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Product Status Rules in Norce Commerce

This page explains how Norce Commerce manages the product life cycle using product statuses. It covers built-in statuses, status transitions, automation rules, and configuration options. The goal is to help you understand how product visibility and availability are controlled throughout their life cycle.

Purpose of Product Status​

Product status in Norce Commerce represents the life cycle stage of a product. All products move through stages from creation to end-of-life. Statuses guide commerce front ends on which products are available for sale, searchable, or hidden.

Many ERP systems have similar status concepts. If your ERP uses different statuses, you must map them to Norce statuses.

Norce Commerce also provides automatic status changes in specific scenarios.

All Norce Commerce Services calls that fetch products allow filtering by one or more status IDs. This lets you control whether to include only active products or also inactive/hidden ones in searches.

The statusSeed parameter is used in Norce Commerce Services to specify which product statuses to include in results.

Built-in Product Statuses​

Norce Commerce defines the following product statuses:

IdStatusDescription
1ActiveProducts currently available for sale.
2ComingProducts not yet available for sale but expected soon.
3ExpiringProducts available for sale but will be closed when out of stock.
4HiddenProducts available for sale in special cases, but not shown in listings or search results. Used for temporarily not sellable products.
5InactiveProducts closed and not available for sale.
6Not activatedSupplier products not yet created or assigned a part number.

Usage Note:
In product listings, it is common to include only Active and Expiring products (IDs 1 and 3). Coming products (2) are usually excluded until ready for sale. Hidden products (4) may be included in special searches.

Product Status Transitions​

Products move through statuses based on manual changes, integration updates, or automated rules. Each transition is described below with context and triggers.

Product Creation and Initial Status​

Products can be created in Norce Commerce in three ways:

  • Manually in the Admin UI (any status can be set).
  • Integration/import via Norce Commerce Connect (any status can be set).
  • Creation rules (status is set by rule configuration).

A common practice is to set status to Coming if enrichment is needed before sale, or to Hidden/Active if ready.

Product Creation Flow​

Product Activation​

Products in the Coming status can be activated by:

  • Start date: Automatically changes to Active on activation day.
  • Manual change: Set to Active in Admin UI.
  • Integration/import: Update via Norce Commerce Connect or Excel import.
  • Optional rule: Automatically activate when in stock (see In-stock based rules).

Product Activation Flow​

Reverting Status to Active​

Any status except Coming can revert to Active:

  • Manual change: In Admin UI or via integration/import.
  • Automatic: Expiring or Inactive products revert to Active if they get active suppliers (if set to expiring by rule).
  • Optional rules: Hidden products can become Active if back in stock or if a main image is added (see In-stock based rules).

Revert to Active Flow​

Making Products Hidden​

Products in Active status can be set to Hidden:

  • Manual change: In Admin UI or via integration/import.
  • Optional rules: Automatically set to Hidden when out of stock or missing a main image (see In-stock based rules).

Hidden Status Flow​

Products Becoming Expiring​

Products in Active status can become Expiring:

  • Manual change: In Admin UI or via integration/import.
  • End date: Automatically changes to Expiring after end date.
  • No suppliers: Automatically changes to Expiring if all suppliers are inactive.
  • Optional rules: Hidden products become Expiring if all suppliers are inactive (see In-stock based rules).

Expiring Status Flow​

Products Becoming Inactive​

Products in Expiring status can become Inactive:

  • Manual change: In Admin UI or via integration/import.
  • Out of stock: Automatically changes to Inactive if out of stock (unless optional rule is set).
  • Optional rule: Only set to Inactive if out of stock at both suppliers and local stock (see In-stock based rules).

Inactive Status Flow​

Exceptions and Special Rules​

Locked Status​

A lock symbol in the Admin UI allows you to "lock" the product status. When locked, no rules, imports, or integrations can change the status. Unlock to allow changes.

Manual SKU Status Changes​

An optional rule, “Manual sku status changes”, disables all automation for product statuses. Use this if you want to manage statuses only manually or from a source system (e.g., ERP).

In-stock Based Rules​

For rules based on inventory, Norce Commerce checks all warehouses of type Warehouse. Store or Other types are ignored. For supplier stock, only warehouses with “included in stock calculations” set to true are checked.

An optional setting allows you to change which warehouse types are checked.

IsDropShipOnly Products​

For products marked as IsDropShipOnly (or if their primary category is set to it), in-stock checks only consider supplier stock, not local stock.

Products or categories marked as IsDropShipOnly are always handled as dropshipping, even if local stock exists.

Further Reading​

  • Product lifecycle TODO