Create products for supplier items you do not stock yet

Create missing products tells Everstock to create a Shopify product for a supplier item that has no match in your store. It is off by default, and everything it creates lands as a draft that Everstock never publishes for you.

Turn it on

The checkbox sits in the Sync scope section of the "Connect a supplier" wizard, described there as "When a supplier item has no matching product in your store, create it (single variant, initial stock). Off by default." On a connection you already have, the same checkbox is in Sync scope & schedule on the connection page, and it saves through the Shopify admin save bar.

Matching is always barcode first, then SKU, and each supplier row gets exactly one key: its barcode when the row carries one, its SKU only when it does not. A row counts as missing when that single key matches no variant in your store. So a supplier row that carries a barcode your store has never seen is treated as missing and created, even when its SKU already sits on one of your variants. Check that your barcodes line up before you turn creation on, or you can end up with a draft duplicate of a product you already sell.

A supplier row with neither a barcode nor a SKU is never created. Everstock cannot key it, so it goes to the audit for review instead.

What a created product looks like

Each unmatched supplier record becomes one product with a single variant carrying the SKU, barcode and starting stock from the feed. The status is always Draft, so nothing reaches your storefront until you review and publish it yourself. Everstock never changes whether a product is published.

The starting quantity is the feed's quantity after the quantity cap is applied. If Sync inventory is off, or that row's quantity is blank or unreadable, the product is still created, with a quantity of 0. A price is only written when Sync price is on. When the feed carries no title, the SKU is used, and the barcode when there is no SKU.

Anything else you mapped rides along when the record supplies it: Image URL, Description (HTML), Vendor, Product type and Tags (comma-separated). Those go onto newly created products whatever the Product fields (advanced) checkboxes say, because those checkboxes only govern writes to products you already have.

Records on the connection's Ignore list (optional) are dropped before the comparison runs, so an ignored SKU or barcode is never created.

Supplier metafields

Use the Supplier metafields section to store extra supplier data, material or colour for example, on created products. Each row takes Supplier field (the path in the supplier's response, such as attributes.material), Namespace (such as custom), Key (such as material) and Type. The type options are Single line text, Multi-line text, Integer, Boolean, URL and JSON. Add metafield adds a row, Remove deletes one. A row is only saved when the supplier field, namespace and key are all filled in.

The section is empty when you configure a supplier by hand, but some supplier presets arrive with rows already filled in, and on an existing connection you see whatever that connection has stored. The rule is strict: "Only used when a new product is created. Existing products are unaffected." Everstock never writes a metafield onto a product it matched, and never removes one. If a record has no value at that path, that metafield is skipped rather than written blank. On the connection page these rows live under Field mapping and save with Save mapping, and the rows in the editor replace the stored ones, so removing a row drops it.

Everstock also creates the matching metafield definition in your store on the first real sync, so the values show up as defined fields in the Shopify admin.

Set a cap, then preview

Set Quantity cap (optional) before you enable creation, especially on a large feed. The cap limits every quantity Everstock writes, including the starting stock on a new product. A cap of 0, or a negative number, is deliberately treated as no cap, so leave the field blank if you do not want one.

Then run Preview changes. The Preview: proposed changes modal tells you "Nothing has been written to Shopify", and the rows with a create action are the products a real run would make. Use Download CSV to check that list against your catalogue before you commit, or Open full run details for the same rows in context. A preview writes nothing at all, metafield definitions included.

When you are happy, run Sync now. Open that run from Sync history and each created record appears in the Per-record audit with a Change of New item, an Action of Create and a status of Applied. Leave the option off and the same record still appears in the audit, with a status of Skipped and nothing written to your store.

Created products stay drafts until you publish them, so it is worth reviewing the first batch in Shopify before you let a large feed run on a schedule.

Need help? Visit the support page or email hello@usenormalize.com.