Mapping is an essential part of making sure you get the most out of Cloud Commerce Pro. If a product is not mapped between Cloud Commerce Pro and, for example eBay, then stock updates (and other updates) cannot happen.

You can choose to map products only when sales happen the first time however please be aware that your stock will not be synchronised until you do map them.

Click “Product Mapping” from the Admin Centre.

(The figure in brackets on the button shows how many products require mapping)

1. Sales Channel – Select the sales channel you want to map from the drop-down menu such as Amazon or eBay.

2. Stock – This drop-down has 3 options:

a) With Stock = Show only listings that have stock.
b) No Stock = Show only listings without stock.
c) All = Show lists with and without stock.

This is especially useful if you have a significant number of listings to map and you want to map only those with stock so you can get your store live as quickly as possible but bear in mind that if you do not map out of stock products and they come into stock the updates will not be pushed the the channel automatically.

3. Mapped Status – Choose between “Mapped” and “UnMapped”. In most cases you are likely to want to ensure you have this set to UnMapped to make it easier to find the listings that still require attention.

4. Matched Type – Choose one of 8 options from the drop-down to narrow your results:

a) New Listings (No Match) = Display only recent listings that have no automatic match on the system.
b) New Listings (Matched) = Display only recent listing that have been automatically matched on the system and require confirmation.
c) New Listings (Both) = Display all recent listings regardless of matching
d) All Listings (No Match) = Display all un-mapped products that do not have a match on the system.
e) All Listings (Matched) = Display all un-mapped products that have a match on the system and require confirmation.
f) All Listings (Both) = Display all un-mapped products regardless of matching.
g) Hidden = Display un-mapped products that have been previously hidden.
h) Clones Pending = This will display any cloned products that I waiting to be pushed out to your account.

If you have a lot of products to map, the easiest way to manage it is to split it into separate jobs. Cloud Commerce Pro makes this easy by automatically matching the barcodes of unmapped products with something on the system, which only leaves you the task of confirming the match.

We will start by looking at only the products CCP has a match for.

1. Click the drop down under Matched Type and select “All Listings (Matched)”.

2. These are the new unmapped listings that have been brought in from the sales channel you are looking at.

3. On this side you can see the product that Cloud Commerce Pro thinks is a match on the system. It is extremely important to remember that this is only a suggestion. Check and compare the details very carefully before determining a match. If you find the suggestion is not a match, click the magnifying glass button to open a search box. For a more in-depth look at the search function, check step 4.

4. If you are confident that the listing and the suggestion match up, click the “Map” button to map the two together. The listing will be automatically removed from the list so you can move on to the next one.

5. This imports a listing in the event of there not being a match. Use this if you are unable to find a match for the product using the search function. While it is altogether possible you have listed an item that is unknown to the system, do use this carefully as importing in this way can lead to multiples of the same item on the system.

***It is important that you only ever have one inventory item for each product in Cloud Commerce Pro at any time, so never import the same product from two different channels. You should import from one and then map to it from any subsequent channels. Failing to do this will mean you have separate stock levels for the same product in your inventory and will have to spend time merging products afterwards***

6. This is the re-match button which will force the system to check again for a match for that listing.

7. This button will hide the unmapped listing in case you do not wish to map it right now, but would like to move it out of sight. You can easily find your hidden listings by changing the Matched Type to “Hidden”.

Now we will change the filters to see only items that do not appear to have a match on Cloud Commerce Pro.

1. Click the drop down under Matched Type and select “All Listings (No Match)”.

2. These are the new unmapped listings that have been brought in from the sales channel you are looking at.

3. The search box allows you to enter keywords to attempt to find a match for the listing.

1. The keywords you type in the search box will begin to populate possible matches at the top of the screen.

2. If you see a result that matches the listing, you can click “Map Me” to instantly map the two together. As before, check the details very carefully before committing to a map. A lot of listings can seem very similar at a glance, but have subtle variations that make all the difference.

3. If you are unable to find a matching product on Cloud Commerce Pro you can click here to import your listing. While it is altogether possible you have listed an item that is unknown to the system, do use this carefully as importing in this way can lead to multiples of the same item on the system.

4. This is the re-match button which will force the system to check to see if there is a match for the listing.

5. This button will hide the unmapped listing in case you do not wish to map it right now, but would like to move it out of sight. You can easily find your hidden listings by changing the Matched Type to “Hidden”.

Due to the intricate nature of the process, it will always be best practice to map products one at a time. That being said, there may be times when you have a large amount of products to map that you are certain you know what to do with. For example, you might be starting a new web-store selling one of a kind handmade products, in which case you can be confident that the listings cannot currently exist on Cloud Commerce Pro and will need importing. You could have thousands of these, which would make mapping them all one by one a mammoth task. In these cases you can use bulk actions to quickly process the mapping jobs. Each listing has a checkbox beside it that can be checked to flag it for use with a bulk action.

Use the filters to display the listings required and hover the mouse over the “Bulk Actions” button.

1. Map All Selected – This will map all the listings checked with the match that Cloud Commerce Pro has found for them.

2. Import All Selected – This will import all the listings checked when you have a large amount of items that do not currently exist on the system.

3. Re-Match All Selected – This will force the system to check for a match for all the listings checked.

4. Hide All Selected – This will hide all the listings checked.

The actions section contains some useful tools and functions when mapping products. Hover the mouse over “Actions” to see the options available.

1. Refresh Current View – This refreshes the current page without resetting the sales channel or filters you have selected.

2. Re-Fetch All Listings – This opens up a menu of various sales channel synchronisation options. See step 8 for a detailed explanation.

3. Check For New Listings – If you recently added something to a sales channel and you want to map it as soon as possible, you can use this to force the system to check for any new listings.

4. Show Import/Export – This will take you to a page that displays the progress of any in-going or out-going listings, useful if you are waiting on a large amount of new listings coming into the system and you want to check how far they have progressed.

This is the menu that is reached by clicking “Re-fetch All Listings” from the Actions menu, as described in the previous step. Use these if you notice a change between a listing on a sales channel and the information on Cloud Commerce Pro so you can bring them back in line with each other once more.

You can search for specific unmapped listings if, for example, you have a best seller that needs attention before anything else.

Searching by title is usually sufficient, but you can also search by ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number), SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) or barcode if needed.

The results of the search appear at the top of the screen as shown above.

1. All – This will display all the listings found for that particular search.

2. Listing – This will display the product range and any variations for that particular listing.

3. Item – This will display only that particular listing, usually representing a single product variation on the system.

Follow the steps below if you need to un-map a product. This can become necessary if you have mistakenly mapped the wrong product and listing for example.

1. Ensure the drop down under Mapped Status is set to “Mapped”. This way only mapped products will be displayed.

2. If you have a lot of items mapped on the sales channel you are using, you will most likely need to use the search function to locate the product you want to un-map. Check the previous two steps for a detailed explanation of the search function.

3. When you have located the product you want to un-map click “Un-Map x” as shown in red.