Table of Contents

Products

Cory M. Updated by Cory M.

Products, commonly known also as "SKUs", represent each unique, shippable type of item that can be received, inventoried, or shipped. A Product must belong to a single Merchant and cannot be reassigned to another Merchant.

The SKU field of a product is a unique identifier amongst products belonging to the same Merchant, therefore it is possible that multiple merchants have different products with the same SKU, but not that one Merchant has different products with the same SKU. Relationships between like SKUs that represent different quantities of the same underlying product are managed with Quantity-type BOMs.

See Import Products for a guide on formatting and submitting a bulk product import.
Packaging Features are another type of entity in ShipStream that are similar to Products but are used to represent additional accessories or services that may be required during packing and are typically not made available for sale to end customers. Examples include special services like gift wrapping, collection of serial numbers, packing infill, and much more.

How to Create a Product

  1. Navigate to Catalog > Products and click Add Product at the top right of the window.
  2. Set your desired Merchant (from whom the product will be available), any customized attributes, then click Continue.
  3. Fill out the General section of Product Information. You can also set new attributes
  4. Click Save or Save and Continue Edit if you wish to continue setting product specifications.
  5. If you would like to set a thumbnail for the product, go to Images from the left side menu while creating your product. Then browse for a product image to upload and then click Upload Files. An image item will appear in the list of images and you can choose to make it the Base Image or Thumbnail in the store or None.
  6. To order this product you will need to set the Inventory count and location. To do this, go to Inventory from the left side menu.
  7. Choose whether or not the proceeding steps will determine the stock of the product by selecting Yes from the Manage Stock selector.
  8. Scroll to the warehouse at which the item will be stocked, type in the location name, and click Assign Location to set a new physical location for the product. You can set more than one.
  9. Click Count to the right of the newly assigned location and fill in the amount in-stock and a reason for the amount chosen.
  10. Save your work. You will now be able to order this product.

View / Modify a Product

A product can be viewed by first navigating to Catalog > Products and then clicking on a product in the Manage Products Grid.

Once you are viewing an individual product, you will see a list of options in the left side menu under “Product Information.” These options allow you to view or modify the product specifications using the fields shown in the main content.

These are the Tabs on the left side menu that you can configure in the Product View:

  • General - Set basic product descriptions.
  • Export - Configure product export and country of origin information.
  • Bill of Materials (BOM) - Set automatic reorder configurations and create BOM connections with products from your inventory.
  • Packaging - Set specific package requirements.
  • Images - Collect product images and thumbnails.
  • Inventory - View inventory report of item and assign to warehouses and locations.
  • Stock Movements - View reports on the products availability, status, and movement.
  • Deliveries - View deliveries of the product.
  • History - View a detailed history of the product and any updates recorded.

General Product Information

  • Name - The name of the item being sold. This will be presented to pickers and packers and also will appear on packing slips.
  • SKU - This is the SKU of the item which is commonly used as the unique identifier to associate the product with third-party integrations.
  • Vendor SKU - Entering the SKU as used by the vendor will help identify incoming inventory during delivery processing. For Amazon products the ASIN should be specified in the Vendor SKU if not in the SKU field.
  • Barcode - Enter one or more barcode values that uniquely identify the product. This should appear on the product.
  • Goods Type - This indicates if the product belongs to any hazardous materials classes. See Dangerous Goods.
To use a pre-selected Default Goods Type for new products, set this value at System > Configuration > Catalog > Products > Default Goods Type. This default value will also be used when importing products with an empty Goods Type value.
  • Status - Setting this to Disabled will cause the product to be deactivated. It can be reenabled.
  • Availability - Choosing "Not Available" will prevent the product from being included on any new orders.
  • Visibility - This will determine if the product is visible in the product listings or not.
  • Weight - An accurate product weight will help ensure accurate rate quotes, avoid surcharges, determine Packing Solutions and catch errors using weight checks. All common units are supported but must be enabled in the system configuration.
  • Dimensions - Like the weight, accurate dimensions are very important and all common units of measure are supported if enabled in the system configuration.
  • External ID - This field is available to use for any purpose such as syncing to an external service that does not have matching SKUs.
  • Lot Type - Choose a user-defined Lot Type to enable lot/expiration/origination tracking for this SKU.

Export

When setting up a product for international shipping, it is necessary to specify the Export information first. This information can be gathered from many online sources, but one place to start is the Federal Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) Database for exporting from the US.

Using the search results from the HTS Database, fill out the following form fields:

  • Description of Goods for Export - This varies in length and is referred to as the "Article Description" at the HTS Database.
  • Customs Value USD - This is a US Dollar amount that describes the product's value.
  • Country of Manufacture - This will be the country that the product was manufactured in, not distributed from.
  • HTS Base Code - This is 6-digit code found using a search tool or HTS Code database from the country exporting the product. The format of this number is ####.##
    Any digits after the first six are used to further refine the language agreed upon for the exporting goods within the country of origin. This means that the country code could vary depending on where the product is shipping from.
  • HTS Country Code - This would comprise of any additional digits after the Base Code that designates the country of export

Products Grid

The products grid view shows all items whether they are available or not. You can use Mass-Actions to perform updates on many products at once. See Grid View and Advanced Grid Filters to get the most out of using the grids.

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