Question
I sat down with a web developer to discuss upgrading our current site to incorporate either WooCommerce or Shopify along with Modern Retail, and we have a couple of questions.
Our questions:
- Do we have to have a specific and separate sku for each size? For instance, I have a shoe called Betty in three colours. The skus would read Bettyblack, Bettywhite, Bettytan. That is how we create skus in our stores. If I have a full size run (sizes 6-10) in Bettyblack, how many skus would be needed. Please elaborate as best you can.
- Sperry, Merrell, Munro etc. have specific stock numbers for each shoe, and it denotes style and colour within. Do we need to have a separate sku for each size even if they are the same style and colour?
- Do we need to have everything in RICS linked to the website? We would not like to do that as we only have certain shoes and merchandise to be offered on our online store and not the entirety of what is in our Retail Inventory Control System.
Thank you for your time, and I apologize for being so broad with my questioning, but I am having a difficult time wrapping my head around how the Modern Retail integration works.
Answer
No problem, I would be happy to answer your questions.
- Each variant of a shoe (size, width, color, etc.) has a unique ID called a GUID. This GUID is a big long number like 21EC2020-3AEA-4069-A2DD-08002B30309D that uniquely identifies this item (size, width, color, etc.) from any other size, width, color, etc. You don’t need to enter a SKU or any other number to uniquely define these products, it is all done using automatically by using these GUIDs. However you’ve configured the products in RICS is how they will show up on the website. In the example below, they have configured this product to have both Sizes and Widths in RICS, which automatically creates “dropdowns” for both on the website.
- Per the above, we’re not using the SKU to uniquely identify the products on the website; meaning you can use whatever you want for the SKU in RICS. Instead, all products are integrated with the website using the GUID from RICS. You don’t see this GUID in RICS, but it’s there for every product and every product variant.
- No, but most retailers have most, if not all, of their products “linked.” If you don’t link the products, then there’s no way we can send the Order down to RICS when you have an online sale. Having your online orders in RICS is nice because it give you a clear picture of how you’re doing in your brick-n-mortar stores vs. online. I hear what you’re saying about only having these products online, but even in those cases, you should still enter them in RICS first. Additionally, if you ever plan on selling these items on marketplaces like Amazon or Google Shopping, you’re going to need the UPC code, which almost assuredly will need to come from RICS.
Finally, there's no need to apologize, it can be confusing. You'll probably also find the following two articles useful:
- RICS Integration Overview
- WooCommerce Integrator Overview – Works similar with Shopify.
Let me know if you have any more questions or would like to schedule a meeting with your developer. Thanks.