shopify creating new skus when grouping product variants

Technical Q&A

Topic summary

Issue: Shopify was auto-generating new SKUs when grouping color variants, breaking alignment with EposNow-managed SKUs/barcodes. SKU (stock keeping unit) codes were originally created in EposNow, a POS/inventory system, and imported into Shopify.

Goal: Keep a single product (e.g., Product A) with multiple color variants visible together, while preserving the original EposNow SKUs and barcodes for stock control.

Resolution: Manage variants in EposNow, not in Shopify. When variants are created in EposNow and then uploaded/synced to Shopify, the SKUs and barcodes are preserved; in Shopify only images needed to be added.

Steps provided:

  • In EposNow back office, open the variants tab.
  • Create a variant set (name the variant and add options, e.g., red/blue/green).
  • Create a new master product and attach the previously created variants.
  • Upload/sync to Shopify; confirm variants and SKUs match, then add product pictures.

Status: Resolved by the original poster; no remaining disagreements or open questions.

Summarized with AI on January 22. AI used: gpt-5.
1

We are using EposNow to manage our products and stock control. It created the SKUs and barcodes for each of our products and we’ve successfully imported them into Shopify.

Our problem is that, for example, Product A comes 4 different colours (each colour has its own SKU and barcode generated by EposNow and is imported into shopify), the only we we can see to group these together is to select one and add the other 3 as variants, but Shopify treats these variants as new products and creates new SKUs for each which do not match our epos system for stock control etc.

We want Product A to be the main item when searching on the site but for it to show the other 3 variants at the same time but with the EposNow details.

How do we group these together without the new SKUs being generated?

2

Hi,

I came across this post and was have somewhat of a similar situation and wanted to know if you ever fixed your problem?

3

Hi

Yes we did sort it in the end, had to to do the variants for the products in epos now (not shopify) then when they uploaded to shopify they were perfect just added pictures.

In the epos back office there is a tab for setting up variants so you go into that type in a name for your variant then add to that the variants ie red blue green and save. Then make a new product ( a master) there is a tab within that to add the variants you made earlier