Setting up a supersession association provides the ability to recognize that an ordered item can be superseded by a chain of items. An item is superseded when its effective date becomes obsolete. Typically obsolete items are not offered to customers who perform a regular search of your business?s Web site. However if a customer performs an advanced search looking specifically for obsolete items he is offered the next item in the chain of supersession. Additionally if an item becomes unavailable such as an item that has sold out the system tries to order the next item in the chain of supersession.

A chain of supersession can include as many items as you want. However you should not specify more than one chain of supersession per item. For example you can configure item A to be superseded by item B which in turn can be superseded by item C; however you cannot specify that both items B and C should directly supersede item A. When configuring supersession ensure that you specify similar items that are comparably-priced such as different versions of software.

Let us for example presume that in your catalog you have an automotive part that is sold under a new model number each year. You configure supersession for the part (Part A is superseded by Part B). Part A is now obsolete. If a customer searches your Web site for the part the system does not display results for the search.

However if the customer performs an advanced search that specifically includes obsolete parts the system informs the customer that Part A is obsolete and offers the customer Part B because it supersedes Part A.

Let us consider a similar scenario where Part A is sold out and is no longer available. Without supersession a customer who tries to buy Part A may be told that it is not available even though it is available as Part B. However if supersession is configured the system offers Part B to the customer.