Merging variations

Learn how to merge together variations to keep your inventory tidy.

If you manage products on more than one integration, you may have to merge variations to ensure stock is represented in a singular place in Craftybase.

Depending on your specific structure, you have a couple of different tools you can utilize for this purpose, which we will cover below.

Merging variation attributes

This strategy is useful if you have two attributes with similar but not exactly the same names on different integrations (i.e. Size and Sizze). To resolve this situation, you'll want to merge the two Variation Attributes together using this step-by-step:

Select your product by navigating to your product details page
Click on the Variations tab
Click the Manage Attributes button in the top right-hand corner of the page
Click on the name of the Attribute you wish to merge out (this is the one that will be removed - i.e. Sizze in the example above)
On the Attribute detail page, click the Merge Into... button in the top right-hand corner of the screen
On the page that appears, select the Attribute you wish to merge into (this will be the one that is kept - i.e. Size in the example above)
Click the Yes, Merge button to confirm the merge.

Note: Once the merge is complete, the attribute selected will be removed. The attribute you select within the Merge form will be the one that is kept.

Merging variation attribute values

This strategy is useful when you have two values with similar but not exactly the same names on different integrations (i.e. Red and Rouge). To resolve this situation, you'll want to merge the two Variation Attribute Values together using this step-by-step:

Go to your product's Variation Attribute page (How do I find the Variation Attributes page for a product?)
On the page that appears, select the attribute value you wish to merge out (this will be the one you are removing - i.e. Rouge, in the example above)
On the page that appears, Click the Merge Into button.
On the page that appears, select the Attribute Value you wish to merge into (this will be the one that is kept - i.e. Red, in the example above)
Click the Yes, Merge button to confirm the merge.

Merging variations

This strategy should only be used when you cannot resolve the duplication using the techniques of merging variation attributes or merging variation attribute values.

This can occur when you have different attribute structures on one integration vs. another (i.e. Shopify has Size and Color configured, whilst Square has only Size configured).

To merge variations:

Navigate to the variation detail page that you wish to remove
On the page that appears, hover your mouse over the ellipsis icon (⋮) next to the variation name and select the option called Merge Into...
On the page that appears, select the variation that you wish to keep (this is the variation you want to merge into)

Important notes on merging:

Merging variations will move across all expenses, manufactures, and orders attached to the merged product. Recipes will not be moved and must be created manually after the merge (if needed).
Adjustments made on the merged variation will be moved to the new variation. However, any Starting Adjustments will be ignored and not added to the new variation - any changes to starting adjustments will need to be made manually after the merge is completed.

Undoing a variation merge

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to undo a variation merge due to the complexity of this action. If you feel you have merged two variations by mistake, you'll want to recreate the merged out variation and manually move any orders, manufactures or adjustments over to the newly created variation once again.

FAQ

Why are some of my Variation Attributes duplicated?

If you have merged together two or more Etsy Listings under one Product, you may find that some of your Variations and Variation Attributes appear duplicated.

This may occur if there are slight differences in spelling or encoding differences between your Variation Attributes. Variation Properties of Small, Medium, and Large, the other has attributes of Sml, Med, Lrg. When the Listings are merged together under the one Product, both size properties will be displayed for the Product.

To merge together duplicate variation attributes, please follow the instructions in this help article: How do I merge together Variation Attributes?