Item relations

When a customer views details about an item in the catalog, the listing may include references to one or more related items from the catalog. There are four types of relations, which are summarized in the table below. Replacement Items, Upsale Items, Cross-sale Items and Also Ordered items. In the Customer Center, these relations are displayed in the Related Items section on the Item Details page. At any time, only one of these four types of relations will be listed, though several items of the selected type may appear if defined. The conditions under which each type of relation will be displayed are also summarized in the table below;

Relation type Description Condition
Replacement Items Items that are appropriate replacements for an out-ofstock item Always listed when defined for items that are out-of-stock
Upsale Items Higher performance (and more expensive) items that are similar to the selected item.

  • Always listed when defined for items that are in stock.

  • If an item is not in stock, then upsale items are never shown, even if no replacement items are defined.
Cross-sale Items Add-ons or accessories for the selected item.

  • Defined for in-stock items only when no up-sale items are defined.

  • If an item is not in stock, then crosssale items are never shown, even if no replacement items are defined.
Also Ordered

Items that are brought frequently in the same order as the actual item.

Note: This feature is available only in the Infor e-Commerce B2C setup.
If an item is not in stock, then also ordered items are never shown, even if no replacement items are defined.

The Also Ordered item (Other item) relation is based on a buyer’s ordering pattern. Infor e-Commerce automatically generates cross-sale relations for items based on actual purchases. In the Customer Center, on the Item Details page users can see a list of items that are purchased by buyers who also bought that item. A maximum of 5 such items are displayed. This relation is automatically created by the Item.GenerateOtherItemsRelation scheduled job. You can set the time period you want this scheduled job to cover. For example, you can set it to filter and display the top 5 related items purchased within the last 6 months. However, the longer time period covered, the more Previous Order records are to be processed. Consequently, the longer it takes for the scheduled job to run, which affects performance.

Determining how often your clients make their orders will help in identifying the most reasonable time period to cover. Also, you should verify the business need of how frequent the data should be updated. A scheduled job running at a shorter time interval adds more load to the database server. If possible, set the scheduling interval at a value not smaller than 10 minutes. It is recommended to set it at a higher value, about 60 minutes or more.