Guide · Ultineo E-commerce
A catalogue ready to sell abroad: structure, variants, stock
This guide is for a merchant whose catalogue grew one product at a time and who now sells in several countries. A delivery rate, a product feed and a buyer choosing a size all read the same product record. You will know in which order to tidy it, and which later step each field feeds.
Checked against the product in November 2026
In this guide
1. List the whole catalogue in one table
2. Give every product a category buyers would open
3. Agree on one word for each size, colour and brand
4. Make one product per version, and one group per item
5. Fill in what leaves the shop: reference, weight, photo
What each field feeds
- The category
It is the shelf where a buyer looks for a product. It is also how you choose what a product feed sends.
- The reference
One code for each product you can ship, never used twice. It names the same product in a feed, a warehouse file and a reply to a buyer.
- The shipping weight
Delivery rates are set by weight band. Without the packed weight of each product, the delivery price a buyer pays is a guess.
- The values of a version
Size, colour, capacity: the words that tell two versions apart. A buyer abroad chooses by these words alone, without asking you.
- The photo
It is seen before any text is read, in every country. A feed can leave out a product that has none.
- The stock figure
A delivery promise assumes that the product is on your shelf. A wrong figure sells what you cannot ship.
1. List the whole catalogue in one table
Before you correct anything, look at everything. Put the catalogue in one table, with one row for each item a buyer can order: every size and every colour has its row. Add one column per fact: category, brand, reference, the value of each characteristic, packed weight, photo, stock.
The empty cells are your work list. If your tool exports the catalogue as a file, start from that file. If it imports one, send a few rows first and read the result row by row: an accepted file does not prove that every row changed.
Example. A shop that sells running gear lists 240 rows. The table shows 31 products with no weight, 12 with no photo and 14 spellings for nine colours.
2. Give every product a category buyers would open
Categories are shelves. Name them with the words buyers search for, not those of your supplier's invoice. Keep the tree shallow: a family, then a more precise shelf beneath it.
The category is used again later, when you choose what a product feed publishes. Decide now which shelves you would send to a shopping service.
Example. The running shop had "Shoes", "Trainers" and "Trail shoes" side by side. It keeps "Shoes" with two subcategories, "Road" and "Trail", and moves 46 products.
In Ultineo. In Categories, click "Add a category", enter its Name and click "Create category". For a level below, open the parent category and, on its Subcategories tab, click "Add a subcategory". In Feeds, the Selection box of a feed lets you choose "Only these categories": ticking a category includes its whole family.
3. Agree on one word for each size, colour and brand
A catalogue that grew by hand holds "Navy", "navy blue" and "Marine" for one colour. Choose one word per value and one list per property. Write the unit once, in the definition of the property, not in each value.
Do the same for brands. Buyers compare products with these words, so each must mean the same thing everywhere.
Example. The running shop reduces its 14 colour spellings to nine values, each with a colour code. One list of sizes, from XS to XXL, now serves every garment.
In Ultineo. In the catalogue Settings, on the Characteristics tab, click "Add a characteristic type", enter its Name and, optionally, a Unit, choose "The whole catalogue" in "Applies to", then click Add. Click Detail on its row, then "Add a value": enter the Value and click Add, once for each value. The product form then offers these values as a list instead of a free-text box. Brands are created on the Brands tab, with "Add a brand".
4. Make one product per version, and one group per item
Decide what counts as a product. One rule works in every country: one product for each version that has its own reference and its own stock. Then gather the versions of one item, so that the buyer sees one page and one choice.
Order the choices as a buyer decides, the main difference first. Two versions must be told apart by their values alone, without reading two descriptions.
Example. A jacket comes in four sizes and three colours: twelve products, each with its reference and its stock. One group, "Trail jacket", holds them on two axes, colour then size.
In Ultineo. First give each product its value on its Characteristics tab. In the catalogue Settings, on the Groups tab, click "Add a group", enter its Name and click Add; then click Detail on its row and, on the Axes tab, "Add an axis": choose "From a characteristic" in Source, the Characteristic, and in Kind how the choices are drawn, then click Add. On the Products tab of the group, click "Add a product", choose the Product and click Add, once for each version: your shop then shows one page, with one row of choices per axis.
