Product Templates and Custom Fields allow for customization of how different resources are defined. Both can be used at the same time, but their scope is different. Within this article, we'll dive deep into when to use Custom Fields and when to use Product Templates.

Product Templates are the blue print that best describes the key features a certain product type.

Product Templates are only applicable to products and inventory items. They help record the most necessary information to describe a certain product, and allow users to select from a list of preset values that the store defines.

Also, product templates are only applied to products / inventory items where that certain product template is chosen.

For example, if you have a Jordan 1 ConsignR Toes and a Supreme ConsignR Box Logo Hoodie, two different product templates will most likely be applied to these two products since they are fundamentally so different.

You should absolutely use Product Templates when you want to define a whole new product type.

For example, if you are a sneaker consignment store and want to start selling sneakers in women's sizing, this would be when you want to create a new product template. You would perhaps name it Sneakers - Womens.

The most vital information to record about women's sneakers is their Size and Condition. With this new product template, you can record the size and condition of future women's sneakers with few to no mistakes.

Custom Fields allow users to create additional fields to certain resource types in the app.

Custom Fields can be applied to inventory items, products, product templates, and profiles. Unlike Product Templates, Custom Fields are present everywhere in the chosen resource.

For example, if we had a Brand custom field applied to all products, it would be present in both the Jordan 1 ConsignR Toes and Supreme ConsignR Box Logo Hoodie.

Use Custom Fields when you want to record information that is applicable to an entire resource.

For example, you may want to record if an inventory item contains all of the original packaging and items. This can be applicable across different products and inventory items such as sneakers, retro video games, and trading cards that your store might sell. In this case, you should create a custom field for this information.

This wider scope saves you time and energy since product templates are a lot smaller in scope.

Use product templates when you want to define product types. The fields that describe a product type should be features that make that product type unique / different from other product types.

Use custom fields when you want to define fields that are widely applicable to a resource type.