Price/Sales Catalog (832) Transaction Description
The Price/Sales Catalog (832) is sent from a supplier to a buyer in order to furnish a buyer with information regarding products available from that supplier. It is not a one-time response to a buyer’s request for information, unlike the Response to Request for Quotation (843). It is intended to serve as an update to a standing database of supplier product information, and as such, is created by the supplier whenever their product line changes. By maintaining a current, accurate database of a supplier’s available products, the ordering process will be more efficient and error free.
This transaction can be sent from a supplier directly to a buyer. However, the most efficient use of this transaction involves a third-party catalog provider which serves as a central database for a supplier’s product catalog. In this scenario, a supplier initially establishes their current product line in the third-party catalog. The supplier authorizes customer access to all or portions of their catalog entries. Buyers can access updated catalog information for all suppliers subscribing to the third-party catalog provider.
As suppliers add, change, or delete items from their product line, they send Price/Sales Catalog (832) transactions to the third-party catalog to reflect these changes. The third-party catalog updates the standing database and can broadcast these changes to the appropriate customers using the Price/Sales Catalog (832). The buyer can also send this transaction to a third-party catalog provider or supplier to request specific product information (e.g., all setup information for items with a certain style identifier).
Information commonly found in the Price/Sales Catalog (832) transaction includes:
- U.P.C. number for the supplier’s products
- Supplier’s identifier for the products, e.g., style
- National Retail Federation (NRF) size code, and size description
- NRF color code, and color description
- Price
- Discontinue date, if known
Price/Sales Catalog (832) Benefits
- Provides ready access to supplier products or product lines
- Allows the buyer to determine the most favorable product pricing
- Facilitates evaluation of a supplier’s product line, new product line extensions or new product introductions
- Ensures consistent trade item identification using the Global Trade Item Identification (GTIN). GTIN provides both the supplier and the buyer with a common item identification system that can be scanned. The uses of GTIN data and the impact on traditional business processes are endless. The data is useful in the planning, inventory management, ordering, logistics, and business support functions by allowing increased detail analysis to be performed and evaluated. In short, the GTIN scanning process links the physical item to additional supporting information, resident on internal databases. If the GTIN number is used by the buyer and supplier in their EDI partnerships as their only means of merchandise identification, the need for labor intensive maintenance of item cross reference tables will be reduced. It provides a means for a more cost effective method of conducting business.
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