This guide covers how to change the SKUs of an item that is a variation (parent/child relationship). Due to the items being linked to one another, changing the values of the SKUs requires the items to be detached from each other to allow for changes, then they must be re-attached.
There are a few terms you'll see used throughout this guide that are important for you to have a clear understanding of.
GUID - global unique identifier; this is the easiest to recognize and is always 100% unique
SKU - stock keeping unit; this is considered the "parent SKU" value when it is part of a variation set
ID - this is the internal SureDone database ID, which is a sequential number assigned by the system and is also 100% unique
In order to change the values of the SKUs, we'll need to use the ID as our identifier within the spreadsheet. This is because using the ID is the only way to select items via our bulk uploader to change the value of a SKU and/or GUID. We will need to make sure that all of the items get transformed so that the SKU = GUID, which means that they are no longer part of a variation set. Once this is complete, we can then change the values of each SKU, and then re-attach them to the new parent SKU.
IMPORTANT NOTE It is VERY IMPORTANT to follow this guide STEP BY STEP and to ALWAYS make sure you SKIP ALL CHANNELS when uploading the file. If you do not SKIP ALL CHANNELS, you are putting your live listings at risk of being removed. Please contact support if you have any questions before uploading changes to your SKUs.
In the example below, you'll see that we change over SKUs that start with a prefix of DS-AF- to a new prefix of VSKU-. Please pay close attention to the examples provided in the screenshots of the spreadsheet to ensure that you're following the steps correctly.
Steps to Change SKUs of a Variation Set
1. Generate an export of the items you're looking to change the SKUs of and make sure you select the following fields for generating the export file.
2. Download the file that's generated below
3. Open the file with Microsoft Excel and create a new column in front of all of the others with the value action=edit
4. Change the values of all the SKUs to match the value of the GUIDs
5. Save the file as a .csv and go to Products > Bulk Uploads
6. Select the file and be sure to select FORCE and SKIP ALL CHANNELS (not selecting this will potentially harm your live listings)
7. Go back to your spreadsheet and give your items the new SKUs, then save the file as a new .csv
8. Go to Products > Bulk Uploads and bulk upload the file once again being sure to check FORCE and SKIP ALL CHANNELS
After doing this, your SKUs should now be changed (shown below):
9. Go to the spreadsheet one last time, and now select one of the SKUs to be the parent item and assign that SKU to all the items
10. Save the spreadsheet and upload to SureDone as done in the previous steps, once again being sure to check FORCE and SKIP ALL CHANNELS
11. Your variation SKUs should now be changed. If you go to the parent item in SureDone and click Show Variations, you should see something that looks like:
