Merged SKUs make managing your catalog more efficient while also complying with Amazon’s requirement that FBA and merchant fulfilled products have different SKU values.
There are two key considerations when SKUs are merged. First, merging will result in a Surviving SKU which is by default the FBA SKU and is the one Zentail keeps and uses as the identifier on other channels. Second, going forward you will manage both FBA and MF inventory on the single Surviving SKU.
If this is the first time you're reading about merged SKUs, please first read more about them in Merged SKUs Explained. There are two ways to merge SKUs.
Automatically
If there are SKUs on your Amazon account that have the same ASIN and condition, but one is FBA and one is MF then Zentail can automatically identify and merge these SKUs. In general, these SKU merges are done during onboarding to Zentail by your implementation specialist.
Moving forward, you do not need to create both FBA and merchant fulfilled SKUs. A merged SKU will automatically be created if a new SKU is marked as FBA and has merchant fulfilled inventory.
In Bulk
Under rare circumstances (mainly catalog clean up) you may want to merge existing SKUs after you’ve finished onboarding. It's possible to merge SKUs yourself through the user interface through a simple import.
Two Important Notes:
In order for two SKUs to be merged, both SKUs need to exist in Zentail.
When creating new SKUs in Zentail, the process of merging is unnecessary because Zentail automatically creates the merchant fulfilled SKU for Amazon as a +MF+ SKU.
Merging SKUs, Step-by-Step
Step 1: Go to Import > Import Data. Under Select Report Type, click on Onboarding and then click on your Amazon Store to see the available reports.
Step 2: Click on the arrow download icon next to Merge SKUs to download a template with the correct headers.
Step 3: Use the downloaded template to set up for a merge. Be sure to save your file as a .csv file. By default the FBA SKU will be the “surviving” SKU.
Step 4: Return to Import > Import Data, and select the Merge SKUs template. Use the Upload File button to select your .csv file for import. If you want to have the MF SKUs be the surviving SKUs instead, check the option to "Keep the MF version of the product" in Advanced Options. Learn more about MF survivor SKUs.
FAQ
What happens to the data on the SKUs?
Any blanks on the surviving SKU will be filled in from the non-survivor when doing the merge (assuming it's filled in) - including overrides. Similarly, if the survivor is not yet listed to Amazon, it will become listed.