It's good to check that our products are grouped correctly before launching.  Certain channels can make it difficult to change or regroup products.  This article covers where to audit your groups and what to check for.

A general note about product groups is that they share the same master SKU in the Zentail.  The master SKU is one of the variants and should not be a separate parent SKU.  Each group should have at least one pivot attribute selected, and can also certain attributes like brand, images, and pricing.

To check out your product groups, either:

Note: when using quick edit, some changes only need to be made on the Master SKU. In this case, you can filter the "Type" column for Contains "Master" to get one row per group.

Check out this Quick Edit view as a starting point.

1. Parent SKUs

Parent SKUs shouldn't exist as a product within the group.  The data that is normally managed on the Parent SKU is managed on the Product Group Attributes tab in Zentail.  This help removes clutter.

If your group has a Parent SKU you can remove it using the X on the right hand side of the edit product group view, and can archive too.

If it's the Amazon Parent SKU, make sure the SKU value is entered in the Amazon Advanced Options on the Master SKU.

2. Duplicate Variations

A group cannot have two of the same variations.  For example, if your size varies by color and nothing else, there cannot be two variations that are both set to the same color, like "blue".

If a group does have duplicate variations you can either remove the duplicate or add a pivot attribute that helps distinguish between the two products.

3. The Pivot Attributes are Accurate

Just in case, let's make sure that the pivot attributes and values are correct.  You can easily add or remove them at the top of the edit product group view. If they're blank, add some! Or in some cases additional pivots may have been inferred. For example, Size and Shirt Size may both have been added where only Size is needed.

4. Variant Info in Parent Data

For example, if the title column looks like "Laundry Detergent - 8 oz. (16 oz)" then your main title for the group likely includes 8 oz. where it shouldn't (since Zentail will automatically append the size to the end). To resolve this, simply clear that from the title. But note that if it's in the title, then the bullets or description may also be affected and should be checked too. Bonus! - you can use title, description, and bullet point overrides if you'd prefer to use variant specific data within your groups.

5. eBay's "missing name in the variation specifics" error

Ensure that UPCs and MPNs are filled out for all products in the group.