Product formats: what they are and how they help you order and inventory better

A product format is the way you buy, order, or inventory a product.

For example, the same product can be bought as a box of 6 bottles, a pack of 24 units, or a 5 kg bag. The format describes that presentation and connects it to a base unit such as kg, l, or unit.

What is a product format?

The format describes how the product arrives or how you manage it in your daily operations.

Common examples include:

• Box of 6 bottles
• Pack of 24 units
• 5 kg bag
• 10 l container
• Tray of 12 units

Defining formats helps you avoid confusion when a product appears in different ways on invoices, delivery notes, orders, or inventories.

How formats relate to the base unit

The base unit is the common measure used to compare and calculate the product: kg, l, or unit.

Each format must have an equivalence with that base unit. This lets haddock understand how much product is actually inside each format.

Examples:

• 1 box of 6 bottles of 1 l = 6 l
• 1 pack of 24 cans = 24 units
• 1 bag of flour of 5 kg = 5 kg
• 1 box of 12 bottles of 0.75 l = 9 l

This lets you compare purchases even if suppliers use different formats. Instead of looking only at the price of a box, you can analyze the price per kg, l, or unit.

Practical example

Imagine you buy water in two formats:

• Supplier A: 1 box of 6 bottles of 1 l for EUR 4.80
• Supplier B: 1 pack of 12 bottles of 1 l for EUR 8.40

If you only look at the format price, Supplier B's pack looks more expensive.

But when you convert it to the base unit:

• Supplier A: EUR 4.80 / 6 l = EUR 0.80 per l
• Supplier B: EUR 8.40 / 12 l = EUR 0.70 per l

With the equivalence configured, you can compare the real cost and make a better decision.

How this helps you day to day

Working with well-defined formats helps you:

• Reduce duplicates, because the same product does not depend so much on how the format is written in each document.
• Compare prices better, because you can see the cost per base unit and not only per box, pack, or bag.
• Create clearer orders, by specifying the format you need to receive.
• Keep inventory more consistent, because quantities can be read using a common measure.
• Understand purchase lines better, especially when a supplier changes the presentation or the format description.

Best practices

• Use clear format names that are easy to recognize, such as Box 6 bottles, Pack 24 units, or 5 kg bag.
• Check that the equivalence with the base unit is correct before using the format in orders or inventories.
• Keep the most useful base unit for analyzing the product: kg for weight, l for liquids, and unit for countable items.
• Avoid creating very similar formats if they represent the same thing. For example, Box 6 units and Box of 6 units should be handled consistently.
• If you buy the same product in different presentations, create one format for each presentation with its corresponding equivalence.

You can review formats from the product page, in Product formats.

Updated on: 30/04/2026