Product Data Modeling

Overview

Every platform has its own product data model — Shopify uses products with variants and metafields, WooCommerce uses products with attributes and custom fields, and BigCommerce uses products with options and custom fields. Understanding your platform's model and fitting your catalog into it correctly prevents data quality problems and import failures. Only build a custom data model if you're building a headless storefront from scratch.

When to Use This Skill

• When designing a product catalog structure for a new store on an existing platform
• When adding variant support (size, color, material) to existing products
• When implementing custom attributes for faceted filtering
• When modeling product relationships (bundles, cross-sells, accessories)
• When importing products from a PIM or ERP into the platform's model

Core Instructions

Step 1: Understand your platform's core data model