Stock catalogue

Maintain the Stock items in your catalogue, watch low-stock risk, and open item detail.

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Use Inventory → Stock catalogue to maintain item-level stock records. Clicking the top-level Inventory row in the sidebar opens the unfiltered Stock catalogue. Each row in the catalogue is a Stock item and keeps a thumbnail slot beside the item name; items without an available image use a neutral image placeholder. The linked SKU and product title open the stock item detail form.

Suggested price shows the saved Suggested sale price for each item in the account's configured inventory currency. It has its own column on wide screens. At intermediate desktop widths, On hand and Allocated move into the item summary so the Suggested price column remains visible; the price moves into the item summary or mobile facts only at narrower widths. It is guidance for creating new listing drafts, not a claim about the price currently live on any Channel. A dash means that no suggested sale price has been saved.

One Stock record per SKU

Each Stock item is the complete record for one sellable SKU. Its catalogue title, default description, manufacturer barcode, images and Reference facts sit on that same Stock item as its quantity, pricing and warehouse settings. There is no separate persistent product-family record.

Use a Stock group when items need shared organisation or a group-level SKU policy. Use Variations on a listing draft when several Stock SKUs must be presented as choices such as size, colour or material on that particular Channel listing. Draft variations do not merge the underlying Stock items or make edits to one SKU flow into another.

Create a stock item

Use Create stock item when a product needs its own inventory record before it is listed, ordered from a supplier, or used on a sales order.

The create form captures the core product setup:

  • Stock group: optional grouping used for organisation and group-level SKU policy overrides. Choose this before entering the SKU when a group has its own policy.
  • SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): the internal item code. SKU is required and is locked after creation.
  • Product title and Description: the Stock-item wording used as the starting point for listing drafts.
  • Units of measure: base, purchase, and sales/listing units.
  • Status: whether the item is active.
  • Reorder level and Reorder quantity: low-stock guidance.
  • Location, Primary bin, and optional Reserve bin: storage defaults for pick paths and multi-bin workflows.
  • Internal barcode: the warehouse-first barcode. Leave it blank to auto-generate on save, or enter one manually if needed.
  • Manufacturer barcode and Manufacturer barcode format: UPC, EAN, GTIN, ISBN, or other supplier/on-item barcode details.
  • Tax code: an account-managed default for downstream manual order lines. Configure codes and rates in Settings → Tax codes. Existing inactive defaults can be retained on Stock, but new assignments and CSV imports require active codes.

SKU policy guidance appears directly beneath the SKU field. Empty SKU fields show a compact example and the source of the active rule; acceptance or warning feedback appears only after a SKU has been entered. Regular-expression patterns remain in Settings → Inventory rather than appearing in the item-creation form. Barcode policy guidance appears with the barcode fields under Advanced. The sticky action bar keeps Back to stock catalogue on the left and the primary Save and close control on the right.

Stock item detail

The stock item detail form is the product workspace for one SKU. It brings together identity, inventory settings, replenishment defaults, storage, barcodes, pricing defaults, product images, stock history, and draft-creation actions.

The At a glance panel presents the stock lifecycle, catalogue readiness, and sale status in that order. The detail form then shows the catalogue-readiness score and its data-quality checklist.

The breadcrumb always shows Inventory → Stock catalogue → the current item, because that is the Stock record's canonical location. The sticky Back button is contextual: opening the record from Listings or another supported workbench returns you there with its current list state, while a direct Stock item link falls back to Back to stock catalogue.

Catalogue readiness

Catalogue readiness checks whether a stock item has enough clean product data to be understood by marketplaces, search engines, and AI shopping agents.

It is not a ranking promise. It is a practical data-quality check that helps you fix missing product facts before exporting or publishing.

Where to find it

Open Inventory → Stock catalogue, then open a stock item. Its current bold readiness label appears in At a glance, while the Catalogue readiness card beneath it contains the score and detailed checks.

The page shows:

  • An At a glance label of Ready when the item has passed the current checks.
  • An At a glance label of Needs attention when the item can be improved, but has no blocking issue.
  • An At a glance label of Not suitable yet when the item has at least one essential catalogue signal missing, such as being inactive or missing a sale price. This uses the calm readiness colour rather than warning styling: it does not block saving or creating a draft.
  • A readiness-coloured percentage badge and a linked improvement guide in the Catalogue readiness card.

