Purpose, Active Data Calculations, and Availability
This table describes how B2C Commerce product types are presented on the storefront, how they relate to inventory and availability, and how products within orders are recorded and analyzed.
You can access catalog, category, and product details programmatically via the APIs and system attributes.
Purpose, Active Data Calculation, and Availability
| Purpose |
Active Data Calculation |
Availability | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Product | Any product that is sold and shown alone and does not have variations, such as different sizes or colors. If you include a standard product in a product set or product bundle, it's considered a set product or bundled product. Set products and bundled products are not a standard product. | Calculated as a single product. | Product is available based on the product inventory record. |
| Base Product |
A product that represents all the variations for a particular product. For example, a specific style of t-shirt. A base product can't be purchased directly, only product variations with specific variation information can be purchased. For example, if a base product has color and size variation attributes, you must specify the color and size of a specific variant to purchase it. If you have more than three variation attributes, you can consider using options. |
For most metrics, calculated as the average of the variation products. | If at least one of its variants is orderable or in-stock, a base
product is considered orderable or in stock. If the base product has its own inventory record, then inventory values are calculated based on the base product's inventory record. The calculations don't include variation product inventory. If the Base product doesn't have its own inventory record, then the inventory values are calculated based on the inventory records of all the variants. |
| Variation Group | A variation group is a group of product SKUs that shares a common attribute, such as color or size. It always belongs to a base product and represents a group of variation products. | For most metrics, calculated as the aggregation of the variants in the group. | Calculated as the availability of any variants in the group. |
| Variation Product |
A product that is a specific variation. For example, a Vegas brand t-shirt in size 10, color blue is a product variation of the Vegas brand t-shirt base product. Variation products associated with the same variation base product share most of the attributes defined for the product base product, but have their own product IDs and images. |
For most metrics, not calculated. | A variation product is considered orderable or in stock based on its inventory record. |
| Product Set | A product that includes several products that appear together and can be purchased together or separately. For example, an accessories kit that includes a hairbrush, comb, and mirror, each of which can also be bought separately. Another common example is an outfit, with a jacket, shirt, and pants, which can be purchased together or each item can be purchased separately. | For most metrics, calculated as the average of products in the set. | If at least one of the product set items is orderable or in-stock, a product set is considered orderable or in stock. |
| Product Bundle | A product that includes several products that are only sold together. For example, a gaming bundle that includes a video game console and several games. | Calculated as a single product. Identical to standard product calculations. |
If a bundle has its own inventory record, both the bundle and the bundled products must be available for a bundle to be considered orderable or in stock. If a bundle has its own inventory record and the Use Bundle Inventory Only option is selected in the inventory list, the bundle must be available. Bundled products are considered orderable and in stock even when products are not available. If a bundle has no inventory record, only the records of bundled products are used to determine availability. |