Why does “product name” take priority over searches by “company name” on The GSA Advantage Catalog and how does GSA identify a product?
GSA uniquely identifies each product using a combination of your contract number plus the manufacturer’s description (part number). Each product you present must have a unique manufacturer’s part number – even if two or more manufacturers use identical part numbers. This condition requires a part number adjustment on your end.
Neither GSA nor the Vendor Support Center can change the identification of any products after a search is made. Searches are based on key words that occur in certain fields in this order of priority:
- Product Name,
- Product Description (part number),
- Contract Number,
- Company Name.
Here is an example of this situation. Vendor A has a product they want potential clients to search for using “Company Name” as the priority field. As a result, a search beginning with the “Product Name” field will take priority over the “Company Name” field and the search will fail.
If this becomes a continuing problem, one solution is to ask Vendor A to alter their product name. Unfortunately, this may not always be possible as Vendor A believes they benefit because their product is listed before that of other vendors during a search using “Company Name” as priority.
You must be aware that this issue is at the mercy of individual GSA contractors and cannot be modified by GSA or the Vendor Support Center.
If you have any questions about how products are identified on GSA Advantage, or other GSA Schedule compliance related issues, please contact us at admin@scheduleservices.net or call us at 336-887-1328.