When you change a field used by readiness, the card updates automatically after a short pause. An Unsaved preview badge makes clear that the score includes form changes which have not yet been saved. The preview covers active status, Stock group, product title, default listing description, manufacturer barcode, weight, volume, and suggested sale price. Availability, images, and Reference facts continue to use their current saved values.

Each available improvement links to the relevant field or section. The same destination uses the catalogue-readiness colour on its label and a soft fill on the relevant input or action while it still needs attention. There is no outer border, filled panel, or repeated label badge to disturb neighbouring fields. You can therefore continue down the form without returning to the top to remember what to review. These highlights are guidance only and do not prevent you from saving.

What ChannelWeave checks

ChannelWeave checks the current Stock item, its images, Reference facts, and Stock group. Publication is reported separately by the listing-status badge and does not affect catalogue readiness.

The checks include:

  • active stock status
  • buyer-readable product title
  • sale price
  • known availability
  • useful default listing description
  • recognised product identifier such as GTIN, EAN, UPC, ISBN, manufacturer barcode, or matching reference fact
  • at least one product image
  • product classification from a Format, Genre, Product type, Category, Taxonomy, or Stock group
  • brand, manufacturer, label, maker, or publisher reference fact
  • weight, size, dimensions, or equivalent physical facts

How to improve an item

Use the linked guide to move directly to the relevant part of the Stock item form:

  • Edit Product title and Default listing description in the Identity section.
  • Add Reference facts such as Brand, Manufacturer, MPN, GTIN, EAN, UPC, or dimensions.
  • Add a classification reference fact such as Format, Genre, Product type, Category, or Taxonomy, or assign a meaningful Stock group.
  • Add or sync images in the Stock image manifest.
  • Add a Suggested sale price in Pricing.
  • Add manufacturer barcode details in Storage. Channel-specific categories and conditions belong to the relevant listing draft. They are not hidden Stock-item defaults and do not affect the Stock item's catalogue-readiness classification.

Catalogue-readiness improvements do not put the assistant icon beside Stock item into warning state. An operational warning such as low stock can still highlight the icon. In either state, AI assistant opens with a clean input and suggested questions for the current record, such as low stock, catalogue readiness, reference facts, or listing copy. Pick a suggestion when you want AI assistant to explain what to improve first or draft a fuller default listing description; the suggestion sends immediately as a one-click starter. The suggested question is shown as a short label, while AI assistant receives the current stock item context behind the scenes so the answer uses the latest quantities, reorder settings, catalogue-readiness checks, and reference facts for that record. If you reopen the modal from the same stock item and continue a saved stock-item help conversation, AI assistant restores that current-record context for the next turn.

Use Explain readiness issues when you want advice only. The AI assistant explains the current readiness score, blockers, and warnings, then suggests what to improve without applying changes.

Use Fix readiness with the AI assistant when you want a turn-by-turn guided action. The AI assistant starts with the first missing readiness blocker, asks for a missing sale price when needed, confirms the value, and then shows an inline Apply action. The button still submits the confirmed action back through the server; AI assistant saves only after that explicit confirmation. The open stock item form is refreshed with the saved sale price. The AI assistant can then draft a fuller default listing description and save it to the form after a second inline Apply description confirmation. Description drafts use the fuller saved reference-fact set for the item, so edition, numbering, release, condition, and similar details are not silently left out.

Review the live Unsaved preview while editing, then save to make those Stock item changes authoritative. The readiness card also refreshes after stock item saves, guided sale-price applies, Reference-fact changes, and image changes. Saved inventory adjustments refresh the availability check as well.

Required fields and saving

Required fields are marked with an asterisk. If you try to save without a required value, ChannelWeave blocks the save, colours its label amber, gives the input an amber border and soft fill, shows Required before saving guidance beside it, and moves focus to the first field to complete. It does not place a border or fill around the surrounding field group. This mandatory state is separate from the catalogue-readiness colour: readiness improvements remain optional for saving. The read-only SKU is generated by ChannelWeave; if it is unexpectedly missing, the page reports a record problem rather than asking you to edit a locked field.

Catalogue exports

Catalogue exports live in Inventory → Data exchange. They are authenticated downloads for the current customer's active stock catalogue:

  • Canonical JSON: ChannelWeave's canonical commerce product export, including stock item identity, price, availability, identifiers, images, options, and the readiness result.
  • Google CSV: a Merchant-style product CSV with best-available fields and readiness labels in custom label columns.
  • schema.org JSON: Product JSON-LD objects that can be used as a starting point for website structured data.

