Listings represent an item being sold on one of your connected platforms. When the same variant is sold across multiple platforms (e.g. on Amazon and Shopify), or in different ways on the same platform (e.g. Amazon FBA listings for Prime members and regular customers), multiple listings will be created in Inventory Planner which refer to the same variant.
You may want to link them together so they can be managed as one entity instead of having to manage each listing separately.
You may also benefit from linking the listings for reporting purposes. For example, since each platform is linked to its own warehouse, you may be using a combined warehouse to aggregate sales and stock information from multiple locations into one view for forecasting purposes. When viewing a combined warehouse, listings for the same variant must be linked together to display as a single variant.
Additionally, If linked, listing level details such as size, volume (CBM) and weight can be adjusted in one place.
Note: To combine the stock and/or sales history of two separate items for forecasting and replenishment purposes, use the 'combine sales/stock' functionality instead. You'd use combine sales/stock for transitional items (a new variant replacing an old variant) and brand new items that otherwise have no sales history to reference for forecasting.
Automatically combining listings
Inventory Planner will attempt to automatically link listings based on matching product information (e.g. barcode, ASIN, or SKU). You can see automatically linked listings as follows:
Go to Catalog > Listings.
Look at the "Connection" column, tabbed to "Auto". Where listings were automatically linked, they'll be grouped together by variant.
If linked listings weren't automatically detected, please contact the Inventory Planner support team with details of a straightforward rule that can be applied to link them together.
Manually combining listings
If there is no straightforward rule to link listings together (or if you prefer to track listings manually), you can enable "Manual" mode to add additional listings.
Manual linking also allows users to assign a Master SKU. The master SKU can then be added to the Replenishment and Reporting pages as a column or filter.
Note: Enabling manual linking for a variant disables the automatic detection of linked listings going forwards. You can switch back to "auto" any time.
When to use this feature
If the same variant on different platforms uses different SKUs, then use the "manual linking" feature to combine information for "all warehouse" or "combined warehouse" use.
For example, you can link "SKU-amazon" and "SKU-shopify" so that all their information is aggregated for reporting and ordering.
When not to use this feature
If you use the same SKU, barcode, title or ASIN across platforms, Inventory Planner can automatically match up this information. Manual linking would only need to be used if this information does not match across platforms.
If you are looking to apply the sales history of an old or existing variant to a new variant that will replace it, use the "combine sales/stock" functionality.
Assigning a master SKU
Go to Catalog > Listings.
Search for the variant, and change the connection from "Auto" to "Manual".
When you change to "Manual", you'll be able to set a Master SKU:
Click "Save changes".
Adding a new listing
Click the "+" button to add a new listing.
Search for the missing listing.
Click "Save changes" to complete the action and see the new listing added.
Managing linked listings
Listings can also be viewed and managed throughout Inventory Planner by selecting the item's Details icon (the "i" button) > More > then the Listings tab;
From here you can manually link listings and set a number of attributes:
Override brand
IP tags
CBM
Net weight
Gross weight
Importing combined listings
You can use the import function to link listings in bulk. Note that you will need to import one file per connection (e.g. one import for Amazon and one import for Shopify).
View instructions on How to Import Data into Inventory Planner, or view step-by-step instructions below.
From Replenishment or Catalog > Listings, click Import > Link listings.
Create your import file, downloading a template if necessary. The import file will need two columns with column headers:
The Master SKU you are assigning,
the SKU from your connected platform (or, alternatively, another identifier such as ASIN)
Upload your CSV file to Inventory Planner
Click "Map columns" to proceed to the next step, where you'll be asked to map the columns in your file with fields in Inventory Planner.
Use the 'Listing connection' field to indicate which platform uses the SKUs in your spreadsheet (e.g. if you are importing SKUs that correspond to Shopify, select Shopify).
Once you're happy with the mapping, click Import. You will then see the results of your import including information successfully imported and any errors with details.
Repeat the process for each connection where listings need to be combined. After the next import, the listings from each connection will be matched using the Master SKU you have assigned.
Unlinking listings
If you wish to unlink a listing from a variant, go to Catalog > Variants/Bundles > Listings.
Find the listing to unlink, and change the connection to "Manual". Then, click the trash can icon to unlink the listing from the variant.
