📦 Step 4: Product Information & Settings
To ensure Optiply functions effectively and generates the best possible purchasing advice, your product-level settings must be valid and completely up to date.
While your overarching supplier settings (from Step 3) provide the baseline, individual products often have their own specific rules. Here is a checklist of the critical product information you need to configure to streamline your inventory management.
🏷️ 1. Core Product Details
First, ensure the fundamental details of your items are accurate.
Product Prices: Ensure that all product purchase prices are correctly entered. Accurate pricing is essential for reliable purchasing recommendations and calculating your total order costs.
Minimum Stock Level: If you want to guarantee constant stock availability for certain critical products, define a minimum stock level. For example, if you always want a safety net of 10 units on the shelf, set this number to 10 so the system reorders before you dip below it.
📏 2. Purchasing Rules & Logistics
Suppliers often have specific rules for how certain items must be purchased. Set these product-level rules so your orders are always compliant.
Product Lead Time: Some specific products may take longer to manufacture or ship than the default supplier lead time. Verify and input the correct lead time for these individual products to maintain accurate delivery predictions.
Reorder Period: Set the time interval between one order and the next for each specific product. This helps define the purchasing cycle and keeps your stock levels optimal.
Lot Size: If products are sold in specific batch quantities (like boxes, pallets, or packs), define the lot size. For example, if you sell single units but must buy them in boxes of 12, input "12" as the lot size.
Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ): Certain suppliers may require a minimum order quantity for specific items. For example, if a supplier only allows orders of at least 50 units for a specific SKU, input "50" here.
🛑 3. Managing Product Statuses
Not every product in your catalogue needs to be actively purchased or stocked. Optiply uses statuses to handle these exceptions.
Phased-Out Products: Use this status for products you no longer want to hold physical stock for (e.g., items managed via cross-docking or drop-shipping). Phasing out an item ensures no purchasing advice is generated for it and stock is not allocated unnecessarily.
Ignored Products: If a product is completely discontinued or no longer relevant to your business, mark it as "Ignored." This completely excludes the product from all calculations—it will not receive purchasing advice and will not appear for invoicing purposes.
📥 4. How to Update Product Information
Depending on your specific integration and workflow, you have a few ways to update this product information:
Direct Integration: Enter all the required product details directly into your source system (like your webshop or ERP) and let it sync automatically to Optiply.
Bulk CSV Import: Provide a bulk import file with the necessary information to update your catalogue all at once. (You can learn more about how to do this on our Product Updates Import Page).
Manual Updates: You can adjust these settings manually on the individual product pages within the Optiply dashboard.
❓ 5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the difference between "Ignored" and "Phased Out"?
Ignored: The product is completely dead to the system. Optiply pretends it doesn't exist, meaning it won't impact your data, invoices, or purchasing advice. Use this for permanently discontinued items.
Phased Out: The product is still "alive" in the system, but you are actively choosing not to replenish the stock. Use this for items you are letting run out, or items you sell via dropshipping, where you don't need to hold warehouse inventory.
If my Supplier Lead Time is 5 days, but my Product Lead Time is 10 days, which one does Optiply use?
Optiply will always prioritise the more specific Product Lead Time. The supplier lead time acts as a general fallback, but the product-level rule will override it for that specific item.