Product Item Identification

Many eCommerce stores have complex & detailed setups for their products. As a result, Fast's data model allows for any combination of unique identifiers. This is a representation of an item in Fast.

Option: {
	option_id: string, // identifier for the option, used to indicate size or color
  option_value: string, // value for the option provided, i.e. small, medium, large, blue
}

Item: {
	external_id: string, // uniquely identifies an exact item, i.e. Small Navy Blue Hoodie
	external_product_id: string, // identifies a product, i.e. Hoodie
	external_variant_id: string, // can be used in combination with product_id to identify an exact item.
	external_product_options: []Option, // can be used in combination with product_id to identify an exact item.
}

You will need to see how this schema will map to your representation of items in your system. It is best to provide as much data as possible to the checkout window so that your system does less work to identify which product is being purchased.

Unsupported product item types

1. Subscription products
2. THC products
3. Weapons

Guidelines for item identification

Fast expects data for items to be injected into checkout, here are a couple guidelines for providing that data. It is recommended to approach each unique product / item set up in order. That is to say for Item A, if guideline #1 fits, you should use #1 and not #2.

1. If the browser has the data to uniquely identify the item.

   • Provide the unique identifier as the external_item_id

     Expectation: Your backend should recognize this external_item_id

2. If the product has no settings or modifiers the customer can pick.

   • Provide the external_product_id

     Expectation: Your backend should recognize the external_product_id

3. If the product has settings/modifiers & a unique identifier for the exact product variant is present.

   • Provide the external_product_id

   • Provide the unique identifier for the settings as the external_variant_id

     Expectation: Your backend should be able to recognize the external_product_id + external_variant_id as a unique item

4. If the product has settings/modifiers but a unique identifier for the exact product cannot be fetched from the browser.

   • Provide the external_product_id

   • Provide the list of external_product_options in the specified format

     Expectation: Given the external_product_id + its optional key/value pairs, your backend should be able to recognize the exact item that is being operated on.