DropshipDirect.com - Inventory Data Field Definitions

http://dropshipdirect.com/warehouse/product-data-field-glossary-a-32.html

Product Data Field Glossary

FOR: Inventory Data Export INVENTORY DATA FIELD GLOSSARY Resellers may take advantage of comprehensive product information in the form of multiple data fields and export methods. Below is a glossary of these items and their related definitions: ASIN -- The Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) is a product identification number used by Amazon.com and its partners. Despite the name, it is not a "standard" outside of Amazon.com. It is valid only for referring to products within the Amazon.com network of sites. Each product sold on Amazon.com is given a unique ASIN. For books with an ISBN, the ASIN and the ISBN are the same. However, due to the fact that new ISBN-13 numbers will be issued, this is likely to change. Books without an ISBN and other products are also assigned ASINs. ASINs are also used for other items used by Amazon.com (and subsidiaries), such as businesses in the yellow pages (on A9.com) and OpenSearch feeds. CATEGORY -- A product's category is also known as its subcategory within the DropshipDirect.com Product Menu. Subcategories are more specific, descriptive groupings of similar products. Examples include laptop batteries, baseball collectibles, and watches. CSV -- The comma-separated values (or CSV) file format is a file type that stores tabular data. The format is very old, dating back to the days of mainframe computing. For this reason, CSV files are common on all computer platforms. CSV is one implementation of a delimited text file, which uses a comma to separate values. However CSV differs from other delimiter separated file formats in using a " (double quote) character around fields that contain reserved characters (such as commas or newlines). Most other delimiter formats either use an escape character such as a backslash, or have no support for reserved characters. CSV export methods may not always support descriptive fields (see "Product Description") that contain commas, as this combination can cause data conflict. EBAY CAT ID -- Assigned by eBay for its various product-related categories located at ebay.com. eBay category identification tags are always numeric; DSDI™ provides the best suggested category match for a given product within the DropshipDirect.com database. IMAGE NAME -- Image names are usually (but not in all cases) identified by a series of numbers associated with a product's category, subcategory, and SKU assignment. Image names correlate with the images published at the DropshipDirect.com website and are always formatted using JPEG technology. In computing, JPEG (pronounced JAY-peg) is a commonly used standard method of compression for photographic images. The name JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the name of the committee who created the standard. JPEG should not be confused with MPEG, the Moving Picture Experts Group, which produces compression schemes for motion pictures. JPEG provides for lossy compression of images (although there are variations on the standard baseline JPEG which are lossless). The file format which employs this compression is commonly also called JPEG; the most common file extension for this format is .jpg. IMAGES PATH -- Indicates the entire image path located at the dropshipdirect.com website for image and site navigation management purposes. The image path is constructed by referencing top and sub-level categories associated with each DSDI™ product. For example, sports_outdoors/outdoors/camping/beach_towels/ refers to inventory and/or images offered within the beach towel category. IMPORTANT NOTES -- Certain items include special consumer guidelines and/or warranty issues (i.e. "custom trimming may be required" or "no warranty provided"), which are published within Important Notes. MAP -- Resale price maintenance is the practice whereby a manufacturer and its distributors agree that the latter will sell the former's product at certain prices (resale price maintenance), at or above a price floor (minimum resale price maintenance) or at or below a price ceiling (maximum resale price maintenance). These rules prevent resellers from competing too fiercely on price and thus driving down profits. Some argue that the manufacturer may do this because it wishes to keep resellers profitable, and thus keeping the manufacturer profitable. Others contend that minimum resale price maintenance, for instance, overcomes a failure in the market for distributional services by ensuring that distributors who invest in promoting the manufacturer's product are able to recoup the additional costs of such promotion in the price they charge consumers. Some manufacturers also defend resale price maintenance by saying it ensures fair returns, both for manufacturer and reseller and that governments do not have right to interfere with freedom to make contracts without very good reason. Although resale price maintenance is again no longer legal at the present in the United States, manufacturers and distributors reserve the right to suspend Retailer customer accounts when MAP pricing is not adhered to. This particularly applies to non-stocking scenarios when said inventory is dropshipped by DSDI™ or its manufacturers. MANUFACTURER NAME -- The name of the manufacturer and/or brand associated with a given product. MASTER CATEGORY -- The Master Category is a