Rethinking Inventory: Inside Takeer’s Hierarchical "Sellable Unit" Logic
Most e-commerce platforms view products in a very simple way: you have a T-shirt, and it comes in Red or Blue. This works fine for basic retail, but it fails for real-world businesses—especially wholesalers, grocers, and hardware suppliers.
In the real world, a business doesn’t just sell a "product." They sell units of a product. You might sell a single soda bottle to a walk-in customer, but sell a crate of 24 bottles to a bulk buyer.
On traditional platforms, you would often have to create two separate products ("Soda Bottle" and "Soda Crate"), making inventory tracking a nightmare.
At Takeer, we built our inventory system differently. We call it Sellable Unit Architecture.
What is a Sellable Unit?
In Takeer, a "Product" is the umbrella item (e.g., "Mineral Water"). Inside that product, you define Sellable Units. These are the actual configurations you sell to customers, such as:
- Piece (1 Bottle)
- Pack (6 Bottles)
- Carton (4 Packs)
Each of these is a distinct unit with its own price and inventory count, but they are all linked to the same parent product.
The Power of Hierarchy (Parent vs. Child)
The magic of our system is how these units relate to each other. When you set up a product, you define the "adjacent" relationship.
The Logic: You tell the system that 1 Carton contains 4 Packs. You tell the system that 1 Pack contains 6 Pieces.
This hierarchy allows for powerful inventory management features:
1. Breaking Down Inventory
For local businesses, this is a game changer. Let’s say you run out of loose bottles (Pieces) to sell to walk-in customers, but you have 50 Cartons in the back.
On Takeer, you don’t need to delete a Carton and create new products. You simply use the "Break Down" feature. You can instruct the system to "open" one Carton. The system effectively removes 1 Carton from stock and automatically adds 24 Pieces (4 packs x 6 pieces) to your Piece inventory. Your total value remains accurate, but your sellable stock updates instantly.
2. Flexible Pricing Models
Because every unit is treated independently, you can have totally different pricing strategies for the same product:
- Standard Pricing: Sell the Piece at a fixed retail price.
- Quantity Pricing: Set the Carton to automatically discount if a user buys 5 or more.
- Auction: Have excess stock of Pallets? You can put the bulk unit up for auction while keeping the single units at standard price.
Targeted Promotions
Promotions on Takeer are surgical. You don’t have to discount the entire product. You can decide to run a promotion only on the Sellable Unit.
For example, you can create a "Wholesale Week" campaign where the Carton has a 10% discount and a high affiliate commission, while the Piece price remains normal. This gives business owners control over their margins, pushing the specific stock they want to move without devaluing their entire inventory.
Why This Matters
For the business owner, this means:
- Less Clutter: One product entry covers your retail and wholesale needs.
- Accurate Stock: No more guessing how many singles you have left after opening a box.
- Better Sales: You can cater to both the customer buying one item and the B2B client buying in bulk, all from the same profile.
Takeer adapts to how you do business, not the other way around. Get started at takeer.com