Product Status Definition
Product Status (also called lifecycle status) is a field that records where a product sits in its commercial life, typically values such as draft, active, discontinued, or end-of-life. It controls whether a product is ready to be enriched, published, or retired, and it gives every team a shared, unambiguous signal about what can be done with each record.
Why does product status matter?
A catalog is never static: new products are being prepared while old ones are phased out. Without a clear status, half-finished products leak into live channels and discontinued items keep selling after they should have stopped. Product status prevents both by gating what happens at each stage, so only complete, approved products reach customers and retired ones are cleanly withdrawn.
How does it work in a PIM?
In a PIM system, product status often drives workflow and publishing rules. A product in draft is hidden from channels and open for enrichment; moving it to active can trigger completeness checks and approval before it publishes; setting it to discontinued or end-of-life stops new syndication and can flag remaining stock for clearance. Because status is managed centrally, the same lifecycle state is respected across every connected channel at once.
