Compare products side by side
The Compare products screen puts 2 to 6 products from your catalog into a single table, lining the same fields up for all of them and highlighting the rows where they differ. Use it to answer the customer's question about which model to pick, without opening one product at a time.
When a customer asks what the difference is between two or three items in the catalog, opening each product and working from memory is slow and error-prone. The Compare products screen builds the table for you: one column per product, one row per field, and highlighting exactly on the rows where the products are not the same.
Where it lives
In the menu, under the Products group, open Compare products. The screen uses the same read permission as the product catalog: whoever can see products in the system can see the comparison.
How to compare
- Open Compare products.
- Use the Add a product box and pick the first item. It becomes a tag at the top of the screen.
- Repeat for the others. A comparison holds 2 to 6 products; once you reach 6, the picker disappears.
- The table appears as soon as 2 products are picked. While there is only one, the screen tells you to pick at least 2.
- To take a product out of the table, click the X next to its name on the tag.
What the table shows
The first column is called Field and lists the product fields with the names your organization uses, in your language. The other columns are the products you picked, in the order you added them. The table covers fields such as SKU, category, price, billing period, status, brand, manufacturer, family, product line, specifications, materials, finish, dimensions, tolerances and lead time in days.
- A highlighted row means the products do not share the same value in that field. That is what the customer wants to know.
- A field that is empty for every product you picked: the row does not appear at all, so the table is not padded with blanks.
- A dash in place of a value: that particular product has that field empty.
Cost and permissions
Product cost is sensitive information. The cost row is only filled in for whoever administers the organization's settings. For everyone else the value is not even sent to the screen: it comes back blank. In other words, you can open this screen in front of a customer with no risk of exposing your margin, as long as the person holding the device is not an administrator.
Frequently asked questions
- I picked two products and the table says there is no comparable data. That happens when the products you picked have none of the comparable fields filled in. Complete the product records and come back.
- Can I compare more than 6? No. The limit is 6 at a time, so the table stays readable on screen.
- Does comparing change anything? No. It is read-only. To change a value, open the product in the catalog and edit it there.
- Can I include custom fields I created? The table uses the fixed set of product fields listed above.