as one product. |
| Product Model | The collection of various Class structures in a PIM. A commonly used Class structure is a three-level structure of “Style”, “Colourway” and “SKU”. Class structure can also be two-level (e.g. “Colourway” and “SKU”), or standalone (e.g. “Accessories”). For example, a Product Model could consist of a three-level Class structure for apparel, and a standalone Class structure for accessories. |
| Product Rules | Product Rules are a function of the Comestri PIM that utilise conditional logic to assign and remove Categories or shipping zones to products. For example, you could write a Product Rule that assigns products to sale Categories based on whether they have a price item for a particular sale Pricebook. |
| Production | A live Comestri environment that sends product data, and other related data, to live Channels. |
| Reports
(Channel tab) |
In a Channel, under the Reports tab you can create CSV reports of staging and transmission errors, as well as transmission warnings. These reports can be downloaded from Comestri. |
| Root Category | The first Category in a Category path that all other Categories descend from. For example, “Mens” is the Root Category in the following Category path:
Mens > Apparel > Pants > Chinos. |
| Shipping
(Product tab) |
This tab contains product dimensions, if they have been assigned to the product’s Class. For all products, the Shipping tab will contain shipping zones. |
| Shipping Zones | Used by the eBay Channel to define geographical locations from which products can be purchased. |
| SKU | Stock Keeping Unit. A SKU is a representation of an actual physical product and often has a barcode. It is used for the lowest level of the Comestri Class structure and contains inventory. |
| SKU Class | One of the four Comestri Class types. A SKU Class defines a product at the lowest level of a multi-Class structure and represents a sellable unit. SKU Classes are also used for standalone products.
Inventory is assigned to a product at this Class level. |
| Stage | A function of the channel that tells the PIM to send all products to the Channel.
The Stage causes all products to be sent to the Channel; therefore, if you have many products in the PIM, a Stage can take some time. For this reason, you should only Stage a Channel when it is absolutely necessary. For example, a relevant time to Stage is when you first make the Channel active, because you need to ensure that the channel has received all products that meet the Channel’s filter criteria. Note: Normally the Comestri Heartbeat will update products in all Channels. A Stage is therefore only really required when you change the Channel configuration. |
| Staging | A Comestri test environment for Channels and PIM structures. Normally, it is used for testing product data and Channel configuration before moving a tenant to their Production environment. |
| Status (Channel) |
Channels can have either an active or inactive status. An active Channel will receive product/order updates pushed by the Comestri Heartbeat. Channels are normally left inactive during the configuration process.
Channels that are made inactive will complete all jobs that are currently queued to run, but will not run any further scheduled import or export jobs. |
| Status (Product) |
Product status can be either active or inactive, and is mostly used in the Channel to filter products. |
| Store Locations | These represent actual physical locations, the primary example of this being retail stores. Store Locations hold unique address data including street address, email address, phone numbers, latitude and longitude, and opening hours. |
| Tenant | In Comestri a Tenant is defined as an instance of Comestri for a particular client.
Each user can access only one Tenant. |
| Touching a product | Defined as making a small change on a product so that the next Heartbeat will transmit the product to Channels. Often this is used to check whether the Channel field mapping works correctly.
Making a change will flag the product as updated, and this means the product data will be picked up by the Comestri Heartbeat and sent to Channels. You can then check Export Items to see whether the expected result has occurred. For example, you can “touch a product” by adding a space to the end of the product’s description, wait for the Heartbeat to transmit the product, and then check the Channel mappings. |
| Transactions (Channel tab) |
In a Channel, the Transactions tab contains a list of all deltas for Channel items that have been, and will be, sent to the external service that the Channel connects to. |
| Uploads (Channel tab) |
In a Channel, the Uploads tab contains a list of all configuration files that have been uploaded to the Channel e.g. the Category mapping CSV file. |
| User Roles | Comestri allows you to create new Users and define their access level.
A User can be created for each staff member. User Roles define a set of permissions for Users. User Groups then link Users to one of the defined User Roles. |
| Variation Class | One of the four Comestri Class types. A Variation Class is a Class with Children that have variations. However, this type of Class can also be a Child of another Variation Class.
Consider a three-level Class structure comprising “Style”, “Colourway” and “SKU”. In this example, “Colourway” is a Variation Class that has the “SKU” Class as its Child, because the “SKU” Class contains products of varying sizes. Similarly, the “Colourway” Variation Class has “Style” as a Parent Variation Class, because the “Colourway” Class contains products of many different colours. |