SKUs can be related to each other using various relationship definitions. Let us consider a scenario where you are searching for a product on an e-commerce website and you will notice that based on the product selected, a list of products related to the item selected will be displayed. Sometimes, these products will be displayed under a heading stating ‘Customers who viewed this item also viewed’ indicating that these other products being displayed are related to the main product searched. For example, if you are searching for a rose gold dial watch from a particular brand on an e-commerce site, a list of similar watches having rose gold dial from the same brand may be displayed along with other items such as a watch box case, which can be purchased with the watch to store it. These other products are displayed based on the relationship that is defined between these SKUs.
In PCC, you can define relationships between SKUs. Relationships (which can be added for SKUs) is defined in relationship master. A relationship master is a central repository where all the relationship verbiage, that is, the way in which SKUs are related to each other is defined. The terminology used to define relationships between SKUs is Relationship Verbiage/Reciprocal Relationship Verbiage. For example, if a SKU 1001 is related to SKU 1002, the SKU 1002 automatically also becomes related to SKU 1001. You can define the relationship by adding the relationship as needed between SKUs in the relationship master. For example, a rose gold watch with SKU ID 1001 is bundled with a watch box case with SKU ID 1002. So, automatically the reverse relationship for a watch box case with SKU ID 1002 is that it is bundled for a rose gold watch with SKU ID 1001. Thus, you can define bundled with as the Relationship Verbiage and bundled for as the Reciprocal Relationship Verbiage. Thus, these terms can be defined as needed based on the relationship being set between the SKUs.
NOTE | You can use the relationship verbiage/reciprocal relationship verbiage added in the relationship master while creating a SKU relationship. However, you can also add a new relationship verbiage when you are creating the SKU relationship. |
Let us understand how to add, edit and delete relationship verbiage in the relationship master as explained in the following sections:
Once the relationship verbiage is defined in the master, you can then establish relationships between SKUs using these verbiages, that is, you can add, edit and delete SKU relationships as explained in the following sections:
Adding a Relationship Verbiage in Relationship Master
You can add new relationship verbiage in the repository. A
To add a relationship verbiage:
Open the Catalog and on the middle panel, click the Relationship Master icon
on the upper-right corner of the SKU panel as shown below.
The following panel is displayed.
A list of relationship verbiage, if added already is displayed.
Click the Add More Relationship
icon to add a new verbiage. The following dialog box appears.
Type the Relationship Verbiage and Reciprocal Relationship Verbiage to be used while adding a SKU relationship. For example, let us add Bundled with as the Relationship Verbiage and Bundled for as the Reciprocal Relationship Verbiage.
You can add more verbiage if needed, by clicking the Add More Relationship
icon in this screen itself.Click Add and the relationship verbiage is added successfully to the relationship master as shown below.
Once the relationship verbiage is added, you can use them to define relationships between SKUs as explained in section Adding a SKU Relationship.
Editing a Relationship Verbiage in Relationship Master
You can also make changes in the verbiage as needed in the relationship master.
To edit an already existing relationship verbiage:
Click the
icon next to the verbiage to be edited in the master as shown below.
Click Edit Relationship and the following dialog box appears.
Make the changes in the verbiage as needed and click Submit.
The changes are edited and reflected in the relationship master.
Deleting a Relationship Verbiage in Relationship Master
A relationship verbiage can be deleted too if it is no longer needed to define SKU relationships.
To delete an already existing relationship verbiage:
Click the
icon next to the verbiage to be deleted in the master and then click Delete Relationship. The following dialog box appears.
The relationship verbiage details are displayed.
Click Yes to delete and the relationship is deleted successfully.
Once multiple relationship verbiages are added, you can also search the verbiages from the list using the Search feature.
To search a verbiage, depending on whether it is a Relationship Verbiage/Reciprocal Relationship Verbiage, select the appropriate option from the drop-down list as shown below.
Select the option and then type the characters to locate the exact relationship verbiage.
You can then edit or delete them as needed.
Once the relationship verbiage is added to the repository, you can now establish the relationship between SKUs using the Manage Relationship feature. Let us understand how to add, edit and delete the relationship between SKUs.
Adding a SKU Relationship
You can establish relationships between any SKU present in the catalog. Depending on the SKUs for which the relationship needs to be established, you can select one or more SKUs in the Taxonomy panel.
To add a SKU relationship:
Select one or more SKUs and then click Manage Relationships in the SKU panel as shown below.
OR
Right-click the SKU / SKUs and then click Manage SKU Relationships as shown below.
The following screen appears.
In this case, only 1 SKU is selected.
The left panel displays all the SKUs selected along with the complete taxonomy path.
Click the SKU for which you need to add the relationship as shown below.
The right panel shows the details of related SKUs. In this case, for the selected SKU, there are no related SKUs.
Add SKU Relationships and the following dialog box appears.
An option to select ‘All SKUs’ or ‘Selected SKUs’ for relationships is displayed. In this case, there is only 1 SKU. Thus, you can proceed with all SKUs. If there are multiple SKUs, click Selected SKUs and a list of SKUs (same as that in the left panel) from which you need to select the SKUs to add the relationship is displayed. Following is a sample image for the same.
Thus, you can add relationships for multiple SKUs as well.
Let us consider that only 1 SKU is selected.
Click Proceed and the following screen is displayed.
The following 3 panels are displayed:
First panel – This displays the taxonomy tree of the catalog
Middle panel – Based on the nodes selected in the first panel, this shows the SKUs which need to be selected for the relationships.
Last panel – This show the selected SKUs and fields to add the relationship
Select the Node / nodes which contain the SKUs to be related. All the SKUs present in the selected node are displayed in the middle panel as shown below.
Select the SKU and then click the Select SKUs
icon to move the selected SKUs to the last panel.
The SKU is now moved to the last panel as shown below.
Now, you need to add the relationship verbiage and its corresponding reciprocal relationship. The Item ID, title and complete taxonomy path of the SKU is displayed here. A Relationship Verbiage column is displayed next to each SKU ID added which is blank.
Double-click the Relationship Verbiage field which is blank next to the SKU ID and the following dialog box appears.
SKU Ana1458 is the SKU selected to be related to the SKU WBC4789 selected in step 1. You need to select the relationship verbiage for each SKU to relate the SKUs to each other. In this case, SKU Ana1458 is the SKU ID for a watch and SKU WBC4789 is the SKU ID for a watch box case.
Select or type the relationship verbiage to be added and a list of existing verbiages as added in section Adding a Relationship Verbiage in Relationship Master is displayed.
Select the verbiage applicable for SKUs as shown below.
In this case, let us select Bundled with for watch box case WBC4789 as it is bundled with the watch and Bundled for in case of watch Ana1458. Here, since the verbiage already exists in the relationship master, once you add a relationship for 1 SKU, its reciprocal relationship will automatically get populated based on the data available in the master.
Click
icon next to the verbiage to remove the verbiage in case a new verbiage has to be selected.
NOTE | You can add any other relationship which does not exist in the master database by typing it. It will be added as a new relationship in the master database and you also need to add the reciprocal relationship to add that record. |
For example, let us add a new relationship packaged with and packaged for which does not exist in the database as shown below.
Type the relationship verbiage packaged for and then click Add New “packaged for” to add the new verbiage for the SKU. Similarly, type the reciprocal relationship as packaged with and then click Add New “packaged with”.
Enter all relationships (new / existing one from the master) for all selected SKUs (which are to be related) and then click Save.
The SKU is displayed in the last panel along with the relationship details as shown below.
Here, the SKU Ana1458 which was selected to be related to SKU WBC4789 is displayed.
Click Relate SKUs and the SKU relationship is added successfully which is displayed in the Manage SKU Relationships screen as shown below.
As shown in the screen above, the selected SKU Ana1458 in the left panel is now related to SKU WBC4789 as shown in the right panel with the relationship bundled for. This means that on an e-commerce site, whenever the product watch with SKU ID Ana1458 is searched, the watch box case with SKU ID WBC4789 will also be displayed as a related item that the customers can buy, if needed.
NOTE | Only one SKU can be selected at a time in the left panel. The SKU ID, Title and taxonomy path of all related SKUs for the SKU in the left panel will be shown. If the taxonomy path is too big, only a part of it is shown and on mouse hover, the entire path is shown. |
To navigate back to the Catalog page, click Close Panel. Each SKU that is related to another SKU will have an
icon displayed next to it in the SKU panel view as shown below.
Hover the mouse on the icon and a list of related SKUs along with the relationship is displayed as shown below.
Also, any new relationship verbiage added while adding a SKU relationship is updated in the relationship master as well. Following is a sample of the relationship verbiage and its corresponding reciprocal verbiage that was added which did not exist in the master.
However, if you try to relate a SKU which is under review already either for user action Review user actions of updates to SKU Attribute / Review user actions of linking or delinking a digital asset to a SKU, the following message is displayed.
Thus, you cannot add a SKU relationship for SKUs which are under review and awaiting approval.
Editing an Existing SKU Relationship
Once a relationship is established between SKUs as explained in section Adding a SKU Relationship, you can edit the relationship verbiage defined for SKUs.
To edit an existing SKU relationship:
Select the SKU in the SKU panel for which you need to edit the relationship and then click Manage Relationships as shown below.
The Manage SKU Relationships screen is displayed as shown below.
Select the SKU in the left panel for which the relationship is to be edited. A list of all related SKUs to the selected SKU in the left panel is displayed.
The Relationship Type column in the right panel shows the current relationship with the SKU. You can change this relationship here, as needed. In case of multiple SKUs that are related, double-click the column for which the relationship is to be edited.
Double-click this field to enter/ replace the new relationship as shown below.
As soon as you change the relationship for the selected SKU, its corresponding reciprocal relationship will be updated too if it exists in the master. In case of a new relationship being added, you will have to enter the reciprocal relationship as well which will then be added in the master database.
Click Save and the relationship details are updated.
Deleting a SKU Relationship
Once a SKU relationship is added, you can also delete the relationship created if it is no longer relevant.
To delete an existing SKU relationship:
Select the SKU in the SKU panel for which you need to delete the relationship and then click Manage Relationships as shown below.
The Manage SKU Relationships screen is displayed as shown below.
NOTE | You can remove relationships for only one SKU at a time which is selected in the left panel. |
Select the SKU and the list of related SKUs is displayed in the right panel as shown below.
In the right panel, if there are multiple SKUs related for the SKU selected in the left panel, you can delete multiple relationships as well.
Select the related SKU in the right panel to be deleted and then click the Delete SKU Relationships
icon as shown below.
A dialog box displaying the details of the SKU selected for deletion is displayed.
Click Delete to continue and delete the relationship and it is deleted successfully.