Basic concepts
Understand the core concepts behind Emfas
Catalog
Products are at the core of your catalog, but the data that supports them exists at different levels and in different relationships. Here's how it all works together.
Products
Products are the main items in your catalog. A product represents something you sell, like "Running Shoes" or "Leather Jacket".
Variants
Products can have multiple variants. These represent different versions of the same product. For example, a jacket might have variants for different colors.
SKUs
Each variant can have multiple SKUs, which typically represent individual inventory items. For shoes, each size would be a separate SKU.
Other types
Beyond products, your catalog can include:
- Bundles: Groups of products sold together
- Categories: Ways to organize and group your products
- Assets: Images, videos, and other media files
- Custom content: Any other structured data you need to manage alongside your products
Did you know?
Emfas has built-in support for Shopify Collections and Shopify Metaobjects as well.
Attributes
Attributes are the individual pieces of information that make up your catalog - like title, description, color, price, and images. They can be attached to any catalog item: products, variants, SKUs, categories, bundles, and more.
Emfas works with two types of attributes. For a comprehensive reference, see the Attributes page.
External Attributes
External attributes come from your connected data sources like Shopify or Centra. When you connect a data source, Emfas automatically mirrors all your existing attributes.
What makes this powerful: changes sync immediately in both directions. Update an external attribute in Emfas and it changes in your store. Update it in your store and Emfas reflects it right away.
Unlike traditional PIMs with periodic syncs, your team can keep working in their existing tools while you transition. No conflicting data, no waiting for scheduled syncs.
Track attribute sources
Every external attribute shows its source and destination, so you always know where changes will sync.
Did you know?
Emfas has built-in support for Shopify multi-store setups - connect one attribute to multiple stores across different languages.
Emfas Attributes
Emfas attributes are created and managed only in Emfas. They don't sync to your data sources. These are useful for:
- Marketplace-specific data for Zalando, Amazon, or other platforms
- Internal information like content briefs or workflow status
- Any data that doesn't belong in your ecommerce platform
Identifying Emfas attributes
Emfas-managed attributes are clearly marked with the "emfas" badge.
