I am new to shopify. We enter sometimes 100 plus new items a day. So we sometimes don’t know if they are new or not. I have noticed when we key in a new item shopfiy is allowing us to add it even if the upc is already in the system. How can I prevent duplicate upcs when I key in new items? BTW we are not using the duplicate function for items.
Topic summary
- Main issue: A new Shopify user entering 100+ products daily wants to prevent creating products with duplicate UPCs (Universal Product Codes). They’ve observed Shopify allows adding a new item even if its UPC already exists in the system.
- Context and status: They are not using the product “duplicate” function and sometimes can’t tell if an item is actually new. They’re seeking a way to enforce UPC uniqueness during product entry. No solutions or decisions are provided yet; the request remains open.
Shopify does not enforce unique SKU/MPN/GTIN/UPC/BARCODE.
If you import from CSV/XLS some apps may allow you to use barcode as a uniq id. Say Matrixify can do that https://matrixify.app/tutorials/force-to-identify-shopify-products-by-variants/
Other apps may also have some deduplication functionality.
If you enter products manually or by native CSV import and want to avoid duplication, you can use free Flow app by Shopify.
It would not prevent you from creating a duplicate product, but can tag the new product and/or warn you using other means (send an e-mail, add a line to Google sheet, etc).
The flow can be like this:
