Product policies in the Shopify Collective app
When you use product policies in the Shopify Collective app, you can automate your product import and management tasks.
You can set up specific rules on how you want to import and synchronize products, and you can choose how to handle products that become unavailable to sell.
When you update your policy settings, updates are applied to all products and any product information that you modified is overwritten with the supplier's product information. If you have a large product catalog, then it might take some time to update your products according to your policy rules.
On this page
Default product policies
When you join Shopify Collective as a retailer, a default product policy is automatically created. You can edit the default policy and create custom policies. Product policies contain different rules that you can adjust to meet your requirements.
The default product policy contains the following default rules and settings:
-
Product import:
- Import method: Manual
- Import as: Draft
- Publish to: Don't publish
- Product details sync: Price, inventory, and compare-at price.
- Product errors: Set as draft
Understanding product policies
You can choose whether you want to import supplier products to your store manually or automatically. You can also select which product details to synchronize automatically from a supplier to your store, and decide how you want to handle unavailable products.
Product import
A supplier's products are available to you with the original product details, such as title, images, and price. You can view the original product details when you click a product title or after you import a product to your store.
When you import a product to your store, you can adjust the product details in your Shopify admin. You can edit the product's price, compare-at price, cost price, or inventory, but your changes are automatically reverted back to the original information that your supplier sets.
Review the following table to learn more about product import with Shopify Collective.
| Rule | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Import method |
| Choose whether you want to import all supplier products automatically or manually to your store. If you select the manual import method, then you need to manually import supplier products to your store.
The following product information is imported from a supplier's store to your store:
|
| Import as |
| Choose the product status to set when you import supplier products to your store. |
| Publish to |
| Choose whether you want to publish supplier products to specific sales channels automatically. |
Product details sync
After you import supplier products to your store, the product price and inventory are automatically synced. You can choose which additional product details you want to sync continuously from suppliers.
When a customer places an order on your store and the order contains Shopify Collective products, the product inventory is automatically adjusted in both your store and your supplier's store.
You can choose to continuously sync the following product details:
- title
- description
- media
- category
- compare-at price
- product type
- SKU
- barcode
- weight
- country/region of origin
- Harmonized System (HS) code
Product errors
If a product that's shared with you by your supplier becomes unavailable, then you can choose how to handle unavailable products in your store.
Review the following table to learn more about the different options to handle unavailable products in your store.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Set inventory to 0 | A product becomes out of stock and your customers can view the product, but can't purchase it. |
| Set as draft | A product is unpublished from your store and your customers can't view or purchase it. |
| Delete products | A product is permantently deleted from your store. This action can't be reversed. |