Consumable
A consumable is a product that another product uses up, such as a fridge water filter or a vacuum cleaner bag, so the shopper buys it again and again.
What it means
A consumable is used up and bought again: a fridge water filter, a vacuum cleaner bag, an ink cartridge. It is not an accessory, because it adds nothing new, and not a spare part, because nothing broke. The product needs a fresh one every so often, for as long as it is in use.
Schema.org gives consumables a property of their own, isConsumableFor: “A pointer to another product (or multiple products) for which this product is a consumable.” It expects a Product as its value.1 So each model a filter fits has to exist in your data as an item with its own model code, not as words in a sentence.
The same shopper comes back for the next one, so the fit has to be right every time. Hold it as rows, one model per row, each with the source that names it.
Think of it like this
Vacuum cleaner bags are the everyday case. You keep buying them for as long as you own the machine, and each time the only question is whether this bag fits that model.
For example
A supplier sends “Water Filter KFR320” under Fridge Freezers, with “Fits KFR320W/325W & S variants, see PDF” in the description. After cleaning it is “Fridge water filter AWF-290”, with its own MPN, AWF-290, and the relationship Consumable for. Four compatibility rows come from the fitting guide: KFR-320W, KFR-320WS, KFR-325W and KFR-325WS.
Why it matters
A consumable is a repeat sale, but only if the shopper finds the right one each time. A wrong fit can come back as a return, so record only the fits a source confirms. Google’s rule for product details in a feed is the same: “Only provide an attribute name and value when the value is confirmed.”3
Not to be confused with
Sources
- schema.org. isConsumableFor.
- schema.org. isAccessoryOrSparePartFor.
- Google Merchant Center Help. Product detail [product_detail].