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Product Catalogue

Product Catalogue

Before creating any new products in CRM.COM, it's important to read the Business Network manual and understand the organisational structure. This is because the level at which a product is defined has an impact on its availability for ordering. For example, if you're using a multi-merchant setup, you may need to masquerade to another organisational level to create the products.

In summary, any products created at the Business level will be available for ordering from all Merchants/Service Providers of that Business. However, any products created at the Merchant/Service Provider level will only be available for ordering through that particular Merchant/Service Provider.


THE ESSENTIALS

These are the most common key terms used throughout CRM.COM regarding Products.

Product Catalogue

The product catalogue in CRM.COM is a list of products from which an organisation’s contacts can choose to order. Refer to Creating Products to configure the products for the product catalogue.

Order Catalogue

An order catalogue is a set of products selected from the product catalogue available for ordering based on the supply method and specific day/time settings, e.g. a restaurant business could configure a separate order catalogue for lunch and dinner on weekdays and another for weekend brunch.

Multiple order catalogues with overlapping days and times can be configured. In such cases, the Contact will be prompted to select from which order catalogue they wish to place an order. Learn more about order catalogues and how they are configured below.

SKU

A unique code to identify products throughout the system, and useful for external integration systems.

Type

The Type of the Product determines its overall properties and behaviour throughout the system. The product type Classification, Composition Method, and Characteristics settings determine the features which can be defined for products of the specific type.

Classification

Product types are classified as follows:

  • Traceable physical goods - Physical goods that can be traced through a unique identifier (serial number), e.g., installation items and decoders.

  • Non-traceable physical goods - Physical goods which can be traced to a single instance and are measured based on quantity (e.g. magazines).

  • Termed Service - Services provided continuously and billed for a recurring period, regardless of usage (e.g. a TV channel).

  • Usage Service - Services provided upon request and billed according to their usage/consumption, such as telephone calls, internet or petrol refuelling.

  • One-Time Service - Services provided and billed once with a specific amount and duration, e.g. duration of time required for an installation service.

  • Expense Service - Services provided and typically billed once for a fixed amount, such as an installation fee, a penalty fee etc. Expenses can also be billed on a recurring basis (e.g. a rental fee) but always based on a fixed amount.

Composition Method

The product composition determines whether a product is offered as a standalone product or as part of a bundle of products.

  • Flat - a single, flat service or physical good

  • Fixed Bundle - A selection of flat products offered as one Product

    • Cannot include Expense Service or Usage Service products

    • The price represents the bundle price and not the individual products

    • The bundle product is the provisionable Product for which stock is maintained (if a physical good and if stockable)

    • Can include a combination of physical goods and services, e.g. a decoder and an installation service

  • Flexible Bundle - A variable selection of flat products that are customisable 

    • Cannot include Expense Service or Usage Service products

    • The bundle’s components are selected at the time of ordering

    • Prices can be specified on both the bundle and its products

    • Provisioning is applied to the bundle components (and not to the bundle itself)

    • The flexible bundle product is included in stock balance calculations

    • Can include a combination of physical goods and services, e.g. a decoder and an installation service

  • Composite - A product sold in multiple variations

    • Must be a physical good

    • Has a set of characteristics, each one having multiple values that define the multiple variations in which the Product is sold (e.g. the size, which can be Small, Medium, or Large and its colour, which can be White or Red)

    • Each variant product has its own SKU and, optionally, a price

    • If stockable, the total stock balance of the variant product is the stock balance of the composite Product

    • A composite Product has a set of modifiers

      • A modifier product is a product that is not sold individually but only as part of a composite product (e.g. cheese is only sold as part of a pizza)

      • A modifier product is classified through its product Type

      • Can optionally have its own price

    • A Composite product type might be marked as provisionable (e.g. STBs). However, the composite Product, as such, does not have any provisioning parameters (external references), but its variant products will do

Characteristics

A Characteristic represents another attribute of a product, such as its size or colour, which is selectable during ordering.

Refer to the system Settings to see how to configure product Types.

Family

Families can be defined to group products with similar characteristics, such as decoders or televisions. Each Product can belong to a single family. Families can also be used to identify products for reward offers or promotional purposes. Refer to Settings for configuration.

Brand

Commercial brands can be assigned to products, each Product can have only one brand. Brands are used throughout the software, e.g. for analytics or reward offer purposes.

Category

Categories provide a business classification to products and can be used for analytics or reward offer definitions. Each Product can belong to multiple categories. Categories can be created in a hierarchical structure, refer to Settings for configuration.

Modifiers & Components

Modifiers and Components can be configured for products with a composition method of Fixed Bundle, Flexible Bundle, or Composite. This allows customers to select add-ons to a main product during ordering. The composition methods for products are defined using Product Types.

