In the Manage Products section of the Comestri PIM you can create new Products, and also manage (i.e. edit or delete) existing Products, using the Comestri UI.

This method provides an easy way of creating or making minor changes to just a few Products, but it can be laborious if you want to create or change a large number of Products. For bulk Product creation or changes, we recommend that you upload the Product data using a CSV file (see Manage via CSV – Technical Guide), or via the Comestri API.

For a more detailed explanation of Products (and how these relate to Classes), see the Product Model document.

New Product

Create New Product

In Comestri, you can manually create a new Product via the Comestri UI.

Click on Products in the left-hand menu and select Manage Products

The Manage Products page opens
Click the New button and select New Product from the drop-down menu

The New Product page opens
Enter the following details:

Class

• select the Class to use for this Product
• required field

Product Name

• enter the name of this Product
• required field

Code

• this is a unique identifier for the Product. This value is the Product identifier that is used within your organisation
• CAN be changed – but should only be done with a full understanding of the risk to channels/marketplaces
• should contain only lowercase characters, numbers, hyphens and underscores. First character must be a letter or underscore
• Note: we recommend that you do not uses spaces, uppercase letters or forward slashes i.e.”/” as these may not be accepted by all e-commerce platforms or marketplaces
• the default value is the Name all in lowercase, with invalid characters replaced by underscores
• required field

Status

• can be “Active” or “Inactive”
• Required

Product Family

• select a relevant Product Family
• only required if Product Families are included in your Product Model
• Note: You need to ensure that the relevant Product Family has already been created; see Product Families for more details

Click the Create Product button to save

After clicking Create Product, you are taken to the Edit Product page where you can further enrich (i.e. edit) the Product/s you have created.

Edit Product

In Comestri, you can manually edit a Product via the Comestri UI.

On the Edit Product page, you can either:

Warning

An edit of Product data is permanent, but a record of all Product edits is held in the PIM and can be viewed on the Edit Product page by clicking on the Change Log tab.

Enrich (i.e. add extra/deeper data to) a newly created Product
(The Edit Product page automatically opens after a new Product has been manually created in the PIM.)
OR

Edit any existing Product

Note that the same Edit Product page is used in both these scenarios.

1. Click on Products in the left-hand menu and select Manage Products
2. The Manage Products page opens

Using the “Search Products” box, find the Product you want to edit

Click on the Product name (as listed in the Product Code column) or click on the ellipsis (…) and select Edit

1. The Edit Product page opens
   You can edit Product data via a range of tabs.

The General, Custom Attributes, Shipping, Associated Products, Change Log, and Export are default tabs. These will appear even if they contain no data.

The Media, Categories, Prices, Inventory, and Dimensions & Weight tabs will only appear if these types of “Data to include” have been added to the Product’s Class configuration.

General tab

The General tab displays core Product data. This data is a standard set of default fields that all Classes have.

All fields can be edited unless greyed out.

Basic

These are the standard set of default fields that are assigned to every Product

Name

• the name of this product

Code

• the unique code used to represent the Product in Comestri
• Entity identifiers – below the Product code field is a hyperlink for Entity identifiers. This field allows more than one identifying code to be assigned to a Product. This can be used to identify Products on a specific marketplace, or support companies that have multiple codes for one Product. Press the hyperlink to open a new table that displays a Key field and a Name field. Populate the Name field with the purpose of the new Product code e.g. The Iconic Seller SKU (to identify a Product on a specific marketplace), and then populate the Key field with the desired value e.g. 12345.

Status

• can be Active or Inactive

Brand

• the Brand the Product belongs to
• optional
• Create new – click Create new to create a new Brand for this Product. This will open a box with the same options as New Brand.

Catalogs

• the Catalog(s) this Product belongs to
• click in the box and select from existing Catalogs
• click the “x” next to the name to remove a Catalog
• optional
• Create new – click Create new to create a new Catalog for this Product. This will open a box with the same options as the New Catalog page.

Class

• defines the level of the Product structure
• CANNOT be changed

Family

• the Product Family this Product belongs to

Source

• the original creator of this Product
• may be an API or a logged-in user
• CANNOT be changed

Created at

• date the Product was created
• CANNOT be changed

Updated at

• date of last update to any field associated with the Product
• CANNOT be changed

Overall updated at

• Currently not in use

Click the Update Product button at the bottom right to save changes before moving to a new tab.

