Managing the Product Catalog

Goflow supports several catalog types, but the Product Catalog is the master catalog. The product serves as the central hub where all product information is stored and maintained, powering every listing, purchase, sale, and inventory update.

Other catalog types extend your products into different parts of your business by connecting with sales channels, suppliers, 3PL warehouses, and accounting systems. Each of these catalogs links back to your central product catalog:

• Listings - Store catalogs that represent your products on each sales channel.
• Vendor Products - Catalogs that show the items your suppliers offer along with their pricing and availability.
• 3PL Products - Catalogs of your products stored at 3PL warehouses.
• Accounting Products - Catalog of items in your accounting system. Used to sync transactions with accounting.

Understanding Product Types

Goflow supports three product types:

• Standard - A standalone product traded as a single unit in one box, for example, a watch. Standard products also serve as the components that make up kit and group products.
• Kit - Bundled products that are physically packaged together and shipped as a single unit in one box. For example, a camera starter kit that includes a camera, lens, and carrying case. Kits maintain their own inventory and cost, with stock transferred between the kit and its components when the kit is assembled or disassembled.
• Group - Bundled products that are not physically packaged together, but virtually link multiple different products into a combined offering. For example, a dining set may include a table and chairs that ship separately but are sold as one product. Groups do not maintain their own inventory and cost, but pool inventory with their children.

Choosing the right product type is essential, as each one behaves differently in purchasing, inventory management, and order fulfillment.

Consider how you plan to purchase, stock, and sell the product when deciding which product type is most appropriate:

• Transformation - Do you purchase the product from your supplier in the same form that you sell it, or does it need to be assembled, broken down, repackaged? If transformation is required, the product should be set up as a kit.
• Boxes - Does the product ship in a single box, or does it require multiple boxes? A pair of shoes that fits neatly into one box should be set up as a standard product, while a chair with a seat and back that ship in separate boxes should be set up as a group.
• Packaging - Do you pre-package the bundled items ahead of time, or are they brought together only at the time of shipping? For example, a water bottle with a carrying sleeve that are packaged together in advance should be set up as a kit, while a bottle and sleeve picked separately from inventory during order fulfillment should be set up as a group.
• Offsite - Do you fulfill products from your own warehouse, or stock them at a 3PL, FBA, or WFS? If products must be pre-packaged as bundles before being sent off to the offsite facility, set them up as kits.

Ultimately, the product type depends on how you plan to manage the product. A scarf and hat could be a standard product if you purchase and sell them together as a fixed set. They could be a kit if you source the scarf and hat separately and assemble them into a bundled offering. Or they could be a group if you also want to sell each piece individually while pooling inventory between standalone scarves, standalone hats, and scarf-and-hat sets.

The table below summarizes the product types:

Criteria	Standard	Kit	Group
Single unit	Yes	Yes	No
Own Inventory	Yes	Yes	No
Assembled	No	Yes	No
Multi-box	No	No	Yes
FBA / 3PL	Yes	Yes	No

If you sell multipacks of the same product, you don’t need to create separate group products for each pack size. Instead, define multiple units of measure on the standard product.

Creating and Managing Products

You can create and manage standard products individually, in bulk using a CSV file, or programmatically through the Goflow API.

Item Numbers cannot be changed. Carefully plan your product naming conventions before creating new products.

Creating a Standard Product

To create a new standard product, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Catalog › Products.
2. Click New Product in the upper-right corner.
3. Choose Create Standard Product from the available options.
4. On the SKU card, enter the Item Number.
5. Fill in any additional product fields.
6. Click Save to create the product.

You can always edit the product later to add or update details such as descriptions, dimensions, and pricing.

Creating a Kit Product

To create a new kit product, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Catalog › Products.
2. Click New Product in the upper-right corner.
3. Choose Create Kit from the available options.
4. On the SKU card, enter the kit parent Item Number.
5. On the Kit Children card, select the child products to include in the kit and specify the quantity of each.
6. Fill in any additional product fields.
7. Click Save to create the kit.

Creating a Group Product

To create a new group product, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Catalog › Products.
2. Click New Product in the upper-right corner.
3. Choose Create Group from the available options.
4. On the SKU card, enter the group parent Item Number.
5. On the Group Children card, select the child products to include in the group and specify the quantity of each.
6. Fill in any additional product fields.
7. Click Save to create the group.

Cloning Existing Products

Quickly create new products by cloning existing ones and making only minimal adjustments. This is especially useful for setting up multiple variations of a base product. When you clone a product, all product fields from the original are prefilled, except those fields that should be unique, such as Item Number, product identifiers, and product images.

To clone a product, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Catalog › Products and open the product you want to copy.
2. In the upper-right corner, click the three-dot menu and select Clone Product.
3. Update any product fields that differ from the original.
4. Enter a unique Item Number, and click Save to create the new product.

When cloning a kit or group product, you can change its type between Kit and Group. This is useful for creating identical bundles in both product types.

Editing an Existing Product

To update product fields, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Catalog › Products and open the product.
2. Click the pencil icon in the upper-right corner of the section you want to edit.
3. Make your changes, and click Save.

Updating Kit Children

To update the child products of a kit, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Catalog › Products and open the kit product.
2. On the Kit Children card, click the pencil icon in the upper-right corner.
3. Update the child products and specify the quantity of each.
4. Click Save to apply the changes.

You cannot modify the composition of a kit once it has been disassembled.

Updating Group Children

To update the child products of a group, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Catalog › Products and open the group product.
2. On the Group Children card, click the pencil icon in the upper-right corner.
3. Update the child products and specify the quantity of each.
4. Click Save to apply the changes.

Updates to the composition of a group will also apply to any open orders containing that group.

Deactivating a Product

If you no longer carry a product, you can mark it as Inactive. Follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Catalog › Products and open the product.
2. In the Status section, click the pencil icon in the upper-right corner.
3. Change the status to Inactive, and click Save.

Deactivating a product will not delete it from your catalog. You can reactivate it at any time by following the same steps. Inactive products remain in your catalog for reference and reporting but cannot be used in new transactions.

When a product is deactivated, all of its listing mappings are removed.

Products with ongoing activity cannot be deactivated. To deactivate, the product must meet all of the following conditions:

• Zero Inventory - The product must have no stock on hand; neither positive nor negative quantities.
• Closed Transactions - The product cannot be part of any open order, shipment, or purchase.
• Not a Child - The product cannot be a child of an active kit or group product.

The products page is filtered by default to show only active products. To view inactive ones, remove the Active filter.