How do collections work in RetailVista?

RetailVista supports 'Collections'. This is similar to 'Sets' of products, but the main difference is that collections are created on the purchasing side, while sets are assembled on the sales side. 

Sets are combinations of products sold to consumers, while collections are combinations of products purchased from suppliers. To enable collections, purchasing data needs to be linked together. In this example, we start by creating the 'Main' collection product.

This is the product to which underlying collection components will be linked. In the 'Sales' tab in product maintenance, this main collection product should be assigned the type 'Collection'. This allows for explosion or no explosion to underlying products upon receipt, depending on the settings in RetailVista.

In warehouses that sell at bulk level (i.e., not consumer units), inventory of collection products is tracked on the collection 'Main' product, while stores track inventory on the underlying products (with the main collection product not being kept in stock). Stores physically separate collection products to sell the contents separately. Think of nesting pottery in this case.

At least one collection purchasing data needs to be created under a collection product, where a barcode is assigned as 'Collection identification' in the 'Advanced' tab.

This barcode represents the entire collection.

In almost all cases, this is equivalent to the consumer sales barcode, but in some situations, suppliers use separate barcodes to sell a collection.

Afterwards, one or more products need to be created that make up the collection.

The type of such a product is 'Standard'.

When purchasing such products, the barcode of the main collection product must be entered in the 'Advanced' tab under 'Collection barcode', along with the quantity of the purchase that will be delivered when ordering the collection purchase.

This barcode is particularly important as it links the collection component purchase data to the main collection purchase information.

If the barcode is correct (i.e. matches the main collection barcode), the 'Collections' tab will show how the collections are structured.

Below shows that the product 'Display ants' consists of 3 underlying collection products.

And by clicking on one of the collection components, the following tab becomes visible for that component:

In this screen, it is possible to click on the collection 'Main' product again. It is therefore possible to navigate back and forth through collections. If no information is displayed in the 'Collections' tab, RetailVIsta does not recognize the linked barcodes.

Collections within collections

The setup of collections also allows for creating collections within collections. Examples of this are, for example, a display with ant bait boxes that can be ordered in a pallet with 8 displays.

The operation of this is not difficult: by entering a barcode and quantity again for the 'main' collection product in the purchase info under 'Collection component data', a reference to the next higher-level collection is made. 

Finally, in the collection info section, there is also a field called 'Collection parent barcode'. This field can be optionally used for collections within collections.

In such constructions, it is functionally possible for a collection main product to be part of, for example, 2 or more higher-level collection main products. At the lowest level, it is then possible to indicate which of the 2 'main main' products the collection product is part of.

Below is an explanation of this functionality:

Ant Bait Box 250 gr > Ant display

8x Ant display > Pallet ant control

3x Ant display > Cubic crate various control agents

The question to ask here is: Suppose an 'Ant bait box 250gr' is ordered. This automatically leads to ordering an ant display, as collection products cannot be ordered separately. However, the ant display is also not orderable, as it is in turn a collection product. The question now arises whether the pallet should be ordered or the cubic crate. The 'Collection parent barcode' is decisive in this regard. If it refers to the pallet, then it is ordered. And if it refers to the cubic crate, then it is ordered.

Orderability

Collection products must be created in such a way that they cannot be ordered separately.

This can be achieved by creating a purchase status where it is indicated that it is 'Not orderable'. The example below shows collection purchase data where 'Collection' is linked as the purchase status.

This is set as 'Not orderable' in the background, so the collection product cannot be ordered separately.

Of course, it is possible that a collection product is also available for separate delivery (take the Ant bait box 250 gr from this example).

In that case, a 2nd purchase data must be created as a 'Normal' purchase data.

That is then orderable but does not lead to collection functionalities (of course).

Inventory, product receipt

Stores sell inventory to consumers and they do not buy displays but the contents of those collections, for example the contents of a display packaging.

For this reason, it is important to keep track of how many pieces of the contents are in stock. If inventory of the display itself were also kept, the inventory would be too high and therefore the inventory value. For this reason, stores do not keep inventory of 'Main' collection items.

This means that when a 'Main' collection item is received, the underlying items are automatically added to the receipt, increasing the inventory of those underlying items.

The items that are automatically added are determined from the composition of a collection as built in purchase information. During the receipt, the purchase price of the 'Main' collection item is proportionally distributed among the underlying collection items. Attention is paid to the purchase prices of those underlying collection items. The most expensive items are allocated the largest part of the purchase price, that is the 'Proportional' calculation.