Exports are manual download files for review, upload, or developer hand-off. ChannelWeave does not submit them automatically. Exports include active stock items by default. Inactive items can be included by adding ?include_inactive=1 to the export URL.

Important limits

Catalogue readiness does not invent missing product facts. If a GTIN, brand, MPN, weight, or classification is unknown, ChannelWeave reports it as missing rather than guessing.

The Google CSV and schema.org JSON exports are feed-preparation outputs. Review them before uploading to any external service, especially where a channel has additional policy, category, shipping, tax, or destination-country requirements.

Description drafting with the AI assistant

Saved stock items include Draft with AI and Add reference facts beside the product title. Use them to prepare the stock item's Default listing description, which then preloads listing drafts unless a template or draft value overrides it.

Draft with AI drafts restrained product copy from the current stock-item facts, including product title, SKU, unit of measure, the existing default listing description, and saved stock item Reference facts. Optional facts approved in Add reference facts are merged into the same draft request. It uses the Stock item's current facts rather than general AI assistant guidance. When the AI assistant places the draft into the form, the catalogue-readiness card refreshes its Unsaved preview automatically. The completion notification remains available with a Review action instead of moving keyboard focus while you may be working elsewhere on the page. Choose Review to return to the populated field, check the copy, and then save the Stock item.

Description drafting can use up to 24 saved or approved reference facts. That limit keeps the draft focused without hiding a normal curated stock-item fact list. When the list is short, the AI assistant is expected to preserve buyer-visible details such as edition, numbering, release year, format, label, condition, and additional notes. The AI assistant may vary sentence order and wording between drafts, but the factual content should stay stable.

The AI assistant must not add unsupported collectability, rarity, fan-demand, fulfilment, shipping, or packaging claims. Source-only evidence and internal references are kept out of the buyer-facing draft; product catalogue numbers are still used when they are saved as catalogue-number facts.

Add reference facts fetches a trusted public product page, extracts candidate product facts from structured Product data, metadata, and page text, then shows those facts for review. Normal scripts, styles, links, comments, and other non-content blocks are discarded while JSON-LD Product data is preserved; generic page-section headings such as Features or Reviews are filtered out. Tick only the facts AI assistant may use, then choose Draft with AI or clear the facts before drafting. If the stock item title is still empty and the reference page includes a product-name fact, ChannelWeave offers Use as product title so the title is applied only after user approval. ChannelWeave reads up to 2 MB of remote HTML and keeps up to 1.25 MB of stripped page content.

Review AI assistant's draft before saving. Saved and approved reference facts support the draft, including buyer-visible details such as edition, numbering, release year, label, format, and condition; the raw page is not sent to the AI assistant.

Columns

  • SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): your unique internal code for the item
  • Item: product title and summary of the stock record
  • On hand: physical quantity held in stock
  • Allocated: quantity reserved against open sales orders
  • Available: on hand minus allocated — what can still be sold
  • Reorder at: the level at which the item is flagged as low stock
  • Reorder qty: the suggested quantity to bring back in
  • Listing status: whether the stock item is currently live through an explicitly linked, confirmed live Channel listing. List states use bold text: Live · N Channels includes the number of distinct live Channels; Draft only means linked listing work exists but nothing is live; Not live means there is no live listing, open draft, or unknown Channel state; and Attention means a Channel state is unknown. On mobile Stock cards, the listing status sits at the top right. The stock-item detail page retains the same derived state as bold text in At a glance. Select the underlined Live · N Channels list link to open All listings filtered to this Stock item's exact live listings. Its count is distinct Channels, while the destination result count is the number of matching listing rows. An inactive stock item that remains live shows both Live and Attention.

For Website listings, Live requires a published listing. For external Channels, it requires both the published ChannelWeave lifecycle and a confirmed active marketplace state. Scheduled, submitted, ended, archived, rejected, and unsold listings do not count as live. Low stock remains a separate inventory signal beside the item details.

