Product catalog

The product catalog is your central workspace for managing all products and their variants. It provides a structured way to organize inventory, manage product data, and prepare products for passport publication.

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Catalog structure

Your catalog is organized in a two-level hierarchy:

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Products

Products represent a general item in your collection:

• Product name and description
• Primary product image
• Category classification
• Manufacturer assignment
• Season and collection grouping
• Shared attributes across all variants

Each product serves as a container for one or more variants.

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Variants

Variants represent specific SKUs or configurations of a product:

• Unique SKU and barcode identifiers
• Variant-specific attributes (size, color, style)
• Optional variant-level name and description overrides
• Variant-specific images
• Independent passport publication

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Creating products

You have multiple options for adding products to your catalog:

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Manual creation

Create products one at a time through the interface:

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Bulk import

Import multiple products simultaneously using structured Excel files:

• Download the import template with pre-defined columns
• Fill in product and variant data in the spreadsheet
• Upload the file for validation and processing
• Review any errors or warnings before confirming
• Products and variants are created automatically

Bulk import requirements

The bulk import validates data against your brand catalog:

• Materials must already exist in your materials catalog
• Operators must be defined in your operators catalog
• Manufacturers must exist in your manufacturers list
• Certifications must be set up before referencing in imports
• Product handles must be unique within your brand

The system provides detailed error messages for any validation failures, showing exactly which rows and columns need correction.

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Integration sync

Connect to external platforms to automatically sync products:

• Connect Shopify or other e-commerce platforms
• Products are created automatically when synced
• Field mappings control how external data populates product fields
• Source tracking maintains the link between systems
• Synced products are marked with their integration source

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Product handles

Every product has a unique handle:

• URL-friendly identifier (lowercase, hyphens, no spaces)
• Unique within your brand
• Used in product URLs within the Avelero platform
• Can be manually set or auto-generated from the product name

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Organizing products

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Categories

Classify products using taxonomy categories:

• Standardized taxonomy aligned with industry standards
• Hierarchical category structure
• Helps with filtering and organization
• Required for certain compliance reporting

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Seasons

Group products by collection or season:

• Create custom seasons in your brand catalog
• Useful for organizing by launch date or collection
• Filter catalog views by season
• Helps track which products are current vs. archived

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Tags

Add flexible, freeform tags to products:

• Create custom tags relevant to your workflow
• Tag products with multiple labels
• Filter and search by tags
• Useful for internal categorization beyond formal taxonomy

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Manufacturers

Assign products to manufacturers:

• Link each product to a manufacturer from your catalog
• Manufacturer details appear on the passport
• Filter products by manufacturer
• Track production across different facilities

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Variant management

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Variant attributes

Each variant can have up to three custom attributes:

• Common examples: Size, Color, Style
• Attribute names and values are flexible
• Display on the passport to differentiate variants
• Used for filtering and organization

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Ghost variants

The system automatically creates “ghost” variants when needed:

• Created for products without explicit variants
• Invisible in the user interface
• Exist solely for passport publishing purposes
• Ensure every product can have a publishable passport

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Variant identifiers

Variants support multiple identifier types:

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Filtering and search

Find products quickly using multiple filter options:

• Text search: Search by product name or handle
• Status filter: View published, unpublished, or scheduled products
• Category filter: Filter by taxonomy category
• Season filter: Show products from specific seasons
• Tag filter: Filter by assigned tags
• Manufacturer filter: View products from specific manufacturers

Filters can be combined to narrow down results.

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Bulk operations

Perform actions on multiple products at once:

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Bulk publish

• Select multiple products
• Publish all their passports simultaneously
• Each variant gets a UPID and becomes publicly accessible

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Bulk export

• Export product data to Excel format
• Choose which fields to include
• Use for analysis, backup, or migration

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Bulk QR code generation

• Generate QR codes for multiple variants
• Download as a batch in your preferred format
• Useful for printing labels or tags for entire collections

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Bulk delete

• Remove multiple products from the catalog
• Confirmation required to prevent accidental deletion
• Associated variants and data are cascaded appropriately

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Product status

Products can be in one of three publication states:

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Unpublished

The default state for new products:

• Product exists in your catalog
• Data is being prepared or is incomplete
• No public passport exists yet
• Not visible to end consumers

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Published

Products with active, live passports:

• All variants have published passports with UPIDs
• Publicly accessible via passport URLs
• QR codes resolve to passport pages
• Data is visible to consumers

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Scheduled

A visual indicator for planned publication:

• Behaves the same as unpublished
• Helps teams track products ready for future publication
• No automatic publishing occurs (manual action required)

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Source tracking

The catalog tracks where each product originated:

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Manual products

• Created directly in Avelero interface
• Created via bulk import upload
• Full editing control
• No external sync dependencies

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Integration products

• Created by connected integrations (Shopify, etc.)
• Source integration is tracked in the database
• May have sync policies that affect editability
• Can be unlinked from the source if needed

Integration sync behavior

When a product is synced from an integration:

• The product is marked with the source integration ID
• Field configurations determine which fields sync
• You can still manually edit integration-sourced products
• Sync policies control whether manual edits are preserved or overwritten
• Unlinking from the source converts the product to manual mode

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Data validation

The catalog enforces data quality rules:

• Product handles must be unique within your brand
• Barcodes must be unique across all variants in your brand
• Material percentages are validated
• Referenced catalog items (materials, operators) must exist
• Required fields must be completed before publishing

Validation errors are surfaced immediately with clear guidance on how to fix them.