M2E Pro Version - 6.4.2

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 MPN  in case Brand is set to None in the Description Policy

In the previous version, an issue could arise when Brand option was set to 'None' for the Multi-Variation Products (Configurable or Grouped) in the Description Policy. In such case, MPN value was automatically set as 'Does not apply' and the combination of Brand = None and MPN = Does not apply was sent to eBay.

An additional Option (MPN) was displayed along with other variational attributes (e.g. Color, Size, etc) in eBay back-end for such Items. It is the only documented by eBay way to provide the MPN value properly. This additional Attribute sent by the system was not available for buyers and did not cause any problems or errors.

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. If you change the MPN value for such Item and try to revise it on the channel, an error may be returned from eBay.

In the current version of M2E Pro, this issue is fixed. All newly listed Items on eBay will be properly configured without an additional MPN Attribute.

We recommend the Sellers who list numerous Multi-Variation Listings 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 is available here.