Core concepts
A shared vocabulary between product, commerce, and technical teams. Each term maps to a concrete object in CataZenta.
For why families, trees, and channels matter and how to set up your catalog, see Catalog fundamentals.
Organization & tenant
An organization is your company or group. Tenants are isolated workspaces — separate catalogs, users, integrations, and AI context. Data never crosses tenant boundaries.
Multi-brand groups typically use one tenant per label; group IT retains cross-tenant operations visibility.
Product, variant & family
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Product model | Parent style / model (the jacket line, not each size) |
| Product (variant) | Sellable SKU — size M, color Blue, etc. |
| Family | Template of attributes, requirements, and rules for a product type |
Footwear, electronics, and supplements each use different families with different required fields.
Attributes
Attributes are named properties — from titles to regulatory flags.
| Type | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Text (simple) | Brand | Same in all locales/channels |
| Text (localizable) | Title | Per locale (en_US, fr_FR) |
| Text (scopable) | Short description | Per channel (web vs Amazon) |
| Number / metric | Weight (kg) | Units and conversions |
| Select / multi-select | Color, material | Governed option lists |
| Boolean | Hazardous | Audit-sensitive |
| Media | Hero image | Links to DAM asset |
| Date | Launch date | Scheduling |
Categories
Category trees classify products. You may maintain:
- Navigation tree for your website
- Amazon browse / product-type mapping tree
- Internal merchandising hierarchy
Trees can coexist; the same product can sit in multiple nodes.
Channels & locales
A channel is a distribution target (Shopify, Amazon, B2B portal, print). Each channel defines required attributes and completeness rules.
A locale is language + region (en_US, de_DE). Channel + locale defines what “ready to publish” means.
Completeness
Completeness is a weighted score per product for a channel-locale pair — not one global number. A SKU can be 95% ready for English D2C and 40% for French Amazon.
Missing hero images often weigh more than missing secondary bullets, reflecting real rejection patterns.
Syndication objects
| Object | Role |
|---|---|
| Connector | Platform definition (Amazon, Shopify) |
| Connection | Tenant credentials + marketplace |
| Export profile | What to publish, mappings, schedule |
| Job | Async import/export run with per-item status |
Assets & DAM
Digital assets live in DAM with approvals and renditions. Assets link to products and can output channel-specific formats on publish.
Next
- Catalog fundamentals — setup order and practical deep dives
- Getting started
- Data model
- Integrations
- API overview