Creating and Building Products

Products in your catalog are built from Source Inventory. Flxpoint matches inventory to existing product variants by identifier — Master SKU first, then UPC, GTIN, MPN, ASIN — or creates new ones through the Product Builder. You can also create products manually to bypass the source flow.

The Product Builder turns Source Inventory into product parents and variants, deciding whether to link, merge, or create based on the identifiers and rules you configure.

• Build from inventory — turn selected Source Inventory variants into product parents and variants.
• Match & link — compare identifiers to link inventory to existing variants instead of duplicating them.
• Merge sources — combine matching inventory from multiple suppliers into one variant with aggregated data.
• Source priority — rank sources so your best data wins, globally or per field.
• Create manually — add parents and variants directly, bypassing the Source to Inventory to Catalog flow.

How matching decides create vs. link

1. Master SKU — Flxpoint looks for an existing product variant with the same Master SKU and links to it.
2. Secondary identifier — if no Master SKU match, it tries UPC, GTIN, MPN, ASIN, or Reference Identifier.
3. Create new — if nothing matches and creation is enabled, a new product and variant are created.

Product Builder key settings

Inventory variant status

"I have tried building these products several times but nothing happens" and there is no Builder Issue. Confirm the variants are not already Linked and that the chosen builder's match rules are not excluding them. Watch the real-time creating-products progress meter, and check the Builder Issue filter. If nothing queues, the variants are usually already linked or filtered out by the builder.

Builder Issue appears on a product that already has a linked product for the same UPC. Open the variant's Builder Issues section — a mismatch rule (cost range, brand not equal, MPN not UPC) can flag an item even when a link exists. Choose Looks Good, Build Again to accept, or correct the mismatched field. This has recurred for large single-source batches, so report the source if the count is high.

Overlapping identical items create separate variants and Shopify returns "This product has variants, but there are no available options". Identical items with no distinguishing option should merge on a shared identifier (usually UPC). Add that identifier to the builder's match rules so the sources fuse into one variant. Variants should only split when they carry distinct option values.

Building from the Edit screen uses the default builder instead of the one you chose. Known issue: builds triggered from the Edit screen can fall back to the default builder and mapping template, so your mapping rules do not apply. Build from the Inventory or Product list view until this is resolved.

Create Products links only one of several selected variants. Under investigation. Re-run the build from the list view; if only one variant links per run, report the affected SKUs and builder to support rather than running one at a time.

How does Flxpoint decide whether to create a new product or link to an existing one? It checks the Master SKU first, then secondary identifiers such as UPC or GTIN. If nothing matches and creation is enabled, it creates a new product and variant.

What is the most reliable way to prevent duplicate products? Use a consistent Master SKU across every source and avoid reusing a Master SKU for different products.

Can one source bridge identifiers across others? Yes. A source providing both GTIN and UPC can link a UPC-only source and a GTIN-only source into the same variant.

When should I create a product manually? When you want to bypass the source flow — for example a virtual item — or seed a parent and variant before linking inventory by identifier or an Inventory Link. Both a Parent SKU and Variant SKU are required.