Actions

  • Create stock item: add a new stock record
  • Bulk actions → Create listing drafts: select Stock catalogue items, then open the listing-template chooser for those items. The action is disabled until at least one item is selected
  • Create drafts on Stock item detail: open the listing-template chooser to create channel drafts directly from the item. If the Stock item has unsaved changes, choose Save and continue first so the drafts use those changes. Channel targets start unticked, so select each Channel that should receive a draft before continuing
  • Search: match SKU, product title, description, unit label, Stock group, or the displayed name and value of a product Reference fact. A result found through a Reference fact shows the matching name and value beneath the item when the visible SKU, title, description, or group does not already explain the result. Straight and curly apostrophes are treated as equivalent across Stock text and Reference facts.
  • Low stock: when low-stock items exist, the sidebar badge shows a warning count and the list exposes a Low stock filter badge for reorder-risk items
  • Listing status filter: narrow the collection to Live, Not live, Draft only, or Attention items

Stock groups

Stock groups organise related items and can carry group-specific SKU policy behaviour. A stock item can be left without a group, or assigned to an active group from the create/detail forms. Use Manage stock groups from the form, or open Stock groups, to review group setup.

When a stock group has its own SKU policy, choose the group first so ChannelWeave can show the right SKU guidance before the item is saved.

Units of measure

Each stock item now has a base unit, a purchase unit, and a sales/listing unit.

  • Base unit is the inventory unit ChannelWeave stores in stock balances, warehouse movements, allocations, reservations, and valuation.
  • Purchase unit is the supplier-facing unit used on purchase order entry. Purchase order lines keep the entered purchase quantity, then convert it into base units for receipts and stock history.
  • Sales/listing unit is the buyer-facing unit used for sales order entry, channel order imports, listing draft quantities, and listing availability fan-out. ChannelWeave converts it into base units before reserving, allocating, or dispatching stock.

For example, if the base unit is Each and the sales/listing unit is Case with 12 base units per case, listing availability shows whole cases while stock history and warehouse balances remain in eaches.

When the purchase or sales/listing unit is the same as the base unit, its conversion is fixed at 1 and the conversion field is locked. Choosing a different unit unlocks the field and requires an explicit positive number of base units per selected unit. Switching back to the base unit restores the fixed value of 1.

Once a stock item has stock movements, purchase lines, sales lines, or non-zero bin balances, its base unit and item conversion factors are locked. Create a new stock item if the physical counting basis needs to change after transactions exist.

Storage and barcodes

Stock items can store a default Location, Primary bin, and optional Reserve bin. Select a location first; ChannelWeave then shows the available bins for that location. These fields support pick paths and multi-bin warehouse workflows, but can be left blank for simpler stock setups.

Barcode fields support warehouse scanning and supplier/manufacturer identity:

  • Internal barcode is the warehouse-first barcode. It can be generated on create and is read-only after save.
  • Manufacturer barcode records the UPC, EAN, GTIN, ISBN, or other barcode printed on the product or supplied by the manufacturer.
  • Manufacturer barcode format records the known format, or can be left as auto-detect/unknown.

SKU, internal barcode, manufacturer barcode, and product title all help operators recognise the right item during search, picking, replenishment, and listing preparation.

Media and images

The stock item detail page includes a Stock image manifest. Images belong directly to that Stock item and can be reused by channel drafts and listings.

Use Sync from Media library to append matching files from Media library by SKU-based names, or Open Media library to upload and manage product images. If the stock item has unsaved changes, ChannelWeave asks for confirmation before leaving the page for Media library or another destination. Choose Stay, save the stock item, and then continue to Media library to keep those changes.

For predictable matching, use names such as:

  • sku.jpg
  • sku-front.jpg
  • sku-detail.png

Existing manifest images are not duplicated when syncing. Once images are on the stock item, channel draft flows can reuse them instead of rebuilding the image list from scratch.

Pricing and replenishment defaults

Stock item detail stores operational defaults that downstream workflows can reuse:

  • Suggested sale price: default price guidance for new listing drafts.
  • Cost price: default cost used by purchasing and valuation workflows where applicable.
  • Tax code: default tax treatment for the item.
  • Reorder level and Reorder quantity: values used to flag low-stock risk and guide replenishment.

Stock history

The stock item detail page includes Stock history, a statement-style view of inventory movements for the item. It shows the movement date, transaction type, source, In, Out, and running Balance columns, with the newest dated row at the top.

The opening balance brought forward is sorted by its own date/time, like every other row. This reconciles the current stock summary with recorded Warehouse movements so older imported or pre-ledger balances remain visible alongside later receipts, adjustments, transfers, and dispatches.

Stock item detail also includes a separate Record change history card. Use it for record-level audit events, such as when the stock record itself was created or changed. Data Exchange imports now write stock-created or stock-updated events there, while quantity changes still appear in Stock history with their Data Exchange movement source.