Products and Categories: Additional Information

Adding New Products

Previously, CSM's would pick from a list of options for a retailer. That list was a mixture of essentially “categories” (Adult Bikes) and specific products (Huffy 18L Bike), both of which are assigned to NAI's pricing “Tiers”. 

NAI’s current pricing still exists, but is now found within our category tree structure vs the existing flat excel sheet.

How Carter’s Products Work 

New products will go through the following lifecycle when added to Carter.

1. Products can be added to the system by Technicians via Product Management.
2. Finance can approve or reject products added by Technicians.
3. Once approved, Finance selects the correct category for the product.
4. All categories have the appropriate pricing and compensation structure based on NAI's existing Tiers

The Challenge 

CSM's will need to learn the new NAI category structure to find products.

Solutions

1. We need a robust list of products built out by technicians working within the stores before we can start to ask managers to be more specific about the products being assembled. 

For now, CSM's will have to use “Generic” products that mimic the category names. These generic products will eventually be removed once the category’s product list is built out and we can confidently communicate with the technicians as to what needs to be built. 

These generic products are displayed to the technician on the mobile app, but they will not be able to scan these products as a part of building their order. When a technician encounters a generic product they will need to add the product to the database using the Product Management tool.

2. We have created the Category Reference Sheet which shows you where to find NAI's existing structure within our new category tree. 

In those “Notes” section, if it says 

Each entry will have one of two options in the Notes column:

1. Added - using the generic product is fine as the Store Manager only knows the category 
   1. Eg “build 10 Bikes” 
2. Not Added- this is an instance where the retailer knows the actual product they would like built. 
   1. Eg. “build 5 Huffy 18L and 5 Huffy 20M Bikes” 
   2. When a retailer requests this product, the CSM will need to select the Generic Product listed in the tree and communicate with the Tech the exact product via Order Notes. “The order items lists ten Bikes, please confirm the correct count is five Huffy 18L and five Huffy 20M Bikes” 
   3. Once the tech scans the correct product and adds it via Product Management, they will be able to scan and build them in the worksheet.