Buyers and products
How product matching works
The order in which a purchase-order line is matched to a Shopify product variant, from remembered mappings down to ranked suggestions.
Updated
Each line on a purchase order has to end up pointing at one Shopify product variant. This is how that is decided.
The order of attempts
1. A mapping you have taught. If you have already told PO Autopilot what this buyer’s item code means — either by confirming it on an order or by creating it from Mappings — that variant is used. The mapping is held for the company location on the order and for the unit the line was ordered in.
This is checked first deliberately. Your own earlier decision beats anything that could be derived from the document.
2. An exact SKU match. The line’s item code is looked up against your Shopify SKUs. An exact match resolves the line.
3. An exact barcode match. Failing SKU, the same code is looked up against barcodes — which is where UPC and GTIN values live in Shopify.
4. Configured metafield identifiers. If your store has additional identifier metafields configured, those are checked next. See Product identifiers.
5. A ranked suggestion from the description. If no identifier matched, candidates from your catalogue are compared against the line’s description and the best is suggested — applied to the line, waiting for your agreement.
6. Nothing. You are asked to choose the product.
Exact means exact
An identifier match has to be exact. Matches found through Shopify’s search are re-checked before being used, so a search that returns near-matches cannot cause a wrong automatic selection.
If two variants share the same SKU or barcode, the line is not resolved to either. You are asked to choose, because picking one arbitrarily would be a coin toss on a real order.
Suggestions are not decisions
When a line is matched from its description rather than an identifier, the match is applied and shown as Confirm the product we matched. It stays a blocker until you agree with it.
A related case is Confirm the product you mapped before, which means the code
on this document is close to one you have mapped previously — usually a scanner
misreading ACME-BOARD-9 as ACME BOARD 9. Your earlier mapping is applied,
including the pack size that came with it, and you are asked to confirm.
Variants that are no longer usable
If a mapping points at a variant that has since been archived, made unavailable, or had its SKU or barcode changed, the line is not resolved to it. You are asked to choose again, and can map the new variant.
Teaching it
Use Remember this match? when choosing a product. This buyer only means the next order from that buyer with that code resolves without asking; All buyers applies the match store-wide. See Buyer-specific product mappings.