eBay Integration
Improvement
Unbranded and Does not apply value structuring
The new M2E Pro version contains a lot of improvements related to the configurations of Product Identifiers. From this version on, to comply with the recently implemented eBay catalog identifier requirements, 'Unbranded' and 'Does not apply' values are specified in the appropriate fields.
Fixes
Unbranded and Does not Apply values for Simple with Custom options and Bundle Products
According to recent eBay changes, it has become required to provide Product Identifiers for multi-variation Items at a Variation level. M2E Pro contains several possible options for the Product Identifiers to be provided:
- using a Manage Variations pop-up (the values provided here are applied to the items regardless of other settings);
- using Description Policy settings;
- using Item Specifics settings (used for Brand and MPN values).
Nonetheless, Magento Product structure of Bundle and Simple with Custom Options Products could cause some issues.
Variations of the Simple with Custom Options products do not contain their individual Identifiers (UPC/EAN/ISBN, etc.), as they are not separate Simple Products. So, it is unclear for the system which data should be taken for each of the Variations. If it's pulled from the Parent Product, it will be one Identifier for all of the Variations, which is not correct.
On the other hand, each Variation of Bundle Products is a combination of several Simple Products, where each of the Simples contains its own Identifier. Meaning, each Variation of a Bundle Product has several Identifiers. Similarly, it is unclear for the system which value should be sent to eBay and which one should be ignored.
For this reason, Product Identifiers for Bundle and Simple with Custom Options Products should be set using Manage Variations pop-up.
In case, the Item does not have a valid code, the Does not apply or Unbranded values should be used. However, the functionality of Manage Variations pop-up does not allow setting 'Does not Apply' value, the error arises.
In the new version, the functionality has been expanded letting confirm 'Does not apply' value for MPN in Manage Variations pop-up.
Some logical changes were also implemented for Simple with Custom options and Bundle products:
- How did it work before?
The system checked if there were values provided in Manage Variations pop-up and returned an error in case they were missing, 'ignoring' the values provided in the Description Policy.
- How does it work now?
Now, the system verifies if the Product Identifiers are provided in Manage Variations pop-up, but in case, they are missing it will check if the 'Does not apply' or 'Unbranded' values are specified in the Description Policy.
To sum up, using a new version you can easily provide the Product Identifiers (including Does not apply and Unbranded values) for each of Magento Product Types.
The issue of Does not apply value set for MPNĀ in case Brand is set to None in the Description Policy
In previous version, the issue can arise when Brand was set to None for the Variational Product (Configurable or Grouped) in the Description Policy configurations. In such case, the MPN value was automatically set as Does not apply and the combination on Brand = None and MPN = Does not apply was sent to eBay.
Thus, for such Items, there were additional Attribute and Label (MPN) available along with the variational ones (e.g. Color, Size, etc) in eBay back-end, as it is the only documented by eBay way to provide the MPN value properly. However, there was nothing to be worried about, as this additional Attribute was not available for buyers.
However, for the items which are currently placed on eBay with the configurations described above, there is no way to remove the MPN attribute due to eBay technical restrictions. Thus, if you change the MPN value for such Item and try to revise it, the error could be returned from eBay.
In the current version of M2E Pro this issue is fixed and all newly listed Items will be properly configures on eBay without additional MPN Attribute.
Please note, eBay restricts the changes in MPN values for Variations. Thus, for the affected Items the MPN value can be provided only as Does not apply, until it is not stopped and listed anew.
We recommend the Sellers who use the Multi-Variational Listing in majority of cases, to upgrade their system to the 6.4.2 version to achieve the best results from M2E Pro running.
The detailed information about the eBay changes related to the product Identifiers are available here.