To begin, take an example from everyday life; you are in front of a shop window, you like an item, for example a T-Shirt presented in the window.
So you’ve just seen a product that you like. You enter the store, you go to the department where this T-Shirt is, you’ll find the related offers: this T-shirt in all sizes and colors, with different prices, it’s therefore offers.
Returning to marketplaces, the principle is the same, you will find a product listed, once you click on this product, the offers will appear.
Marketplaces typically process data separately, on one hand the product sheets and on the other the sellers’ offers.
- An offer is a set of data that contains information related to the marketability of the product: the reference number, quantity, price, condition (new or used)
- A product is a set of data constituting the product itself, we find the description, pictures, features …
On AliExpress it is important to differentiate between the two, for example and in practice, if a product is available in AliExpress, you can create an offer, linked to this product, it is then called the “matching”. We assign a seller’s offer to a product.
Note that on PrestaShop there is no difference between a product and offer, we will speak then globally of Product.