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High-tech, IT and mobile: what after-sales work demands of a catalogue

Selling IT hardware, phones or consumables puts demands on a catalogue that no CMS covers out of the box: tracking the exact unit shipped, running a repair cycle separate from the order, and publishing environmental fees and mandatory rating labels.

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The SKU no longer describes what was sold

In a high-tech store, the product reference is not the real unit of management. A warranty claim, a repair file or a manufacturer recall all concern one specific unit, identified by its serial number or IMEI. A CMS data model, however, only knows that three units of reference X were sold. Tying a unique identifier to every unit shipped calls for a dedicated table linked to the order line, plus data entry at picking time — ideally by scanner, otherwise the data is wrong within weeks.

One constraint leads to another: the identifier has to appear on the delivery note and in the back office, and stay searchable when a buyer calls back two years later without an order number. That reverse lookup, from IMEI to buyer, decides whether a warranty file takes a minute or half an hour.

Technical constraints to deal with

  • Serial numbers and IMEI carried by the order line rather than the product sheet: dedicated table, entry at picking, lookup by identifier.
  • After-sales is not a return: request, return number, receipt, diagnosis, repair, exchange or refusal, then shipping back — with statuses and lead times that are not those of an order.
  • Two warranties to keep apart: the statutory guarantee of conformity and the manufacturer’s commercial warranty, which share neither duration nor contact point.
  • Machine-by-machine compatibility: a cartridge, a memory module or a battery is sold for one given model, which is a many-to-many relationship between references and devices.
  • Compatibility lists supplied by manufacturers, to be re-imported with every new range without breaking associations already validated.
  • An eco-fee on electrical and electronic equipment on one side, private-copying levy on storage media on the other: two separate amounts, never discountable, shown on the sheet and on the invoice, excluded from promotion rules.
  • Repairability rating, then durability rating depending on the category: pictogram and score near the price, product data held per reference and updated by the manufacturer.
  • Prices and stock fed daily by wholesale feeds, with delisted references leaving behind pages to redirect or close.

How I work on this kind of store

  1. Model the individual unit

    I build the table linking a serial number or IMEI to an order line, with entry at picking time and lookup by identifier in the back office.

  2. Take after-sales out of the order funnel

    The return file becomes its own object, with its own statuses, history and notifications. A three-week repair must not freeze an order that has already been delivered.

  3. Structure compatibility

    An association table between references and device models, fed by import, showing what will be added, replaced or removed before anything is written.

  4. Isolate the levies

    The eco-fee and the private-copying levy sit in their own fields, kept out of discount calculations and carried unchanged onto the invoice.

  5. Handle end of life

    A reference dropped from the wholesale feed triggers an explicit decision: redirect to its successor, keep the page as unavailable, or close it outright. Without that rule the catalogue fills with dead pages.

Closely related topics

Frequently asked questions

Can serial numbers be stored without custom development?
At very low volume, a free note on the order will do. As soon as reverse lookup is needed, or after-sales has to filter by identifier, a dedicated table becomes necessary: a text field neither searches nor exports properly.
Module or custom development for after-sales?
It depends on the real cycle. If the journey stops at receipt then refund, a returns module is often enough. Once diagnosis, advance exchange, pending spare parts or return to the manufacturer appear, the cycle is specific to the business and has to be built.
How should manufacturer compatibility lists be handled?
As an importable association table, not as text in the description. The import must be replayable, show what it adds and removes before writing, and never wipe a manually entered association without warning.
Should the eco-fee appear inside the displayed price?
It is part of what the buyer pays but must be identifiable separately on the sheet and on the invoice. In practice that means a dedicated field per reference, carried into the commercial document and kept outside the discount scope.
What to do with pages for references no longer distributed?
Only three outcomes: redirect to the successor where one exists, keep the page as unavailable if it still gets useful traffic, or close it cleanly. What to avoid is the page left online with a price that no longer holds and stock frozen at zero.

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