Product matching

The same sellable item can exist in your source system, Sqquid, and several sales Connections. Product matching is how Sqquid keeps those records related without treating every copy as an unrelated item.

Products and variants

A product is the main item customers recognize. A variant is a sellable version of that product, such as a particular size or color.

For example:

Product: Trail Sneaker
Variant: Trail Sneaker, Blue, Size 9
SKU: TS-BLU-09

Inventory, orders, and fulfillment usually depend on the variant’s SKU because that identifies the exact item being sold.

See Products and variants in the app to expand a product and inspect its sellable variants.

One item, several Connection records

Sqquid maintains product records in the context of their Connections. The source Connection holds the imported version, while each sales Connection can hold the version published to that destination.

These records can have different external IDs because every provider assigns its own identifiers. Sqquid saves those IDs after linking or creating products. It commonly uses SKUs to match variants across Connections.

The exact matching sequence varies by Connection. Review the provider’s guide before importing existing products or changing identifiers in bulk.

To compare records, choose each Connection in Products and search for the same SKU.

Why SKUs matter

A SKU should identify one sellable variant consistently across the systems participating in the workflow.

Good SKU practices:

• Give every sellable variant a non-empty SKU.
• Use the same SKU for the same item across connected systems.
• Keep SKUs unique within the source system and each sales Connection.
• Preserve capitalization, punctuation, and leading zeroes.
• Avoid reusing an old SKU for a different item.

Duplicate, blank, or inconsistent SKUs can prevent a match. The result may be a sync error, an unlinked order item, or a new product being created instead of an existing one being updated.

Use Sync errors to investigate failed product updates. If an order was skipped because an item could not be matched, correct the match before retrying the order.

Caution

Do not use a barcode in place of a SKU unless the Connection guide says that the provider supports this method.

External IDs

Once Sqquid knows the provider’s product or variant ID, that ID helps it update the correct external record. External IDs are provider-specific and are not interchangeable between Connections.

For that reason, copying an ID from Shopify into an Amazon or POS field does not link those records.

Changing a SKU

SKU changes need extra care because they can affect inventory, order lines, buffers, and the product records held by each Connection.

Use this approach:

1. Make the change in the product source of truth.
2. Let the source update reach Sqquid.
3. Find the product on each affected sales Connection.
4. Check dynamic buffers and other SKU-specific settings for the old value.
5. Confirm that the related synchronization completed without product errors.

Avoid changing the same SKU independently in several systems.

Before connecting an existing catalog

Review the catalog for:

• Missing or duplicate SKUs
• Different SKUs for the same variant
• One SKU reused for different products
• Products with different variant structures across systems
• Old test products that should not synchronize

Then follow the Connection guide’s instructions for importing, matching, or publishing products. Do not run a large initial product sync until you understand whether the Connection will match existing listings or create new ones.