At Flxpoint, managing your product catalog efficiently is key to maintaining accurate inventory and seamless sales channel integration. The Master SKU serves as the foundation for product identification, enabling accurate product linking and new product creation when needed.

The Create & Link Products feature helps you either associate new inventory with existing products or generate entirely new listings, ensuring your inventory remains structured and up to date. This guide will walk you through the role of the Master SKU, how linking works, and when product creation is necessary, giving you full control over your product data and supplier sources.

Understanding the Master SKU

What is the Master SKU?

The Master SKU is the primary identifier that drives product creation and linking. It ensures:

• Consistent Linking: New products are created only when no existing product link is found using this identifier.
• Data Integrity: Changes to the Master SKU affect how inventory items are merged with your existing product data.

Leveraging the Master SKU

• Flexible Options: The Master SKU defaults to your Inventory SKU, but you can choose any identifier that best fits your catalog needs.
• Custom Prefixes: You can add a custom prefix to your Master SKU. If your chosen identifier isn’t available from the supplier’s inventory feed, we automatically combine your Inventory SKU with the prefix.

When setting up your inventory integrations, you will be prompted to define your Master SKU. This identifier ensures consistent product linking and inventory management.

How to Create & Link Products

Step 1: Select Inventory

1. Navigate to the Inventory tab.
2. Select the inventory items you want to link or create as products.
    

Step 2: Choose an Action

Click the Actions dropdown and select Create & Link Products.

Choose between:

• Link to Existing Products Only
• Create New Products & Link

(Optional) Select the sales channels (e.g., Shopify, eBay, Amazon) where listings should be created.
 

Step 3: Confirm & Process

• Click Create Products if a new product needs to be built.
• Click Link Products if linking to existing products only.

Your linking and creation jobs will start processing shortly.

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Linking vs. Creating Products

1. Link to Existing Products

• Purpose: If products already exist in your catalog, this option links inventory to them using a common identifier like Master SKU or UPC.
• Behavior:
  • The system attempts to match using the Master SKU first.
  • If no match is found, it checks the secondary identifier (if provided).
  • Inventory, pricing, and stock levels remain synchronized.

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2. Create and Link New Products

• Purpose: If products already exist in your catalog, this option links inventory to them using a common identifier like Master SKU or UPC. If no matching product exists, a new product is created and linked to inventory.
• Behavior:
  • The Master SKU is used as the primary identifier for newly created products.
  • A secondary identifier (e.g., UPC) can be used to link products across multiple suppliers.
  • If multiple inventory items share the same secondary identifier, they will be merged into a single product.
  • You can set supplier priority to determine which data is used for the final product.

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Updating Products

Why Update Products?

After linking or creating products, you may need to update product data to reflect changes from suppliers. The Updating Products feature allows you to:

1. Link new inventory to existing products without changing product data – Ensures inventory, pricing, and stock levels remain synced while keeping product details unchanged.
2. Merge product data when linking new inventory – Uses supplier priority settings to update product details dynamically.

How to Update Product Data

Step 1: Access the Update Products Option

1. Navigate to the Inventory tab.
2. Select the product(s) you want to update.
3. Click the Actions dropdown and choose Update Products.

Step 2: Choose How to Update Product Data

In the Update Products modal, you will be prompted to define how product data should be updated:

✅ Don't merge product data, just link new inventory

• Keeps the product data unchanged while adding new inventory sources.

✅ Merge product data based on supplier priority

• Updates product details using the supplier with the highest priority.
• Ensures that the most accurate and complete product data is used.

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Step 3: Confirm and Update

1. Select the preferred update method.
2. Click Update Products to apply the changes.

When Should You Use This Feature?

• When new inventory sources are added and need to be linked to existing products.
• When supplier data is incorrect or missing, and you want to update based on a different supplier.
• When ensuring that your product catalog stays updated with the best available data.

Special Considerations for Automotive Suppliers

For automotive suppliers, a specialized rule generates the Automotive RefID by combining:

• The first three letters of the supplier’s Brand (converted to uppercase).
• The Manufacturer Part Number (MPN) or another key field.

This rule applies to suppliers like Motor State, American Tire Distributors, and Keystone. If required fields (like MPN or Brand) are missing, the system defaults the Master SKU to the Inventory SKU.

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Why This Matters to You

By combining product creation and linking into one unified process, this feature helps you:
✅ Reduce Manual Steps – Save time by automating product creation and linking.
✅ Enhance Data Accuracy – Maintain up-to-date and consistent product listings.
✅ Increase Flexibility – Customize how products are identified and organized with features like Master SKU and supplier priority settings.

Next Steps

Try the Create & Link Products feature and experience its benefits firsthand! If you have questions, feel free to reach out to our support team.