Custom Attributes tab

The Custom Attributes tab displays all Attributes assigned to the Product’s current Class.

Custom Attributes are freely defined by the user and can be specific to the user’s Products, organisation, industry etc.

They will appear in alphabetical order unless you specify a sort order

All fields can be edited unless greyed out

Click the Update Product button at the lower right to save changes before moving to a new tab.

Below is a screen shot displaying some commonly assigned Custom Attributes:

Media tab

The Media tab displays a list of Images (includes Videos) that have been uploaded for this Product.

Changing the Image List Order

The order in which Images are listed in the PIM, and subsequently in Channels, can be altered by a drag-and-drop method as follows:

Hold the cursor down on the arrow cross symbol located under the Position column on the far left of the relevant Image

Drag the arrow cross symbol (with Image) to the desired location in the Image list

New Image

There are two ways to create a new Image:

Enter the image URL – by referencing a URL

Upload a local image – by uploading a file located on a local drive

Both are covered below.

All fields can be edited unless greyed out.

1. Click the New Image button

The New Media Item box opens
Enter the following details:

Upload type – select how you are going to add Images to the Product

• Enter the image URL – select to add an Image URL you have hosted on a public server, such as Amazon S3
• Upload a local image – select to upload an Image from your local drive to Comestri’s Amazon S3 bucketBoth Upload types are detailed below.

Enter the image URL (Upload type)
Select this option if you want to add an Image to your Product that is stored on a publicly accessible site

• Upload type
• select Enter the image URL

URL

• enter the URL where the image can be accessed
• this needs to be a publicly accessible URL
• this URL is passed to Channels, enabling them to access the image
• this field is part of the ‘Images’ fields in Channels

Public URL

• leave this field blank – it is populated by a Channel
• e.g. if your advertising Channels need the Image URLs from your site, rather than say an Amazon S3 bucket, a Channel would import the Image URLs from your site and populate this field
• this field is part of the ‘Image Public URLs’ fields in Channels

File name

• this field will be populated with the name of the Image file after the media item has been saved

Upload a local image (Upload type)
Alternatively, select this option to upload an Image from your local computer

Upload type

• select Enter the image URL

URL

• will be populated with the URL from the Amazon S3 server your Image is uploaded to
• this field is part of the ‘Images’ fields in Channels

Public URL

• leave this field blank – it is populated by a Channel
• e.g. if your advertising Channels need the Image URLs from your site, rather than say an Amazon S3 bucket, a Channel would import the Image URLs from your site and populate this field
• this field is part of the ‘Image Public URLs’ fields in Channels

File name

• this field will be populated with the name of the Image file after the media item has been saved

File 

• click Choose File (or Browse) and navigate to the file you want to upload from your local drive

Enter Image Description and Tag list

Description

• enter a description for the Image (optional)

Is primary image

• tick the checkbox if this is the primary image
• there can only be 1 primary image per product
• (Note: if multiple Images are associated with a Product, the primary image can be the default Image displayed in the Channel)

Etag

• do not alter this field

Tag list

• a list of tags to reference your Image
• tags can be used to sort or filter Images in Channels
• to add a tag: Type in the tag name and press Enter

Apply Background colour to an Image
You can apply a background colour to an Image when you are adding it to a Product

Apply Background

• tick the checkbox to apply a background colour to an Image
• useful if you have PNG images with clear backgrounds, as these don’t display well on Channels
• a new, modified Image is created, while the original Image remains unchanged

Background colour

• enter the colour name or the hexadecimal code of the background colour

Processed Tags

• list of free-form tags that will be added to the newly created media item. The new Image (with a different background colour chosen above) will be populated with the tags in this field

Click Save

Edit Image

To edit an existing image:

1. Click on the ellipsis (…) at the end of the Image’s row and select Edit
2. The Edit Media Item box opens

the Edit Media Item options are the same as the New Media Item options

if you chose to “Upload a local image,” the URL field displays the address of the Amazon S3 server the Image was uploaded to

there is no need to “Choose file” unless you want to replace the existing Image

1. Click the Save button at the bottom right

Delete Image

1. Click on the ellipsis (…) next to the Image and select Delete
2. The Are you sure? box opens
   If you are certain you want to delete the Image, click OK

Warning

Deleting an Image is permanent

Video

New, Edit and Delete Video work the same way as New, Edit and Delete Image above.