5. Fill in what leaves the shop: reference, weight, photo
Three facts leave your shop with each product. The reference names it in a warehouse file, a feed and a buyer's message. The weight prices its delivery: weigh the product packed, as it ships. The photo stands for it wherever a list shows no text.
Fill in these three before any other detail. Our guide to delivering abroad turns weights into rates; our guide to product feeds covers the product with no photo.
Example. The 31 products with no weight are weighed in one afternoon: a pair of shoes in its box, 1.1 kg. Each reference follows one pattern: TRJ-BLU-M is the blue trail jacket in medium.
In Ultineo. On the Overview tab of a product, click Edit: "Edit product" holds the "Reference (SKU)", the "Shipping weight (kg)", the Category and the Brand. In Shipments, the "Delivery rates" of a zone are filled in for each weight band. Images are added from the Images tab of the product; in a feed, the rule "Products with no photo" offers two choices: "Left out" or "Use a photo of the same product group".
6. Count your stock, then keep the figures true
Count what you hold, version by version, and correct every figure before you add a country.
Then settle two rules. Who records each arrival and each loss, on the day it happens? At which level is a product flagged, so that you reorder before it runs out? Set that level from the time your supplier takes.
Example. The count finds 7 blue jackets in medium where the figure says 10. The merchant records the difference and sets the alert at 4 units, because the supplier delivers in three weeks.
In Ultineo. On the Stock tab of a product, click "Record a movement": fill in the Grade, the "Movement type" ("Stock in" or "Stock out"), the Quantity and the Warehouse, then click Record. Click "Edit the threshold" to set the "Low stock threshold": at or below it, the product shows a "Low stock" warning in your workspace; no email is sent. In Orders, the "Awaiting stock" tab lists the paid orders that cannot take their stock.
7. Put on sale only what is complete
Set a rule and keep it: a product goes on sale only when its category, reference, weight, photo and stock are filled in. Until then, it stays a draft.
Then read the result as a stranger would: open a category, choose a version, read its page. Do it again when a new range arrives: a catalogue becomes untidy one product at a time.
Example. After a week, 228 of the 240 rows are complete. The merchant suspends the 12 products with no photo, has the pictures taken, then activates them one by one.
In Ultineo. A new product is saved as a draft: your shop only sells it once you activate it. On the Overview tab of the product, click Activate to put it on sale, or Suspend to take an active product off sale, then click Confirm.
Checklist
Before you sell this catalogue abroad
- 1. List the whole catalogue
One table, one row for each item a buyer can order, one column per fact.
- 2. Give each product one category
Shelves named with the words buyers search for, a family and one level below.
- 3. Keep one word per value
One list for each property, one spelling for each brand, the unit written once.
- 4. Group the versions
One product per size or colour, one group per item, the main difference first.
- 5. Fill in reference, weight, photo
A reference never reused, the packed weight in kilograms, one main photo.
- 6. Count, then sell what is complete
Correct each figure after a count, set an alert level, and keep incomplete products as drafts.
Go further
Prepare your catalogue with Ultineo E-commerce
Send your application: our team reviews each one before an account is opened.
Questions
Yes, on as many levels as you need: choose a "Parent category" when you create a category, or open a category and click "Add a subcategory". The category menu of your storefront shows your top categories and their direct subcategories.
Yes, when each size or colour is a product of its own, gathered in a product group. Each product keeps its own stock, recorded on its Stock tab; the group does not merge the stock of its versions.
No. A group gathers products that already exist: create one product per version, then add each of them on the Products tab of the group. A product belongs to one group at a time.
Yes. A product can be offered in up to five grades (N, A, B, C and D), each with its own price and its own stock, under one reference. Open the product and add each one with "Add a grade".
Yes. On the Warehouse tab of Products, click "Add a warehouse". Your shop always has one primary warehouse; "Transfer stock", on the Stock tab of a product, moves units between warehouses without changing the product's total stock.
Suspending hides a product from your customers without losing anything: it stays in your workspace with its details, and you bring it back with Activate. Deleting removes it from your lists and from your shop.