Definitions

Shop product: the product found on your e-commerce platform, in one or more shops. A Shop Inventory contains all your Shop products.

Hive product: the corresponding physical products stocked in Hive's warehouses. Your Hive products constitute the Hive Inventory.

What is mapping?

Once your shop platform is successfully integrated, the products found in your shop (Shop products) will be automatically imported into the Hive App. In order to fulfill your orders, you will need to complete their mapping.

Mapping means linking the Shop products with their respective Hive products, which are physically stocked in the fulfillment center. This system ensures that each shop product is linked to the corresponding physical item (Hive product). This need becomes apparent once you connect multiple sales channels selling the same physical product to one Hive App.

💡 In short, mapping ensures the following: “When a customer orders this product in Shopify, Hive will fulfill the correct corresponding physical item.”

 

Example 

 

You have two online shops connected to your Hive App. Your Shop Inventory for Shop A is the following:

• Shop A (e.g., BeautifulShirts UK)
  
  
  • Shop product A1: “Red T-Shirt”
  • Shop product A2: “Blue T-Shirt”

Your Shop Inventory for Shop B is the following:

• Shop B (e.g., BeautifulShirts EU)
  
  
  • Shop product B1: “Red T-Shirt”
  • Shop product B2: “Green T-Shirt”

Shop products A1 and B1, while belonging to two separate sales channels, are the virtual representation of the same physical items. As such, you will want to map them to the same Hive product.

 

Here's how mapping works in this scenario:

 

 

How it Works During Fulfillment

• When a customer orders “Red T-Shirt” (from Shop product A1 or B1):
  The system identifies that both Shop product A1 and Shop product B1 are mapped to Hive product R. Therefore, the physical “Red T-Shirt" is shipped.
  
  
• When a customer orders "Blue T-Shirt" (Shop product A2):
  The system matches it to Hive product B and ships the "Blue T-Shirt."
  
  
• When a customer orders "Green T-Shirt" (Shop product B2):
  The system matches it to Hive product G and ships the "Green T-Shirt."
  
  

Example: variant localization for a physical product on multiple sales channels

Before continuing

• Think before deleting
  Deleting or archiving mapped shop products in your e-commerce platform can result in potential issues with fulfillment. Before deleting a Shop product, ensure that it has alternative Hive products mapped to it (or that has no allocated stock, and you do not plan to restock to it).
  
  
  • For example, after announcing a restocking shipment for a new item on the Hive App, you should not delete the mapped Shop product from your e-commerce platform (unless the mapped Hive product has other Shop products mapped to it). This may cause the restocked units to be unfulfillable. If you are encountering this issue, refer to our Customer Support. 
    
    
• Add required product details
  Make sure your Shop products have an assigned, unique, and representative SKU ID. Using correct product detail formatting makes auto-mapping seamless and more precise, and makes it easier to troubleshoot fulfillment issues.
  
  Ensure each product contains the following details:
  
  

  • Weight (required)

  • Barcode (required)

  • Country of origin (required)

  • Production cost (required)

  • HS Code (required)

  • SKU ID (required)
    
    
• Map all shop products
  If a Shop product is not mapped, all orders including this product will be put on hold with a “Missing categorization issue”. We recommend mapping all Shop products, including those not fulfilled by Hive. During mapping, you will mark them as "Not fulfilled by Hive", and these Shop products will be ignored during orders' fulfillment.

 

Mapping steps

1. After creating a new Shop product in your e-commerce platform, it will be synced into your Hive App. On the “Inventory” page, you will be prompted to map it to the corresponding Hive products.
   
   
2. A banner appears in your "Inventory" page when new Shop products require mapping.
   
   
3. To map a Shop product(s) with its corresponding Hive product, click on ‘Map them now.’ Hive offers you “Manual Mapping” and “Auto-mapping” features.

 

Auto-mapping

 

💡 Auto-mapping is faster when importing numerous Shop products simultaneously, but requires you to assign the same, unique SKU ID for individual Shop products across all your shop platforms integrated with Hive.

1. Auto-mapping will propose you a mapping based on the Shop product’s SKU. To avoid mis-mapped SKUs, you should assign the same, unique SKU ID for individual Shop SKUs across all your shop platforms integrated with Hive.
   
   
2. If you want to change the proposed mapping to a manually picked one, you can click "Remove mapping".
   
   
3. If a corresponding Hive product already exists, you can look for it, by inputting at least three characters of its name or SKU ID in the search bar.
   
   
4. If your Shop product is a new product that has no corresponding, existing Hive product (e.g., a different product variant, or an entirely unique product) you need to select "+ Create Hive product".
   
