Barcode and exact product matching

01What an exact match changes

Before a product is matched, Pricebeeper finds its competitors with a keyword search: the product's title on Google Shopping and on Amazon, and the top 20 results of each. That finds sellers you didn't know about. It can also return the same item in another size, a bundle with extra parts or last year's model, each arriving as one seller's offer of something close to your product.

A match pins down the product. Once Pricebeeper knows the Google Shopping product ID or the Amazon ASIN, the monthly search asks the Sellers data for that one item instead. It lists the shops selling that exact product in your region, with each one's item price, shipping, total price and condition, and stock where Google reports it.

On every paid plan, Google's seller list for a matched product is requested up to 40 deep at the monthly search. Until the next search, every seller on it whose page can be read is re-checked from that page, weekly on Starter and Plus and daily on Growth and up. Daily and weekly re-checks explains that schedule.

02How a match is made

Matching starts as soon as you attach a product to a region, and it runs separately for Google Shopping and for Amazon.

1. 1

   Fill in a missing barcode

   If the product has no GTIN, Pricebeeper first reads your own product page: the storefront data on Shopify, the structured data on other sites. It saves a barcode it finds, and a brand or MPN only where yours are blank.

2. 2

   Search by barcode

   It searches Google Shopping and Amazon for the GTIN in the slot's country. A barcode identifies one product, so the top result of a barcode search carries most of the weight.

3. 3

   Fall back to brand and title

   When the barcode finds nothing, or there is none, it searches for the brand, the title and the MPN together.

4. 4

   Score up to 3 candidates

   Each distinct product in the results is scored on its rank in a barcode search, the title words it shares with yours (sizes, capacities and model numbers that disagree lower the score), whether your brand is in its title, and whether its price is within half to double your own last known price. Ads, Amazon sponsored products and Amazon's own-brand section are never candidates.

5. 5

   Match, or ask you

   A candidate that scores 80% or more and leads the next one by at least 10 points is matched. Otherwise the top 3 wait for you as needs confirmation, and the slot keeps its title search in the meantime.

03Reviewing matches in the app

Each monitored product has a Product match card with a row for Google Shopping and a row for Amazon. A row says what the product is matched to and how (via barcode, via title, or confirmed by you), or that it needs your review, found no match, or is still searching.

• Review matches opens up to 3 suggestions, each with its image, title, price, number of sellers and a match score. Pick the right one, or choose None of these.
• Not this product removes a match. If other suggestions remain you choose among them; if none do, Pricebeeper searches again and skips everything you rejected.
• Search again re-runs matching for one platform, for example after you add a barcode.
• Needs match review filters the products list to the ones waiting for you, and a bulk action confirms the top suggestion for up to 1,000 selected products at once.

Your choice applies per country, because Google product IDs can differ between countries. Confirm the match of a product you monitor in Texas and in California, and both slots use it.

04Barcodes, brands and MPNs from your catalog

Matching is most reliable when your catalog carries identifiers, and catalog import keeps them wherever the source has them:

• CSV files: columns named gtin, ean, upc or barcode, plus brand and mpn, in any header case. Barcodes are read as text, so leading zeros survive.
• Google Merchant Center feeds: g:gtin, g:brand and g:mpn. Items marked identifier_exists = no keep no barcode or MPN.
• Shopify and WooCommerce store imports: no barcodes. When matching starts, Pricebeeper reads the barcode from the product page (the storefront data on Shopify, the structured data elsewhere). WooCommerce imports keep the brand where the Store API gives one.
• The Shopify app: syncs the vendor as brand, and the barcode when every variant of the product carries the same one.
• Pasted URLs and manual entry: the page's structured data, or what you type on the product's Identifiers card.

Pricebeeper accepts GTIN-8, UPC-A, EAN-13 and GTIN-14 and stores every barcode as 14 digits. A code with the wrong length or check digit is refused; in an import it is skipped and named in the import's warning. The Identifiers card shows where the values came from, and saving a new barcode runs matching again in every country the product is monitored in.

05Exact offers and similar offers

In the offers table, every offer from the seller list of a matched product carries an Exact match badge, and so do the re-checks of those same sellers' pages. Offers from a keyword search have no badge: they may be your product, or a close relative.

Amazon's keyword results name no seller, so they sit in a separate panel as search results on Amazon. They never raise an alert, set your lowest market price or count toward MAP, and the panel has a button that starts matching the product on Amazon.

Used and refurbished offers in the Sellers data are left out by default. A switch on the Product match card, Include used and refurbished offers, brings them back for that slot.

Two features rely on the badge. MAP monitoring opens violations only for exact offers or sellers on your list, so a cheaper lookalike isn't reported as a breach. Repricing rules can be limited to exact matches, so a suggested price doesn't follow a different item.

06Shop domains for sellers known only by name

Google Shopping often names a seller without linking its shop. Pricebeeper learns the domain behind a seller name, per country, from observations that carry both: Google Shopping seller data and the re-checks of those offers. It never learns from pinned pages, from sources you connect yourself or from Amazon seller names.

A learned domain is used once the name and domain were seen together on at least 2 separate days and in 80% or more of that name's observations. Until then the offer shows the name alone. Learned domains let you filter offers by shop, and they let competitor ad monitoring count a shop once, whether an offer names it or links it.

07How matches stay current

• If the monthly Sellers search returns no sellers twice in a row, the product ID is set aside and matching runs again.
• When a slot switches from a keyword search to a matched product, or to a different product, the next check records a new baseline and raises no alerts: sellers from two different queries aren't compared.
• A barcode match found for one account is reused by other accounts that monitor the same barcode in the same country, which saves a search. Barcodes read through the Shopify Admin API are never shared this way.

08Plans, cost and limits

Matching runs on Starter, Plus, Growth, Pro, Business and Custom at no extra charge. It is part of the slot price, $0.078 per product a month on Starter at full use. Free has no Google Shopping or Amazon search, so there is nothing to match; free accounts track pinned competitor pages instead.

• Products without a barcode match less reliably, and private-label or bundled items may have no Google product or ASIN at all. They keep the keyword search, and you can pin the competitors you know.
• Matching needs a search result to work from. A product that isn't listed on Google Shopping or Amazon yet can't be matched there.
• Amazon pages are never read directly, so the sellers of a matched ASIN update only at the monthly search, with no weekly or daily re-checks.
• There is no managed matching service. Pricebeeper matches automatically and asks you about the doubtful cases.

Questions people ask