Product aliases in CartRover

Product aliases in CartRover

What is a product alias (aka. identifier)?

Product aliases are unique values that identify product variants. (e.g. SKU, Listing SKU, UPC, MPN, ASIN, Internal Product ID, etc.) A single product variant may have many product aliases/identifiers. 

Why & When are product aliases used?

Sales channels and fulfillment systems often have restrictions on which values are used to identify a product, it is common for those values to not match between systems.

When CartRover downloads an order from a sales channel and passes the order to the fulfillment system, if the product codes on the order do not match, the fulfillment system cannot identify which products should be included in the order and will reject the order.

Many fulfillment (WMS) systems support product aliases and solve this problem without needing CartRover. However, systems that do NOT support product aliases will need CartRover to translate the sales channel product code to the product code used by the fulfillment system. To do this, CartRover will need to know which sales channel code matches to which fulfillment system product identifier (ie. SKU or Barcode).

To tell CartRover to push a specific alias code to the WMS when sending orders, in the CartRover cart settings page, change the Translate Item Code value to one of the available alias types you have already loaded. You can set this differently for each cart connection as needed. Choose WMS Mast SKU for Have CartRover make a best effort to automatically translate the SKU for you.

To tell CartRover to push a specific alias code to the Cart when syncing inventory, in the CartRover cart settings page, change the Push Inventory Using Alias value to one of the available alias types you have already loaded. You can set this differently for each cart connection as needed. Any products from the WMS that do not match a valid product code in the cart will be skipped during inventory sync.

How are product aliases added to CartRover?

Automatic Alias Loading

For fulfillment systems that CartRover supports Inventory Sync Pickup for, CartRover will automatically download the main product identifier from the WMS and display it in CartRover. For fulfillment systems that CartRover supports Product Alias Pickup for, CartRover will also automatically load all product aliases attached to the main product identifier and display them in CartRover as well.

Example: This product has a SKU number (which is the main identifier) and a UPC (which is treated as an alias to the SKU). Both values identify the same product.


Manual Alias Loading

The following process can be completed manually in the CartRover interface if your OMS or WMS does not support aliases automatically. If you have a large list you need loaded into CartRover, create a CSV file in this STANDARD FORMAT, then open a support ticket and upload your CSV file. There is a fee for uploading manual files. You can also load them yourself one by one as shown below

Using Amazon as an example to load your Amazon Seller SKU as an alias into CartRover.

To add the Seller SKU as an alias in CartRover:

  1. In CartRover go to (Merchant tab → Products and Locations → Product Alias) 

  2. Search for and select the fulfillment product identifier that matches the Amazon Seller SKU. 

  3. Click "Add Alias Code"

  4. Add the Alias Name (MUST be consistent across multiple products) and the Alias Value (MUST be unique across all products)

  5. Click Save
  6. In your Amazon cart settings in CartRover (Carts tab > Amazon > Edit Setup) make sure the "Translate Item Code" field is set to "Master SKU" This means that when CartRover loads the Seller SKU from Amazon, it will translate it to the Master SKU (from the fulfillment system) before passing the order to the fulfillment system.

  7. Also in your Amazon cart settings in CartRover, make sure the "Push Inventory Using Alias" field is set to the alias you created from the sales channel (e.g. Amazon). This means that when the fulfillment system provides inventory levels using the Master SKU, CartRover will translate to the Amazon Seller SKU when pushing those inventory levels to Amazon. 

    2. WARNING:  When using "Push Inventory Using Alias" any products without the listed alias code will not have inventory synced, so make sure that all of your products have the desired alias configured, even if that alias is the same as the warehouse Master SKU.


Product Alias Rules/Restrictions

CartRover expects that each alias code uniquely identifies a single master product. If you have multiple unique products with the same alias CartRover will be unable to properly translate between them.

If you have a single product with multiple of the same alias types (eg. two UPCs), and you have set up CartRover to sync inventory to the cart using that alias, CartRover will sync your inventory level for that product multiple times, once for each alias. This allows you to have a single product on the back-end synced with two different products in your shopping cart. Note that CartRover will push the full inventory level for both aliases, so there is a possibility for over-selling that product in between inventory syncs.

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