5. You can then click on "Map" and select the mapping that fits best with your imported Shop product.

After choosing the appropriate mapping configuration, define whether your product is: 

• Fulfilled by Hive: when an order contains this Shop product - Hive product, we will fulfill it. 
• Not Fulfilled by Hive: when an order contains this Shop product - Hive product, we will ignore it, and fulfill the other SKUs contained in the order. 

You are ready to map the first page of Shop products to their assigned Hive product. Click on the button in the right bottom corner and confirm your mapping settings.

 

💡 You can map 20 Shop products at a time, with a single click. 

 

Manual mapping

Manually mapping Shop products to Hive products is similar to using the "Auto-mapping" feature. You will land on a mapping page without proposed mappings, and you will have to identify existing (or create) a Hive product for each recently imported Shop product. 

 

You will find your newly mapped Shop products in the Hive App > Inventory, split between those that are "Fulfilled by Hive" and those that are not. 

 

Remapping products

You will find your mapped Shop products in the Hive App > Inventory, split between those that are "Fulfilled by Hive" and those that are not.

1. Mapping settings can be changed at any given time by going to “Inventory”, clicking on a product and selecting the tab "Shop Products".
   
   
2. Go to Inventory > click on a product > Shop Products > Edit, and remove the links from Shop and Hive products by clicking on the connector.
   
   
3. Re-assign the desired Hive product to each Shop product and click "Save changes". 

 

Default shop product

You can set one shop product as the "Default" shop product. Hive will import the Shop product details (e.g., item picture, name, barcode, HS code) from the "Default" Shop product. 

Go to Inventory > click on a product > Shop Products > Edit, and select your default shop product.

 

Product details

You can always opt, after the initial mapping, to set the "Fulfilled by Hive" toggle ON and OFF, according to your preference. 

💡Changing product details in the Hive App will interrupt details synchronization from your e-commerce platform for those manually-defined details (e.g., HS code, cost...) If you wish to sync the product details stored on your e-commerce platform automatically, you can delete the changes you manually apported by emptying the details fields and saving your changes. In a few seconds, Hive will restore the values found on the Shop product page of your online store.

 

Converting products to bundles and blocking SKUs

Inside the product page, by clicking on the three vertical dots, you can:

• Convert your product into a Hive Bundle
  
  
  • You cannot turn a product with stocked SKUs into a bundle. If you wish to create a Hive Bundle, do it immediately after mapping, or create a new Shop product on your platform and map it to a new Hive product.
    
    Need help with bundles? Check our documentation: https://hub.hive.app/hc/en-us/articles/15619684946717-Bundles.

• Block the SKU
  
  This will immediately block fulfillment of all orders containing this product, until they are marked as “Open” in the Orders page. You will be able to unblock this SKU at any time.
  
  ⚠️ When the order containing this Hive product moves to “In processing”, you will not be able to block it.
  
  Blocking a SKU contained in an order undergoing fulfillment will not block the fulfillment of said order. This action blocks:

• • Bundles including this Hive product
    
    
  • Incoming stock from returns or restocking shipments
    
    
  • Fulfillment of all new orders containing this SKU

 

Changing product information

⚠️ Adding product information directly in the Hive App will prevent syncing changes to these information from your Shop platform (e.g., Shopify).

Example: If you add the "Cost" to the product in the Hive App, future changes to the equivalent field in the Shop products will not get synced. You will first need to delete the value in the Hive App > Inventory > Hive product page > Edit details.

 

Product Type, Barcode, Customs Information, Batch Tracking, Serial Tracking, Returns Settings, Packaging Settings

•  Identification

To edit the product details, you can enter your Inventory > select a product > Edit details. Here you can choose the Product Type, between SKU, flyer, outer/inner packaging, silk paper, filling material, sticker and tape. This information is required to ensure proper fulfillment and inventory operations (e.g., kitting tasks, add-on rules). 

You can likewise set a barcode alternative to the one imported from your e-commerce platform.

Barcodes will be linked to the Hive product, and are required for fulfillment operations.

• Customs 

You can fill-in customs information (HS Code, Country of origin and Cost*), required if you are shipping your orders from a warehouse in the European Union to a non-EU country. 

*Cost refers to the production cost, and is a required value if you wish Hive to reimburse you in case of issues with your inventory.

• Batch tracking

You can enable Batch tracking (only for Pro and Pro+ subscribers) and/or Serial number tracking (available only upon request). 

• Custom Customer Portal returns policy. If you are using the Hive Customer Portal, you can set custom return policies for every Hive product. 

• Packaging settings

Send in split shipment by default — recommended for bulky items. Depending on the characteristics of the product, you may need to provide your own packaging material.

Enable SIOP (Ship in own packaging). You will need to provide the product in a pre-packaged condition, ready to be labelled with the shipping labeled.