Categories tab

The Categories tab displays all the Categories a Product is assigned to.

All Category Sets in the Comestri PIM will also be visible

A Product can be assigned to as many Categories as needed

When a Product is assigned to a Category, the Category tree will expand to display the level at which the Category is assigned

Add a Product to a Category

1. Tick the checkbox of the desired Category path
2. Click Update Product to save

Remove a Product from a Category

1. Click on the checkbox to remove the tick from the selected Category path
2. Click Update Product to save

Add a New Category

You can add a new Category to an existing Category Set via the Categories tab.

1. On the desired Category Set click the New Category button

Warning

Save the product by clicking

Update Product before adding a new Category.
Adding a new Category will cause the Product to reload, and any unsaved changes will be lost.

1. The New Category box opens
   Enter the following details:

Name 

• enter the name of the Category
• this must be unique at the selected level of the Category tree
• there can be multiple Categories with the same name, so long as they have different parents in the tree
• Required

Description – a description for the Category

Select a parent category 

• select the Category that is to be the parent of your new Category

1. Click Save

The Product will reload with the new Category added to the Category Set

Inventory tab

The Inventory tab displays a list of Inventory Sources for a SKU and the quantity of Inventory available at each Inventory Source. Totals are also displayed as explained below.

(Note: The Inventory tab will only appear if this type of “Data to include” has been added to the Product’s Class configuration.)

Total quantity – the total quantity of inventory in all Inventory Sources

Total online quantity – the total quantity of inventory in all Inventory Sources where the Inventory Sources are ticked “Online”

Total available quantity – the total of the “Available qty” fields in all Inventory Sources

New Inventory

To create new Inventory for a SKU:

1. Click the New Inventory button
2. The New Inventory page opens
   Enter the following details:

Inventory Source

• select an Inventory Source you have set up
• required

Qty

• enter the total quantity of the SKU available at this Inventory Source
• required

Available qty

• not used in most PIM configurations
• optional

Sku

• only used if different Inventory Sources use different SKU codes to refer to this SKU
• optional

Stock availability

• select if the SKU is “In stock” or “Out of stock”
• required

Style – select one of the following

• Dynamic – the Inventory quantity will change when purchases are made
• Static – the Inventory quantity for a product is fixed and will not change
• Perpetual – used for custom stock e.g. bespoke boots

Out of stock threshold

• how this value is used in Channels will depend on the mapping in each Channel
• can be used to mark a SKU as “Out of Stock” when the Inventory quantity drops below the threshold
• the purpose of this threshold is to prevent over-selling of a SKU when multiple orders are submitted from one or more websites or marketplaces simultaneously
• optional

Lead time (if Style is “Perpetual”)

• enter time taken to manufacture the custom SKU

Lead time unit (if Style is “Perpetual”)

• select the unit of time for lead time manufacture from “Months”, “Weeks”, “Days”, “Hours”

Dispatch time

• the number of Days / Hours needed to dispatch the SKU
• optional

Dispatch time unit

• the units the Dispatch time is measured in: Day or Hour
• optional

Unit cost

• define the cost of the SKU at this Inventory Source
• Note: this is the cost to your business; not the price displayed to a customer
• this cost can be used to determine where to source a SKU from, if the SKU is located in multiple Inventory Sources with different costs
• optional

Back/Pre order handling

• Pre orderable – select if the SKU is available for pre order
• Back orderable – select if the SKU is available for back order
• optional

Back/Pre order allocation (if “Pre orderable” or “Back orderable” is selected)

• enter the quantity of the Product available for pre order / back order
• optional

Stock arrival date (if “Pre orderable” or “Back orderable” is selected)

• enter or select the date that the stock arrives at the Inventory Source using the calendar widget
• optional

Source system stock timestamp

• enter or select the date on which the inventory was entered into the source system using the calendar widget
• optional

Click Save

Edit Inventory

To edit Inventory at an Inventory Source for a SKU:

1. Click on the Qty of the Inventory Source, or click on the ellipsis (…) next to the relevant Inventory Source and select Edit
2. The Edit Inventory page opens
   • the options for editing are the same as those for creating Manage Products New Inventory, above
   • make any required changes

Click Save

Delete Inventory

To delete Inventory at an Inventory Source for a SKU:

1. Click on the ellipsis (…) next to the relevant Inventory Source and select Delete
   
   

The Are you sure? box opens
If you are sure you want to delete the Inventory, click OK

Prices tab

The Prices tab displays details of all prices for a Product. You can add prices using any of the Price Books you have created.

