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). Learn more about importing here.
To link listings using a file, on the Imports screen, select "Link listings", 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 |
SKU Barcode Title ID
| ✓ | Text | One of these four columns is required to act as an identifier. |
Master SKU | ✓ | Text |
|
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:
Listing connection
Choose which connection you're linking listings for.Remove all previous listing links (imported or set)
Enabling this option will remove all manual links for all listings on the connection, whether imported or set manually. This action cannot be undone.
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.
Repeat the process for each connection where listings need to be combined. After your 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.
