Guides·
Native variants vs. combined listings: what Shopify actually sees
Combined listings apps change what shoppers see. Native variants change what Shopify sees. Compare how each approach affects POS, ERPs, feeds and SEO.
User Manual
Step-by-step guide to merging Shopify products with Merges - from the Shopify admin selection to saving, publishing and managing the merged product.
This manual walks through the full merge flow end-to-end: opening Merges, selecting products, reviewing the merge in the editor, saving, and handling the merged product afterwards.
Getting started
Accessing Merges
- Log in to your Shopify admin.
- Open the Apps section and select Merges from your installed apps.
Preparing for merging
Before you merge, review your catalog and identify products that should share a single listing. Good merge candidates share a core identity but are currently listed separately because they differ on one or two attributes - color, size, material, pattern, flavor.
A clear merge candidate looks like: “plum sneakers sized 6 to 10” and “orange sneakers sized 6 and 10”, currently two products, better served as one product with Color and Size options.
Step-by-step merging
Step 1: Select products
Select the products to merge in the product selector inside Merges:
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Open Merges and click Merge products. The Select products to merge dialog opens.
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Find the products you want to merge, in one of two ways:
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Search and filter. Search by title, SKU, vendor, or product type, or narrow the list with the Status, Product type, and Vendor filters, then tick the products.
Select products to merge dialog in Merges with a search for UrbanStride and three sneakers ticked -
Paste a list of SKUs. If you have the SKUs of the products, for example from a supplier list or a spreadsheet, type
sku:in the Search products field and paste your SKUs after it. Merges looks up the SKUs as soon as you stop typing, no Enter needed, and ticks every product that carries one of them. For example,sku:URBANSTRIDE-CLASSIC-IVORY-7, URBANSTRIDE-CLASSIC-IVORY-8selects two sizes of the UrbanStride Classic Ivory sneaker, each listed as its own product.
Select products to merge dialog after a sku: lookup, with five sneakers ticked and a warning that one SKU could not be found
The SKU list follows these rules:
- Prefix. The search must start with
sku:, in upper or lower case. Without the prefix, Merges runs a normal text search for the whole pasted text. - Separators. Separate SKUs with commas, spaces, tabs, or line breaks, in any mix. A column copied from Excel or Google Sheets works as is.
- Complete SKUs. Enter each SKU in full. Upper and lower case don’t matter, and duplicates are ignored.
- Limit. Up to 200 SKUs per lookup. For a longer list, add the first 200, click Add products, and look up the next batch.
- Spaces or commas inside a SKU. A SKU that contains a space or comma is split into two and can’t be found this way. Search for that product by name instead.
- Whole products. A SKU belongs to a single variant, but Merges selects the whole product that carries it, including all of that product’s variants.
- SKUs not found. If some SKUs match no product, a warning above the list names them, for example 1 SKU could not be found: URBANSTRIDE-TEAL-ACCENT-7.
- Filters. The Status, Product type, and Vendor filters don’t apply to a SKU lookup and are cleared when you type
sku:.
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Click Add. The products appear under Selected products. Click Add products to add more.
Create merged product page in Merges listing five selected products, with the Add products and Merge products buttons -
On the Create merged product page, click Merge products to open the editor. The button becomes available once you have selected two or more products and their variants together fit within the variant limit.
You can also start a merge from the product list in your Shopify admin. See Start a merge from the Shopify admin.
Step 2: Review the merged product
You are taken to the Merges editor - a surface that closely mirrors Shopify’s product detail editor. Review and adjust every field before saving. Nothing writes to Shopify until you confirm.
Merges interface - merge products and variants
The editor consolidates:
- Images, prices, inventory. Combined images (pixel-identical duplicates removed), prices, SKUs, barcodes, and per-location inventory quantities.
- Shipping, options, variants, category, type. Weight, dimensions, shipping class, option structure, variant list, product category, product type. Collections and tags are merged with duplicates removed.
- AI-generated titles and descriptions. Merges proposes a new title and description covering all source products. You can edit the text directly, regenerate it, or pick one of the original titles.
Merges - AI generated titles and description
- Regenerate. The button at the top left of the title/description block asks the AI for a new proposal.
- Original titles dropdown. Next to the regenerate button, a dropdown lists every source product title so you can revert or reuse a specific original.
For the full list of fields Merges handles, see Data handled by Merges.
Step 3: Save
Click Save. A prompt appears asking how to handle inventory quantities and SKUs - select the option that matches how you manage stock.
Merges interface - save options
Merges then creates the new product, uploads images, and redirects you to the Shopify admin product detail page for the merged product.
Shopify interface - product detail
Confirm the final details - images, price, SKU, variant list.
After the merge
A few things happen automatically, and a few need your attention. What runs is controlled from the Merges Settings page.
What Merges does automatically
- Archives the original products. The source products are set to
Archivedstatus in your Shopify admin. They remain in your store for historical reference (orders, reporting) but are no longer visible to customers. - Generates 301 redirects. Available on the PRO and UNLIMITED plans. Redirects point from each original product URL to the new merged product URL, preserving SEO value and backlinks.
- Carries over metafields. Metafield definitions configured in Settings -> Metafields and metaobjects in Shopify transfer across. Unstructured legacy metafields do not.
What to check yourself
- Sales channels. Confirm the merged product is published to the right channels (Online Store, POS, Buy Button, any custom apps). Visibility settings are merged from the source products but worth a glance.
- Theme rendering. Open the merged product on your storefront and verify the variant picker, image switching, and add-to-cart flow all work. See Advanced usage and limitations for theme notes on large variant counts.
- Third-party fulfillment. If a dropshipper or fulfillment service was managing stock for the originals, see Managing inventory after product merging.
For a full launch checklist, use Post-merge checklist: what to do after your first merge.
Integrations
Merges includes native integrations for third-party services that need to know about the merge:
- Printful - use Mirror original products and Route orders to originals in the Merges Settings panel to keep stock in sync and route orders to the original Printful variants. See Using Merges with third-party fulfillment.
- Judge.me - link merged products to source products using Judge.me Product Groups so reviews stay connected.
Open the Integrations tab in the Merges app to connect additional services.
Unmerging a product
If you want to revert a merge, the original products are still in your archived products list. Change their status back to Active and they return to your catalog. Delete the merged product if you no longer need it.
Merges does not yet offer a one-click unmerge. If you need help reversing a complex merge, email support@merges.io.
Need help
For additional help, contact support@merges.io.