Notes:

You can have one or more Prices listed

Prices can be active or inactive

Prices can have a date range for their application

You should have a Normal Price (per currency) for a Product

You may also want to add a Special/Sale Price for a Product

We recommend that you only have a single Price per Price Book, per Product, to ensure there is no conflict in pricing on export to a Channel

You can have multiple Prices in a single Price Book provided they are not for the same time period e.g. you cannot have 2 Prices in the same Price Book with the same From and To dates

New Price

1. Click the New Price button
2. The New Price box opens
   Enter the following details:

Amount

• enter the Price amount. This will be in the currency of the Price Book you select
• Required

Price book

• select from the Price Books you have created

From and To

• enter the start and end date/time for use of this Price
• neither field is required
• useful for Specials/Sale pricing that has a start/end date

Description

• enter a brief description of the Price
• not required

1. Click Save
2. The new Price has been added to your Product

Edit Price

1. Click on the Amount or on the ellipsis (…) for the relevant Product and select Edit

The Edit Price box opens

this box has the same options as the New Price box

complete as per the instructions for adding a New Price, above

Click Save

Delete Price

1. Click on the ellipsis (…) next to the relevant Price and select Delete
2. The Are you sure? box opens
   If you are certain you want to delete the Image, click OK
   

Warning

Deleting a Price is permanent

Shipping tab

The Shipping tab displays fields for entering both the standard and packed dimensions of the Product, as well as Shipping Zones.

This data relates to the cost of shipping a Product from a marketplace or e-commerce platform and the regions in which a Product can be shipped.

Dimension/Packed Dimension

Dimensions are displayed using the units selected in Global Settings

Dimensions are used to calculate the shipping cost

Packed Dimensions, if they are entered, will override (standard) Dimensions

Click Update Product to save

Shipping

Shipping Zones are the geographic zones this Product can ship to.

1. Select a Shipping Zone from the dropdown menu
2. Click the Update Product button to save your changes

Associated Products tab

The Associated Product tab displays a Product’s hierarchy structure in full.

(For a detailed explanation of the Comestri Product hierarchy see Product Model.)

Depending on the Product, the Associated Products tab may display any/all of three sub-sections:

Variation

• displays if this Product is part of a Class Structure with variations
• a Product can only belong to one Class Structure

Kit (abbreviation of Product Kit)

• only valid for SKU products
• displays if this Product is member of a Product Kit
• a SKU Product can belong to multiple Product Kits

Group (abbreviation of Grouped Product)

• displays if this Product belongs to a Grouped Product
• a Product can belong to multiple Grouped Products

From these sub-sections, you can carry out the following tasks:

Variation

• change to editing another listed variation of the Product, by clicking on the variation’s Code
• by clicking on the ellipsis (…) you can: Delete the association between a variant and its parent Product

Kit (abbreviation of Product Kit)

• change to editing the Product Kit, or a Product Kit member, by clicking on their Code
• by clicking on the ellipsis (…) you can: Edit the quantity of a Product Kit member in the Kit; Delete a Product Kit member from the Kit

Group (abbreviation of Grouped Product)

• change to editing the Grouped Product, or a Grouped Product member, by clicking on their Code
• by clicking on the ellipsis (…) you can: Edit the sort order of a Grouped Product member in the Group; Delete a Grouped Product member from the Group

The screens below show a Product that is:

a member of a Grouped Product

a member of a Product Kit

a variant of another parent Product

Add Variation/SKU

You can link the current Product to a child Variant/SKU Product.

Note

Variations are added to the current (highlighted) Product. If you need to add a variant to another level of the Product you will need to change to that level.

The Variant you are adding as a child must already exist.

1. Change to the Product level you need to add the Variant to (if that is not the current highlighted Product)

Click on the Add Variation/SKU button

The Add Variation/SKU page opens
Enter the following detail:

Product Code

• enter the Code of the Product that you want to link as a child variation/SKU to the Product you are currently editing
  e.g. If you are editing a Product at the Style Class level, you would link relevant Colour Class level Products as variants. Or, if you are editing a Colour Class Product, then you would link Size Class level Products as SKUs.
• this field links the child to its parent
• CANNOT be changed

Click Save

The new variation displays in the list of variations.