field associated with a product for organizational and promotional purposes. The master, or primary category, is a descriptive text (i.e. Automotive, At Home, Collectibles, Sporting Goods, etc) assigned to a product. This field serves as a helpful reference when exporting and managing DSDI™ inventory data. Primary categories are located at the top level, residing over multiple subcategories (see "Category"). MODEL -- Model numbers are manufacturer assigned digits associated with product inventory. Manufacturer model numbers are most commonly used by consumers wishing to research pricing and product details while browsing the internet. Model numbers are not always unique, as generic number-based model numbers may often be assigned by multiple manufacturers. MSRP -- The (manufacturer's) suggested retail price (MSRP or SRP), list price or recommended retail price (RRP) of a product is the price the manufacturer recommends that the DSDI™ Retailer sell it for. This helps to standardize prices among locations. While some stores always sell at below the suggested retail price, others do so only when items are on sale or closeout. Much of the time, stores charge less than the suggested retail price, depending upon the actual wholesale cost of each item, usually purchased in bulk through a distributor such as DSDI™. PRODUCT ADDED -- Otherwise known as DATE ADDED, this field specifies when inventory was originally loaded into the product database and made available for purchase. Ideally suited for SORT functions within spreadsheets to determine newest wholesale products offered by DSDI™. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION -- An HTML formatted paragraph or series of details describing the function, features, and specifications of a specific DSDI™ product. PRODUCT ID -- An internally assigned number created by DSDI™ for every consumer unit in its product inventory. In most cases, the Product ID is not publicly visible. PRODUCT NAME -- The short title description associated with a given product. Product name is the most common method referenced by consumers while searching for merchandise via the internet. PRODUCT SPECS -- Additional specification (optional) product information highlighted within the Details tab of the product page. QUICK SHIP -- Inventory that normally ships within 2 business days of order placement. RESELLER PRICE -- Actual wholesale product cost charged to DSDI™'s Reseller customer. SHIP ETA -- Estimated time for inventory to be re-stocked by DSDI™ and available for dropship fulfillment distribution. An updated Ship ETA Calendar is available at http://dropshipdirect.com/warehouse/upcominginventory.php. SHIP EXCEPTION -- Normally, DSDI™ transactions ship within 3-5 business days of original order date. However, some products are custom-manufactured and/or may require additional processing time prior to shipment. Exceptions are posted here. SHIP PRICE -- A flat rate shipping cost charged to the Retailer customer by DSDI™. In most cases, flat rate shipping prices are usually assigned when a package is considered either oversized or is delivered via an alternative small parcel carrier (i.e. United States Postal Service). Otherwise, shipping cost is normally calculated based on UPS published (residential delivery) rates based on product weight, postal code origin (97367), and delivery postal code. SKU -- An SKU or Stock Keeping Unit is an identifier that is used by merchants to permit the systematic tracking of products and services offered to customers. Usage of the SKU system is rooted in the drill down method, pertaining to data management. SKUs are assigned and serialized at the merchant level. Each SKU is attached to an item, variant, product line, bundle, service, fee or attachment. STATUS -- Refers to product availability status. ACTIVE indicates merchandise is either immediately available for purchase or on temporary back-order (with an available ETA re-stock date). INACTIVE products are no longer available from DSDI™ for purchase. However, inactive items may be re-stocked in the future (ETA unknown). TAB -- Tab Delimited data uses specific characters (delimiters) to separate its values. Most database and spreadsheet programs are able to read or save data in a delimited format. The tab key is used to indent text to a preset horizontal position. STOCK QUANTITY -- Number of currently available inventory units for wholesale distribution. Stock quantity is often updated, thereby encouraging frequent inventory data feed updates by Retailers for their inventory maintenance needs. UPC -- The Universal Product Code (UPC) is one of a wide variety of bar code languages called symbologies. The UPC is the barcode widely used in the United States and Canada for items in stores. The UPC has only numerals, with no letters or other characters. The first L digit is the prefix. The last digit R is an error correcting check digit, allowing some errors in scanning or manual entry to be detected. UPC codes can be utilized by Amazon.com, eBay, and other marketplaces. WEIGHT -- In most cases, weight consists of the combined package weight for a shipped product. The exception to packaged weight is BILLABLE WEIGHT, when a product's package dimensions exceed normal shipping carrier (UPS, FedEx) guidelines. In the case of oversized package dimensions, BILLABLE WEIGHT is used for total pounds within the weight field.

This Information Page was published on Monday, February 12, 2007.