Completed work
Expanding a catalogue and finding supplier exceptions
Adding products also exposed what did not match. The import was one part of the job. The exceptions were another.
The problem behind the job
If a supplier range is bigger than the catalogue you currently sell, you need to know what is genuinely new, what already exists and which records need a human decision before anything is published.
What I was working with
A retailer needed a substantial product range added to its online catalogue. As the range was built and compared with the supplier source, some product identifiers did not appear where expected. That was useful information in its own right, not just an inconvenience during the import.
More than a product count
The aim was to make the range available in the shop with a usable structure. A large total by itself would not prove that the records matched the supplier or that availability was dependable.
I treated the range build and the reconciliation as connected pieces of work.
Compare the range with its source
The product identifiers were checked against the supplier catalogue. The work identified a group of SKUs without the expected supplier match and produced stock and price checking information.
This is the same reason I separate matched price updates from unmatched rows.
What was delivered
The catalogue expansion was delivered and the supplier discrepancies were identified. The resulting records gave the next stage a more specific starting point than 'the feed needs checking'.
There was also a proposal to automate further stock work. That proposal was not the same thing as a completed automatic feed.
Is your catalogue missing products or reliable matches?
If your problem looks similar, send me the current setup and the outcome you need. The implementation may be different, but the same kind of thinking usually applies.
Why the exception list mattered
An unresolved product identity can affect future price and stock updates. Finding it during a catalogue exercise is more useful than carrying the uncertainty into every later import.
The outcome I can describe is the delivered catalogue and reconciliation, not a measured sales lift from the new range.
A repeatable next step
For similar work, I'd agree which source is authoritative, which identifiers can be trusted and how exceptions will be reviewed. Products, variations and kits also need their own checks.
See product data and imports for the wider service.
HAVE SOMETHING AWKWARD?
Is your catalogue missing products or reliable matches?
Send me the URL, what is happening, what you have already tried and what a useful result would look like. A small anonymised sample is enough to start - do not send passwords, credentials or sensitive customer data.