ProductCatalogs.ai

Discontinued products

When a Supplier Discontinues a Product

A discontinuation notice from a supplier is a fact about them, not an instruction to you. What you do with your own catalog, your own customers, and your own remaining stock is a separate decision.

Get my free risk report See the workflow

Why this matters

Treated carelessly, a discontinuation flag can silently pull a product out of your catalog, your exports, and anything downstream the moment the file is processed — before anyone's decided what to actually tell customers or do with what's left on the shelf.

A safer process

Turn the update into a clear decision.

  1. 1Confirm the discontinuation is explicit in the supplier's file, not inferred from the product simply being absent.
  2. 2Decide what happens to the product in your own catalog — hidden from new orders, marked out of stock, or kept visible while stock lasts.
  3. 3Keep the product in your history and exports as inactive rather than deleting the record outright.
  4. 4Apply that decision consistently, so the same choice doesn't have to be remade the next time this supplier discontinues something.
  5. 5Record which version of your catalog reflects the change, so you can point to exactly when and why it happened.

Review checklist

Before you approve.

  • A discontinuation is confirmed, not assumed from an omission.
  • The product's fate in your own catalog is a deliberate choice, not a side effect of processing the file.
  • The record isn't deleted — it stays visible in history as inactive.
  • The decision is consistent with how you've handled discontinuations before.
  • The approved version that reflects the change is traceable later.

Frequently asked questions

Should a discontinued product disappear from my catalog immediately?

That's your call, not the supplier's — some businesses pull it right away, others keep selling remaining stock. The point is that it's a decision someone makes, not something that happens automatically because a supplier's file said so.

What happens to the sales history for a discontinued product?

It should stay intact. A product going inactive going forward doesn't mean the record of what you sold and to whom should disappear.

Check your own supplier file before anything changes.

Start with one CSV or Excel file. ProductCatalogs.ai shows the risky changes and keeps the current catalog protected until you approve.

Get my free report