Before you start, you’ll need to have some information ready:

• The names of your products, and the different versions, like sizes, colors, and flavors.
• Retail prices of your products. These are tax exclusive prices if your store displays prices exclusive of tax.
• Any existing barcode numbers you have
• The names of all of the outlets you’ve set up in Vend if you’re planning to set up inventory. (Make sure you've set these up first!)

You’ll also need to set up your products as one of these three types:

Standard product: a product that has no different types or versions.

Variant product: a product that has different attributes, like sizes, colors, or flavors. In Vend, these products are grouped together as one family.

This family shares certain values, including supplier, accounting codes, and tags for categorization. If you’re planning to link your store to an online store like Shopify, variant products are also displayed as one product, with a drop-down on the online store.

If you want each version of your product to have their values, or to be able to be displayed individually online, set each one up as a standard product.

Composite product: A product that is created from the inventory of other items in your store. Composite products let you sell groups of items, like a gift basket, or parts of items, like a glass of wine. Because composite items rely on the stock of other items, they don’t have their inventory levels or reorder points.

Now we can move on to the next step of creating a Product Import Sheet >>