Goals and Outcomes
Preparing your product catalog is a critical step for successful review syndication. Retailers use GTINs, such as UPC, EAN, and ISBN, to identify products and support accurate review syndication. If GTINs are missing, incorrect, or inconsistent, reviews may fail to syndicate, appear on the wrong listings, or trigger recurring errors.
In this article, you’ll learn how to prepare your product catalog for review syndication by managing GTINs, catalog accuracy, parent and variant setup, and catalog structure.
For more information about how product matching works, see Product Matching Tool for Retail Syndication.
Getting Started
Before enabling syndication, make sure your product catalog includes accurate and complete product identifiers.
At a minimum, you should:
Identify which retailers you plan to syndicate reviews to.
Collect the identifiers used by those retailers for your products.
Ensure that these identifiers exist in your catalog and are correctly formatted.
If you are using Shopify, product identifiers are typically managed through the barcode field on product variants. For other platforms, identifiers are managed directly in your product catalog.
Product Matching and Your Catalog
Retail syndication depends on matching products in your store catalog with the corresponding products in the retailer’s catalog. Matching primarily uses product identifiers such as GTINs, including UPCs and EANs.
Complete and accurate identifiers improve the likelihood that products will be matched automatically. Products with missing or different identifiers may remain unmatched.
For more information about how matching works, when to review an existing match, and how to manually match a product that was not automatically matched, see Product Matching Tool for Retail Syndication.
How to Prepare Your Catalog
Audit Your Product Identifiers
Before onboarding a new retailer:
List the retailers where you sell your products.
Collect the GTIN used by each retailer for each product.
Confirm that the same identifier is not assigned to multiple unrelated products.
The same product may have multiple valid GTINs when different identifiers are used by different retailers.
Format GTINs Correctly
To improve matching accuracy:
Ensure all products have valid GTINs.
Use the correct GTIN format.
For example, UPCs contain 12 digits and EANs contain 13 digits. During the product matching process for retail syndication, Yotpo pads or trims GTINs to normalize them to the 14-digit GTIN format. This does not change the GTINs in your product catalog.
Ensure GTINs are numeric.
Avoid storing multiple GTINs in free-text fields.
Make sure GTINs are consistent across your systems and stores.
If the same product is sold across multiple retailers, it may have different GTINs. In such cases, make sure all relevant GTINs are captured and managed correctly.
Use Variants Correctly
In most cases, reviews are collected on the parent product, while matching happens at the variant level.
To avoid issues:
Use variants only for real purchasable options, such as size or color.
Ensure each variant has the correct identifier.
Make sure the variant structure reflects how the product appears on your storefront.
Do not create variants only to store additional identifiers.
Incorrect variant setup can prevent products from matching automatically with retailer site products.
Keep Identifiers Stable
Changing product identifiers after syndication has started can break existing matches and stop reviews from being shared.
To avoid this:
Do not update identifiers unless necessary.
Avoid changing identifiers for one retailer without checking the impact on other retailers.
Plan catalog updates in advance.
Coordinate required identifier changes before onboarding or during a controlled update.
Changing or replacing an identifier may override an existing match rather than add coverage.
Where to Update Identifiers
Where you should update identifiers depends on your eCommerce platform.
Shopify
For Shopify stores:
GTINs usually come from the Barcode field on product variants.
Shopify is typically the source of truth for product identifiers.
Update the identifier in Shopify first. After the corrected GTIN syncs to Yotpo, it may take up to 48 hours for an automatic match to appear in the Product Matching Tool.
Other eCommerce Platforms
For Adobe Commerce, custom platforms, and other supported platforms:
GTINs are typically managed in the platform’s product catalog.
Yotpo ingests the identifiers from your product data.
Updates should be made in the source platform and then synced to Yotpo.
Avoid updating the same identifier in multiple systems unless you know which system is the source of truth.
Common Catalog Issues
Most syndication issues are caused by catalog problems rather than technical errors.
Common issues include:
Missing or incorrect identifiers.
Using the same identifier for different products.
Different catalog structures across platforms.
Products grouped differently than in the retailer catalog.
Variant identifiers that do not reflect real purchasable options.
Recently changed identifiers that replaced working matches.
Common Matching Errors and How to Resolve Them
Issue | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
Product not matched | No matching identifier was found in the retailer catalog. | Verify the GTIN used by the retailer, confirm it exists in your catalog, and check the product status in the Product Matching Tool. |
Partial syndication | The product matches on one retailer but not another. | Check whether each retailer uses a different GTIN for the product, then review the match status for each retailer in the Product Matching Tool. |
Wrong product matched | The identifier may have been assigned to more than one product. | Confirm that the GTIN is unique and belongs to the correct product, then review the existing match in the Product Matching Tool. |
Reviews are not progressing | The identifier may have been rejected because of its type or format. | Validate the identifier type, length, and formatting, then check whether the product is matched in the Product Matching Tool. |
Product disappears from matching results | A recently updated identifier may have replaced a previous match. | Review recent catalog changes, restore the correct identifier if needed, and check the updated match status in the Product Matching Tool. |
What to Expect
It is normal to see differences in syndication results across retailers.
A product may:
Match successfully on one retailer but not another.
Display reviews on some channels but not all.
Match using a product-level identifier on one channel and a variant-level identifier on another.
This usually reflects differences in how each retailer matches products as well as retailer-specific review eligibility and moderation requirements. For more information about reviews that may not syndicate due to retailer rules, such as Verified Buyer requirements, see Retail Syndication Review Eligibility.
Best Practices Before Reaching Out to Support
Finalize your catalog before onboarding new retailers.
Document which identifier is used for each product and retailer.
Share retailer identifier requirements with the teams managing your catalog.
Avoid last-minute identifier changes.
Review unmatched products early rather than waiting until launch.
Confirm which platform is the source of truth before making updates.
Prepare the relevant retailer name, product ID, and GTIN when reporting a matching issue.
Good catalog preparation reduces onboarding delays and repeated troubleshooting.
Before Contacting Support
Before reaching out to Yotpo Support, check the product in the Product Matching Tool.
Use the Product Matching Tool to confirm:
Which retailers the product is matched to.
Which GTINs were used for the matches.
Whether any unmatched products can be manually matched.
If the issue is related to a missing, incorrect, or recently updated GTIN, review the relevant steps in the Common Matching Errors and How to Resolve Them section before contacting Support.
Contact Yotpo Support if the issue continues after you have checked the Product Matching Tool and confirmed that the correct GTIN is available in your source catalog.
Key Takeaway
Product matching issues usually reflect differences in identifiers, variants, or catalog structure across retailers rather than a technical failure.
Keeping your catalog complete, accurate, and stable is the most effective way to improve product matching and support successful review syndication.