Modifiers - Modifier products are flat products that cannot be sold separately but only as part of a composite product. During ordering, the Contact can view the available modifiers for the selected Product and choose those required for the order.

Example

The ‘Classic Pizza’ product is a composite product with modifiers for ‘Size', ‘Crust type’, ‘Extra toppings’ etc. which are sold as part of the pizza, but cannot be sold individually. During ordering however, the Contact can choose which pizza size, crust type and extra toppings they wish to order.

Components - If the main Product is a bundle type product, then it can be sold in conjunction with other component products too (i.e. a component product can be sold as part of a bundle but also on its own).

Example

‘Basic Plan’ is a subscription bundle, Contacts purchasing the ‘Basic Plan' subscription can optionally add-on ‘Kids TV’ channel at an additional cost. 'Kids TV’ is a product in itself, which can also be sold separately.

Refer to the Settings configuration at the end of this document for further information.

Up-sell Products

Sales gimmick to promote products that could be offered as an upgrade (i.e. an alternative, more expensive Product), as opposed to the selected Product for ordering, e.g. recommend the ‘Telephony & Internet’ package as opposed to the ‘Telephony’ package chosen by the Contact. Up-sell products are defined on the respective product screen and appear in the shopping cart screen when ordering using apps/portals.

Cross-sell Products

A sales gimmick to promote products that could be sold in conjunction with the Contact’s selected Product, e.g., recommending a cell phone cover when purchasing a smartphone. Cross-sell products are defined on the respective product screen and appear on the shopping cart screen when ordering using apps/portals.

Component Sets

Component sets allow the grouping of a set of products to be optionally added to another product (of type Flexible Bundle or Composite) and subsequently selected during ordering. For example, define a component set with the milk options for coffee or the add-on channels for a TV subscription service.

Price Rate Models

Price rate models offer four different product pricing methods.

  • Flat - A single flat price is defined and multiplied by the quantity ordered

  • Tiered - Multiple quantity-based tiers are defined, with varying prices, the purchased Product could be charged at multiple prices, starting from the lowest tier and moving upwards

  • Volume - Multiple quantity-based ranges are defined with varying prices, a single range is identified based on the purchased quantity and the same price is charged per Product

  • Stair-step - Multiple quantity-based ranges are defined with varying prices, a single range is identified and charged as a flat fee for the total purchased quantity

Refer to the Pricing manual for a detailed explanation of the price rate models.

Promotions

Promotions are unrelated to reward schemes and apply an instant discount to the shopping cart total or to selected products in the shopping cart. Refer to the Promotions manual for further information.

Dependencies

Dependency Rules have dual purposes. They can be used to define a set of pre-requisite products that a Contact must have already purchased or rented in order to purchase another product, or alternatively, they can be used to define which service products cannot coexist for the same subscription.

Dependency Rules are applied when purchasing services or physical goods. Refer to the Subscriptions manual for more information about service subscriptions.

Product Tiering

Product tiers are only used for termed services and define the permitted changes between subscription services. See the Subscriptions manual for information on tier paths.

Measurement Units

Measurement units are the defined units for a usage service quantity, e.g. GB of data or litres of fuel. Measurement units are used when setting up the usage allowance of a usage service - i.e. how much a contact can consume within a set period. They are also vital in setting up pricing information since a price for such services is set per its measurement unit.

Allowance

Allowances are the non-traceable physical goods or services with their respective volumes, which can be consumed within a period of time as part of a subscription service purchased by a Contact. Usage allowance settings can be configured for termed or one-time service products.

Provisioning

Provisioning is clearly related to subscriptions, it’s the action of providing or disconnecting a subscription service for a Contact. In CRM.COM, only products of type Traceable Physical Goods, Termed and One-Time Services can be provisioned. Provisioning integrators are defined at the product level on the product definition screen.

Synchronising Products

This is the process of establishing data consistency between products defined on an external integration system (source) database and CRM.COM (destination) database. Product synchronisation updates the products in CRM.COM either through an API call or when a product file is imported. Settings can be configured to handle new and existing products. In short:

  • New products are created in CRM.COM along with their accompanying definitions - e.g. a new product, ‘Homemade Lemonade’, is created along with a new product category, ‘Cold Drinks’

  • Existing products in CRM.COM are updated using the transmitted data - e.g. the description and price of ‘Forest Fruit Smoothie’ is updated

  • A Product Synchronisation automation can also be configured, which is triggered when the product synchronisation API is called to carry out further actions.


Managing the Product Catalogue

Navigate to Commerce > Products > Products Catalogue to see and manage existing products. If you want to create products for a specific merchant/service provider, then masquerade to the merchant/service provider level first, then navigate to the products screen.