Other Matching Errors
Matching errors are when IDA Connect does not recognise that a product in Shopify is the 'same' as its corresponding listing in The Iconic.
When a matching error occurs, the first thing you might notice is that the inventory in The Iconic is not correct. Other problems can also occur, like order and fulfilment syncs not working as they should.
Matching errors are usually caused by products not having exactly the same SKU codes in Shopify and The Iconic. Occasionally there can be other problems that cause matching errors.
About SKUs
IDA Connect uses SKU codes to match products between Shopify and The Iconic for almost all processes. If you or an automatic process changes the SKU of a product in Shopify, IDA Connect will not be able to match the product any more. The integration for that product will break.
What to do.
1. Ideally, don't change SKUs in Shopify. If you need a new SKU, you should:
- duplicate the product in Shopify, creating a new SKU for the newly created product
- archive the old product with the old SKU
2. If you really have to change any SKUs for any reason, then you must perform a product reset afterwards. Find more information about product resets in the product reset article on our help pages.
3. If you have matching errors but you haven't changed any SKUs it is possible that other software connected to your Shopify store has changed product information without you knowing. In that case we will need your help to investigate further.
About Shopify IDs
Shopify IDs are codes that Shopify uses to identify products and product variants. A variant is a colour or size option for a product.
A Shopify ID is a long string of digits that is unique to a single product variant. The ID is created by Shopify and is not recognisable in the way that many SKUs are. Although Shopify allows store owners to operate with duplicate SKUs*, Shopify IDs are never duplicated.
IDA Connect mostly uses SKUs for matching products between Shopify and The Iconic. But there are a few limited processes that rely on Shopify IDs to work correctly. These include creating orders in Shopify and sending updated inventory levels to The Iconic.
Matching Errors and Shopify IDs
In the first quarter of 2022, IDA Connect's help team noticed an increase in matching errors. Up until 2022, more than 95% of matching errors were caused by a Shopify user manually changing the SKU of a product.
Upon investigation in February 2022, the help team discovered that some new matching errors were not caused by users changing product SKUs in Shopify. The SKUs of products with matching errors were unchanged. But the Shopify IDs of the product variants had changed. This seemed to be occurring even though IDA Connect users had not touched any product settings or information in Shopify.
At the time of writing, it is not clear how or why certain Shopify IDs have changed. The most likely explanation is that an independent Shopify app is automatically making adjustments to IDs for some product variants. When the Shopify IDs change, the IDA Connect integration processes that rely on IDs fail. This can cause order problems, inventory errors and major frustration to all!
What can be done?
IDA Connect's developers don't have access to other apps in our users' Shopify stores. They can only see changes that have been made by other apps if they run extensive manual checks on the Shopify product data. If changes have been made to product information like Shopify IDs, it is not possible for our developers to see how the changes were made, or why they were made. They cannot see which app(s) might have made the changes.
IDA Connect is talking with affected customers to discover which Shopify apps might be responsible for unexpected changes to Shopify product information. The app could be a new app or a new version of an older app.
IDA Connect is also in contact with Shopify to find out if their developers are aware of the issue. Changes to Shopify IDs are likely to be causing major problems across multiple platforms including 3PL providers and financial integrations.
You can help by telling us which apps are connected to your Shopify store, especially any that you have installed recently or that have recently had a major update.
If our help desk has told you that your integration is being affected by Shopify ID changes, then you will need to run the IDA Connect product reset process on a regular basis to keep your integration working correctly. For most stores, the reset should be done at least once per week. High volume stores may need to reset more often. Ask us for advice if you are unsure.
To learn more about product resets, click the related article link from the list below.
* You cannot have duplicate SKUs if you want to use IDA Connect. It's just a bad idea for inventory management anyway.