Product Relations
System Product Relation Types define how the system interprets and handles a relation. Custom Product Relation Types define what that relation means in your business.
Creating your own relation types gives you better control and clarity over product relationships, freedom to reflect your business terminology and logic and the ability to scale and extend product data without development effort.
Product Relations define typed, directional relationships between products.
Each relation connects a source product (FromProduct) to a target product (ToProduct) and is classified by a Product Relation Type, which determines the system behavior and the business meaning of the relationship.
Relations may also have a validity period and an optional quantity factor (QtyFactor), which allows the system to adjust quantities when the relation is used operationally.
Concepts
Examples of Product Relations
A Product Relation combines two elements:
- a System Type, which defines the system behavior of the relation
- a Relation Type name, which describes the business meaning of the relation
The following examples illustrate typical relation names for each System Type.
Generic
Used for neutral or informational relationships without specific system behavior.
Example relation type names:
- Related product
- Same product family
- Equivalent reference
- Alternative item
Example: Product A → Product B / Relation type: Related product
Replacement
Used when one product can replace another. Replacement relations may be used by system functions that support product substitution and quantity adjustment through QtyFactor.
Example relation type names:
- Supersession
- Alternative replacement
- Equivalent replacement
- New model replaces old model
Example: Printer Model A → Printer Model B / Relation type: Supersession
Merchandising
Used for commercial relationships such as accessories, cross-sell items, or upsell suggestions.
Example relation type names:
- Accessory
- Cross-sell
- Upsell
- Bundle component
- Similar product
Example: Laptop → Laptop bag / Relation type: Accessory
Fitment
Used for compatibility relationships between products that can be used together.
Example relation type names:
- Compatible with
- Fits
- Matching component
- Approved part
Example: Printer → Toner cartridge / Relation type: Compatible with
The system type defines how the relation can be used functionally, while the custom relation type name defines how the relation is understood in the business context. This allows organizations to keep consistent system behavior and, at the same time, use terminology that matches their own product model.
Using Product Relations
Product Relations are not only used to define links between products, but also support user actions when working with products in logistics documents. Currently, the following functions exploit Product Relations. They are accessible from the context menu of a Product field:
Product replacement - Replace with...
Allows the current product in a document row to be replaced with a valid related product of type Replacement.
The system uses the current product as FromProduct and lists the valid related products from ToProduct. If the selected relation defines a positive QtyFactor, the quantity in the row is recalculated accordingly.
This function is useful when the original product is discontinued, unavailable, or replaced by a newer model.
Learn how to use it HERE.
Product addition - Add related
Allows a related product to be added as a new document row without modifying the current row.
The system uses the current product as FromProduct and lists the valid related products from ToProduct for relations of type Merchandise. If the selected relation defines a positive QtyFactor, the quantity of the new row is calculated based on the quantity in the current row.
This function is useful when users need to add complementary or commercially related products during document entry.
Learn how to use it HERE