Smart Select Rules - Decoration Process Settings

Smart Select Rules remove the need to define decoration areas and decoration processes for each and every product you plan to sell. DecoNetwork inspects every article suppliers provide in their catalogs and determines how to sell each product as a viable value-added offering. All this is calculated by simply configuring the processes you operate, selecting suppliers, and smart select will do the rest.

Prerequisites

• You must have administrator access to use this feature
• You must have decoration processes previously enabled

To configure smart select rules for a decoration process:

1. Log into Admin
2. Browse to Decoration Processes
3. Select the Process to Configure e.g. DTG Printing
4. Click Smart Select Rules

 

In the work area is a list of product descriptors. Selecting any of their corresponding checkboxes to ON will enable that descriptor to be taken into consideration as part of the product selection process. For example, if Color Type is turned on, and White is the only color selected, then only products that are colored white will be taken into consideration for selection. Each selection made within an area works as an OR, which is to say if the color selections white, light, and dark were all set to ON, then the system would consider products which were either white OR light OR dark.

Products must meet criteria from each selection area before they are finally turned into a product that could be put up for sale (provided it can be also be decorated). Thus a product must meet the selection criteria for color, then material, weave, finish, stretchability, has buttons, has pockets, and pattern before it is used as a saleable product. These selection criteria are modifiable to suit your business needs and equipment capabilities.

When viewing the smart select page the system will inform you that catalogs have been updated if this has occurred. DecoNetwork will make appropriate updates to the catalogs as suppliers change product availability. These updates are not automatically pushed to Fulfillment Center's to prevent the automatic deletion of products which can be upsetting. Therefore it is advisable to occasionally visit this page to see what product catalog updates have occurred that will affect your range and take steps to avoid problems, such as finding alternate like-product replacements for any supplier's product lines that have been discontinued. Products to be removed can be viewed by clicking View Details.

Some other Smart Select benefits and how they affect you

• Full import of product specification sheets.
• Pricing automatically calculated based on supplier charges and your markup rules.
• Colors imported and configured to work with each available process.
• Sizing imported and configured to work with each available process.
• Packaging dimensions calculated and imported for incorporation into shipping fees.
• SKU's imported.
• Automatic categorization of product by type.
• Automatic creation of various product thumbnails and images.
• Predefined decoration areas with availability by process type.

While it is easy to take Smart Select for granted - many people never revisit it for a long time after initial set up, it is important to consider how much time it is saving compared to being forced to manually configure each and every option that a product can have.

Of course like all settings in DecoNetwork, the smart select rules can be overridden as desired. (Under Products > Select Catalog).

When are finished, click Save.