How the Waterdeep Trading Company Organizes Their Product Catalog with Category Hierarchies in Dynamics 365

The Waterdeep Trading Company, headquartered in the bustling Sword Coast metropolis of Waterdeep, offers everything an adventurer might need—from enchanted aprons to armor blessed by clerics of Lathander. But as their product lines expanded across Faerûn, their quill-and-scroll inventory system simply couldn’t keep up. That’s when they turned to Microsoft Dynamics 365—and specifically, product category hierarchies—to bring order to their magical chaos.

Why Category Hierarchies Matter

In Dynamics 365, category hierarchies are like the enchanted blueprints of your product catalog. They give structure, meaning, and power to how products are organized, priced, reported on, and sold.

Instead of listing all products in a single long scroll, Waterdeep Trading Company now classifies them into structured Sales Category Hierarchies that mirror their physical shelves and trading logic.

The Anatomy of Waterdeep’s Product Categories

Here’s a peek at their current Sales Category Hierarchy:

Each node isn’t just a label—it’s a functional container that drives how products behave in the system.

Magic Behind the Structure

Here’s why Waterdeep’s team, led by Greta Ironfist, built such a comprehensive structure:

• Relevant Attributes Per Category: Different products need different data. A chainmail vest needs a defense rating, while a cook’s apron requires a heat resistance level. By assigning attribute groups to each category, they ensure each product has the right fields—no more, no less.
• Faster Sales and Smarter Filtering: Sales agents no longer scroll endlessly through product lists. Using Released Products by Category, they can filter by Clothing > Aprons or Weapons > Daggers instantly—whether they’re taking an order in-store or via speaking stone.
• Discount and Pricing Control: During the annual “Goblin Week” sale, the system automatically applies discounts to all Armor category items. There’s no need to tag each item—just one discount rule tied to the category node.
• Clean Procurement Workflows: Vendor relationships are tied to procurement categories. This ensures the Baldur’s Gate Blacksmiths Guild doesn’t get accidental orders for bathrobes. Procurement policies guide buying by category, preventing mistakes and keeping supplier alignment sharp.
• Crystal-Clear Reporting: Need to know which product family brought in the most gold last quarter? Category-based reports break down performance by line: Armor vs. Weapons vs. Clothing.

Real Example: Bells & Aprons

Using product codes like 10002-BELL and 10001-APRN, products are linked to the Bells and Aprons nodes under Clothing. This categorization powers everything from pricing to trade agreement journals to magical inventory counts.

A System Built for Growth

As new products are added—say Clothing > Cloaks or Weapons > Polearms—they simply extend the existing hierarchy. Each addition inherits the right behaviors, pricing rules, and attributes without manual duplication.

This system ensures that the Waterdeep Trading Company is prepared not just for tomorrow’s adventures, but for a full-scale expansion across the Western Heartlands and beyond.

Ready to organize your own product catalog with spellbinding efficiency? Grab the Advanced Dungeons & Dynamics 365 guides at adnd365.com/start.

Want to explore Waterdeep’s real system? Request access to the live demo environment at https://public.adnd365.com using:

Username: npc@adnd365.com

Password: N0nPl@yC#822!

Let category hierarchies be your Bag of Holding—clean, compartmentalized, and infinitely scalable.