Add Kit Member

You can link the current Product Kit to a child SKU Product, which then becomes a member of the Kit.

1. Change to the Product Kit you need to add the Kit Member to (if that is not the current highlighted Product)

Click on the Add Kit Member button

The Add Kit Product page opens
Enter the following detail:

Product Code

• enter the Code of the SKU Product that you want to link as a Kit Member to the Product you are currently editing
• this field links the child to its parent

Quantity

• enter a number that represents the number of this SKU that will be added to the Product Kit

Click Save

The new Kit Member displays in the list of Kit Members.

Add Group Member

You can link the current Group Product to a child Product, which then becomes a member of the Group Product.

1. Change to the Group Product you need to add the Group Member to (if that is not the current highlighted Product)

Click on the Add Variation/SKU button

The Add Member page opens
Enter the following detail:

Product Code

• enter the Code of the Product that you want to link as a Group Member to the Product you are currently editing
• this field links a child to its parent
• CANNOT be changed

Sort Order

• add a number to define the Group Member’s sort order
• Group Members without a Sort Order number will sort below numbered Group Members

Click Save

The new Group Member displays in the list of Group Members.

Alias Products tab

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.

Note

The Alias Products tab only appears on Products that can be aliased.

Only SKU Products created from a SKU Class that has been marked “Yes, allow aliases” can be aliased.

To allow aliases of SKU Products, the relevant SKU Class must be marked “Yes, allow aliases” either via the New Class page or the Edit Class page.

Create New Alias Product

To create a new Alias Product:

1. On the Alias Products tab
   Click the New Alias Product button
2. The Add Member page opens
   Enter the following details:

Name – enter a name for the Alias Product

Code – enter a Product Code for the Alias Product

Status – select if the Alias Product is Active or Inactive

1. Click Create Alias Product
2. The Edit Alias Product page opens for the new Alias Product
3. You can edit fields under the General and Custom Attributes tabs to enrich the Alias Product.
   Media, Categories, Inventory and Prices details are inherited from the Master Product, and not editable here.
4. Remember to click Update Product to save any edits.
5. To return to the Master Product, click Edit product in the breadcrumbs

Change Log tab

The Change Log tab displays edits made to any field associated with a selected Product within the PIM. The data displayed is for information only.

Key to shading for listed items:

Green – indicates an addition

Yellow – indicates a change

Red – indicates a deletion

Product/Variant History

The Product/Variant History records changes in the primary attributes of a Product, e.g. id, code, name, brand, completeness.

History for associated data

The History for associated data records changes in the non-primary attributes of a Product e.g. catalog, categories, images, custom fields (e.g. description, colour, size), prices, inventory.

More History
Both of the sections above may have more history than is displayed.

1. Click on the More button at the bottom left of the section to access additional logged items.

If there is a lot of Product History, another More button may appear after the added history

If another More button does not appear, then no additional history is available

Export tab

The Export tab displays details of the Export Items created in a Channel for the selected Class level of a Product. The data displayed is for information only.

Each Channel the Product has been exported to will be listed separately.

Some Channels require only a single export item for a Product, while other Channels require a Product to be divided into multiple export items.

Introduction – Delete Product

In Comestri, you can manually delete a Product using the Comestri UI.

This method provides an easy way of deleting just a few Products, but it can be laborious if you want to remove a large number of Products. For bulk Product removal, we recommend that you upload a CSV file instead (see Manage Products via CSV).

Warning

Deleting a Product is permanent and should only be used if you are certain you will not need access to that Product data in the future.

We recommend that you make a Product inactive instead (see Manage Products > General tab), as this allows you to retain the data in Comestri while excluding it from marketplaces.

 

Delete Product

1. Click on Products in the left-hand menu and select Manage Products

1. The Manage Products page opens

Using the Search Products box, find the Product you want to delete

Click on the ellipsis (…) on the right-hand side of the relevant Product listing

Select Delete

The Are you sure? box opens
If you are certain you want to delete the Product, click OK

Note

You must delete all related levels of the Product i.e. if a Product colour is being removed, ensure that all related Product sizes are also removed.