Overview

When an item doesn't have enough sales information to generate a quality forecast, it can be useful to copy the sales information from one item over to another. Examples of when to use this feature include:

When a product has an updated style or slightly changes sizes, it may be helpful to combine sales so that the new product has the sales history needed to create a forecast. Optionally, combining stock will let you factor in what's left of the old stock with the new stock.
If you are introducing a brand new item in your store with no sales history, you may want to combine sales with a similar item to generate a forecast.
The "Seasonal" forecast method uses the same time period in prior years as a baseline for forecasting. If there is no time period to reference, a flat average of existing periods is calculated. Combining sales in this case is useful to come up with an accurate seasonal model.

Note: Merging variants duplicates the sales history and current stock of one variant against the second variant; both variants still exist and no data is lost.

Combining sales and stock

There are two ways to combine sales (and optionally stock) information in Inventory Planner.

Note: When an old variant is removed and replaced with a new variant using the same SKU or Barcode, Inventory Planner combines the sales and stock automatically so settings such as lead time, days of stock, vendor, and replenishable status carry over to the new variant.

Method 1: Catalog

Go to Catalog > Forecast settings.

Find the new variant, then click the "+" icon beside it to search for the old (source) variant.

Tip: If you don't see the "+" icon, click the gear icon on the left to add the "Combine Actions" column.

You should also add the"Combine percent", "Combine merge stock", and "Stop combine after" columns to be able to fully customize the merge.

The "Combine name", "Combine image" and "Combine source" columns will display more information on the source variant.

Once you've found the source variant, check the box beside it to select it.

The variant will be linked, and you can configure:

the percentage of sales to apply to the new item
the date to stop combining the sales data, from which to count the just new item's sales

Note: Only "Net sales" are combined (not "gross sales").

You'll also see an option to "merge stock". This checkbox should only be ticked if you want the current stock of the old (merged) variant added to the new (target) variant for the purposes of forecasting. Historic stock, including historic stockout data, is not merged. Only the current stock will be considered.

Note that checking the box will not change the quantity on your connected platform.

Once you're happy with your configuration, save changes.

Method 2: Replenishment

In the Replenishment screen, find your new variant in either the Variants or Bundles view, then click on Details (the "i" icon).

In the modal window, click the tab for Forecast settings and scroll down to "Combine sales/stock". Click the "+ Add Variant" button to search for the old variant.

Once you've found it, select it in the list and click "Apply":

As above, the variant will be linked, and you can configure:

the percentage of sales to apply to the new item (in this example, 75%)
the date to stop combining the sales data, from which to count the just new item's sales

Once you're happy with your configuration, save changes.

Inventory Planner will recompute the forecast and prompt you to refresh the screen. On refreshing, the merged sales will appear in the same screen.

Note: Merging sales and stock does not have any impact on the old (merged) variant. If an item is being discontinued (a new variant is replacing an old one), then you should set the old variant to be non-replenishable.

Combining sales and stock using an import

You can import merged variants using a CSV file. Note that you will need to import one file per connection (e.g. one import for Amazon and one import for Shopify). Learn more about importing here.

To combine sales and stock using a file, on the Imports screen, select "Combine sales/stock", then click "Upload file" at the bottom of the page:

Building an import file

Create a spreadsheet including the following information, making sure each column has a header:

Column name	Required	Column type	Comments
New SKU New barcode New title New ID	✓	Text	One of these four columns is required to act as an identifier.
Old SKU Old barcode Old title Old ID	✓	Text	One of these four columns is required to act as an identifier.
Percent		Number
Stop combine after		Date

You can download a CSV template to help you build your file. Once you've built it, either drag and drop your file into the upload area, or click the upload area to select your file from your computer. Then, click "Map columns".

Mapping fields

Map your columns in the file to Inventory Planner fields. In addition to the columns in the file, you have some options to configure:

Match new variant by
Choose which identifier you're using in your file for the new variant, and which column they're held in.
Match old variant by
Choose which identifier you're using in your file for the old variant, and which column they're held in.
Merge stock
Enable to merge stock as well as sales.
Mark old variants non-replenishable
Enable to mark the old variants as non-replenishable, which can be useful in cases where the new variant is replacing the old one.
Remove previously uploaded/manually added combined sales/stock
Enable to remove combined sales/stock that are not in the file. This action cannot be undone.
Date format
Select the date format. If you don't choose a specific format, Inventory Planner will attempt to automatically detect the format.

Once you've mapped all your columns, click "Import".

Inventory Planner will process the file. Once the file is processed, you will be presented with a summary of the changes made and a list of any errors that were triggered.

Removing combined sales and stock

To remove combined sales and stock, go to Catalog > Forecast settings and use the "has combined variant" filter to bring up variants with combined sales and stock.

Find the variant whose combined sales and stock you wish to remove, and click the Details icon. Then go into the "Forecast settings" tab and scroll to the "Combined stock and sales" section.

There you will find all linked SKUs. Click the trash can icon next to the SKUs you want to unlink.