Buyers and products
Why PO Autopilot couldn’t match a product
The reasons a line asks you to choose a product, and which of them are worth fixing permanently.
Updated
A line asks you to choose a product when no identifier matched and no description candidate was good enough. These are the usual reasons.
The buyer uses their own item code
The most common by far. ACME-BOARD-9 is Acme’s number for your product and
appears nowhere in your catalogue, so nothing matches.
This is not a problem to fix in Shopify. Map the code once and it resolves from then on, either on this order or in advance from Mappings — see Buyer-specific product mappings.
The code is real but not in a field that is checked
PO Autopilot matches on SKU, barcode, and any identifier metafields configured for your store. A code kept somewhere else — in the product description, a tag, or an unconfigured metafield — is not looked up.
A scan misread the code
SNW-VID-01 read from a fax or a photograph can come through as SNW VID 01 or
SNWVID01, which matches nothing exactly.
If you have mapped that code before, this is handled: the mapping is applied anyway and shown as Confirm the product you mapped before. If you have never mapped it, you will be asked to choose — and doing so, with the mapping option, covers the garbled form too.
Two variants share the identifier
If the code matches more than one variant exactly, the line resolves to neither and you are asked. Usually a duplicate SKU from a catalogue import. Worth fixing in Shopify, because it will keep happening.
The variant is no longer usable
A previously mapped variant that has been archived, made unavailable, or had its SKU or barcode changed will not be used. You are asked to choose again — the right move is usually to pick the replacement variant and map it.
The line has no code at all
Some purchase orders list descriptions only. Matching then relies entirely on the description against your catalogue, which produces a suggestion to confirm when it is close and a question when it is not.
The description does not resemble your catalogue
“Blue board, large” has little in common with “The Videographer Snowboard”. If the buyer’s wording is stable, choose the product and map it, so their description resolves next time.
The product is not in Shopify
Nothing is invented. A product you do not sell, or have not created yet, cannot be matched to anything. Create it in Shopify and it becomes matchable immediately.
What to do about it
For a one-off, choose the product and move on. For anything that will recur — a buyer’s own codes, a stable description, a duplicate SKU — fix it once: map the code, or correct the catalogue.