What is the difference between a "Product" and an "Offer"?

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 is 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, 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 Amazon it is important to differentiate between the two, for example, and in practice, if a product is available at Amazon, you can create an offer, linked to this product, it is then called “matching”. We assign a seller’s offer to a product.
• On Amazon, products are shared among merchants, any merchants can post an offer on a product, then, this product will have many offers from many merchants.

On Shopify there is no difference between a product and an offer, we are speaking globally of Product.

Updated on: 14/01/2025