This article explains the process of integrating and updating product and pricing information in Zomentum using a third-party product catalog service. Understanding this flow is crucial for handling product information accurately and efficiently.
How the Third-Party Catalog Integration Works
Step 1: Search String Submission
Process: When you need to add a new product to your quote or proposal in Zomentum, you start by submitting a search string via the Zomentum interface.
Action: This search string is sent to third-party product catalog.
Step 2: Conversion to Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs) and SKUs
Process: Third-party catalog processes the search string and converts it into relevant Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs). Along with MPNs, third-party catalog provides associated distributor-specific Stock Keeping Units (SKUs).
Details: The MPN represents the manufacturer's unique identifier for the product, while the SKU is specific to each distributor and crucial for the next steps in the process.
Step 3: Price and Availability Check
Process: Zomentum uses the SKUs provided by the third-party catalog to query distributors for current price and availability.
Constraint: It is important to note that only SKUs can be sent to distributor APIs for querying price and availability, not the MPNs.
Step 4: Handling Limitations and Issues
Issue 1: At times, the third-party catalog may not have a SKU from a specific distributor for the MPN in question. This can result in the inability to fetch price and availability for that distributor.
Issue 2: If manufacturers have not provided any, correct, or updated product information to the third-party catalog, there may be no result at all from the search string query.
Resolution: These issues need to be resolved between the third-party catalog, the manufacturers, and the distributors. Zomentum does not have control over this aspect of the data integration and cannot directly resolve these discrepancies. You can try contacting your distributor or the manufacturer to help with this.
Clarifying Note on Search String Handling
Fallback Process: If no product results are returned by the third-party catalog for a particular search string, Zomentum will attempt to send the string directly to the distributors in case it corresponds to an actual SKU.
Data Limitation: In such cases, while the price and stock information may be returned, enriched data such as images or detailed descriptions will not be provided since there was no corresponding result from the third-party catalog.
Why Issues May Arise and Responsibility Clarification
Data Gaps: The primary reason issues arise in this process is due to gaps in the data linkage between the third-party catalog, the manufacturers, and the distributor’s inventory systems. If the third-party catalog does not have updated or complete SKU information for a distributor, Zomentum cannot retrieve accurate pricing or availability data.
Responsibility: The responsibility to resolve these data discrepancies lies between the third-party catalog, the manufacturers, and the distributors. Zomentum relies on the accuracy and completeness of the data provided by the third-party catalog and consequently by the manufacturers and distributors.
Limitations of Sorting by Price in the Global Product Catalog
We understand the convenience and necessity of sorting products by price while browsing through a catalog. This feature is readily available when shopping on individual distributor websites or within your personal 'Self' catalogue on Zomentum. Here, because all relevant data is stored in one place, the system can easily sort, filter, and display products based on price.
Why Sorting by Price is Challenging in the Global Catalog
However, the Global Product Catalog poses unique challenges that affect our ability to provide immediate sorting by price:
- Real-time Data Queries: Unlike a single distributor's catalog, the Global Product Catalog integrates multiple distributors and requires real-time querying of prices and stock levels. Each product's price and availability must be fetched individually from each distributor's API when you search for items.
- Performance and Speed: The performance impact of querying multiple distributors' APIs simultaneously is significant. Many of these APIs do not respond instantaneously, which can slow down the retrieval and display of data.
- Pagination of Results: Due to the vast number of products and the performance costs associated with real-time data fetching, results in the Global Catalog are paginated. This means that we fetch only the data necessary for displaying a single page of results at a time. When you reach the bottom of a page and see 'loading more products,' it indicates that the system is fetching the next set of data.
- Sorting Limitations: Given that we only fetch a page of data at a time, sorting by price at this level would only apply to that limited set of products. This could lead to a misleading impression that these are the only products available within a certain price range, or that they are the lowest or highest priced options overall.
Conclusion
Understanding the integration process between Zomentum, the third-party catalog, and distributors is crucial for managing your product catalog effectively. While Zomentum facilitates the use of the third-party catalog's extensive product database, limitations due to missing SKUs must be managed through appropriate channels between the third-party catalog, the manufacturers, and the distributors. This knowledge base article aims to clarify the process and outline the scope of responsibility to help you manage your product listings more effectively.
For more detailed information or specific issues, please contact Zomentum support.