Product identity & matching
Match supplier records to the right canonical product without unsafe merging.
Use strong identifiers when they are valid, normalized manufacturer evidence when appropriate and explicit review when identity evidence is not decisive.
Supplier ABMW / 77-11-8-549-965SKU A-18492
brand normalizeMPN normalizedeterministic match
Canonical productBMW Motorrad77118549965matched
Identity evidence
Do not promote a supplier-local identifier into a global product key.
Strong
Valid GTIN
A valid GTIN can resolve a unique known variant when the identifier is unambiguous.
Strong
Brand + normalized MPN
Manufacturer part number becomes useful identity evidence when brand context is normalized too.
Review
Duplicate candidates
Potential duplicates that lack decisive evidence remain review work rather than being silently merged.
Scoped
Supplier SKU
Supplier SKU remains attached to the supplier relationship; it is not treated as universal identity.
Avoid false positives
Same part number does not mean same product when manufacturer context differs.
Identity rules should be conservative enough to keep catalog corruption rarer than manual review.
- Normalize formatting before comparing manufacturer part numbers.
- Keep brand/manufacturer context in the identity decision.
- Ignore invalid GTIN evidence rather than trusting a malformed identifier.
- Make ambiguous candidate sets explainable to reviewers.
Brand AAB-100same normalized evidence
=
Brand AAB100same canonical product
Brand BAB100different manufacturer context
≠
Brand AAB100do not auto-merge
Identity is the foundation