Item
Item
The Item entity is the main entity within master data management for retailers. It is the entity used to provide information about any product or service upon which there is a need to retrieve predefined information that may be priced, ordered or invoiced at any point in any supply chain.
It is also the main entity for rapidly changing master data and is the base for most retail operations. An item can be of several types where a normal StockItem is the most common. Other types of items can be used to represent services or bundles of products, model definitions to related products of different sizes, colors, styles and fragrances.
Also see GS1 Product specification
Please note that the GS1 specification calls this entity Product, but because of internal naming conventions we classify this entity as Item with the possible sub type of Service which is not directly supported by the GS1 standard.
Item Types
Item types exist to provide easily identifiable items and to allow specific functionality in consuming systems. This can be to require the item to be placed on a scale (WeightItem) or to identify it as a variant of an item (Model). It can also be to indicate that it is not a physical product, but a service (Service)
| Item type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
STOCK | Normal retail item. Sale and stock keeping can be maintained on the same item. |  |
SERVICE | A service represents an item that is not possible to keep in stock, but provided as a service to the customer. |  |
MODEL | Grouping structure for sport/fashion items. The model can not be sold, but one of the model's size, color variants will actually be sold. |  |
DEPOSIT | An item that has it sole purpose of identifying a deposit receipt when scanned in the POS. This item will have a unique barcode identifier that allows a negative price within the barcode. |  |
SERIALIZED | One-off items with a serialized generated code. Gift cards and prepaid phone cards, etc. |  |
Statuses
The Status is used to manage the lifespan of an Item. Some statuses will be more in use than others, and some might not even be relevant for your business. See the diagram below for more details.
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
ACTIVE | Active means the entity is active and available for normal operation. It can be used, processed and displayed as expected. |
DISCONTINUED | Discontinued indicates that the entity has actively been deprecated and the state should be considered very close to Deleted. Often this state is used on Items when they need to sell the item in POS to clear out stock, but it should not be possible to order the Item. |
DELETED | Deleted indicates that the entity is deleted and should not be used. It may be displayed but it should never be part of active results or part of business logic unless it actually is to return it to an active state. |
STOPPED | Severe status for recalled items where sale should never be allowed and the item must be removed from the shelves. Reason code MUST be attached.. |