When you install your eCom store, the matrix items that you automatically or manually select to Publish to eCom will convert to eCom products with single, double, or triple drop-down menus - mirroring the attribute sets that you've set up in Retail. More specifically, the drop down-menu labels are named using the attribute label names from Retail.

NOTE: Each Retail matrix published to eCom can have a maximum of 100 variants. In Retail, you will see the below message once you've reached your limit. 

For information on setting up matrices and custom attributes in Retail, refer to:

• Creating matrices
• Creating custom matrix attribute sets

For information about syncing and visibility of products in eCom, click here.

Sorting matrix attributes and variants

When you create or edit a matrix in your Retail account, you can sort the order in which its attributes appear in your eCom store.

You can also sort your matrix variants in your eCom store. However, the order in which their attributes are sorted in Retail will overwrite their order in your eCom store the next time their matrix or one of its variants are saved in Retail. This synchronization allows for consistency between your Retail account and eCom store.

Due to this design, we recommend you sort your matrix attributes from your Retail account.

Another design element to keep in mind is that when a matrix variant doesn't exist in Retail, its attributes will appear last on your eCom website. By ignoring the order of the matrix attributes in Retail, this exception promotes the other existing matrix variants to your customers shopping on your eCom website. As for your eCom store's back office, the order of your existing matrix variants will still remain synchronized with your Retail account.

Re-naming matrices and their variant titles (default language)

The re-naming of matrices and variant titles, for the default language, must be done in Retail only. This is to protect the manner in which your drop-down menus appear in eCom since the naming convention also dictates title, amount of, and position of your attribute drop downs in your eCom product page.

Variant title naming convention:

• "Attribute 1: Variant Name","Attribute 2: Variant Name",”Attribute 3: Variant Name”
• For example: "Volume: 1.0 litre","Color: Blue"

NOTE: The position and presence of the quotations, comma(s) and colons are paramount to ensuring your drop downs appear and operate properly.

To re-name variant titles (default language):

A matrix item's attribute variant(s) in Retail controls its variant title in eCom. Therefore, to re-name the variant title in eCom:

1. From your Retail account, click Inventory > Matrix.
2. From the COMMON DESCRIPTION column, select the matrix that contains the eCom variant you want to edit.
3. To re-name an eCom variant's title, you can do either of the following:

   • Edit the attribute variant(s) that makeup its matrix item's description in Retail.

     NOTE: This will affect all eCom variant titles that contain the attribute variant(s) in their matrix item description in Retail.

   • From the Group Items area, click the pencil icon next to the eCom variant you want to edit and select different variant(s) from the attribute drop-down(s).

Renaming matrices and their variant titles (multiple languages)

When you configure your eCom for multiple languages, matrices and variant titles must also have titles in their defined alternate languages title fields. eCom will not let you save a product or matrix variants without a complete set of alternate language titles.

NOTE: If an item is pushed from Retail to eCom without alternate language titles, omnichannel will insert the default language title into the alternate language title fields.

IMPORTANT: The default matrix attribute name is only displayed in English. A matrix attribute is the title of the dropdown to your customers, like color: or size:. If your default language is not English, create custom matrix attribute sets.

To add alternate language titles (multiple languages):

1. Find a product in your eCom back office.
2. Open the variant you want to translate.
3. Copy the variant title.
4. Navigate to the alternate language setup for this variant.
5. Paste the default language title.
6. Translate the “attribute” (ex:color) and “variant name” (ex:blue) but leave the commas, quotations and colons in place. Click Save.
7. Repeat the above steps for all variants in the matrix.

Converting a matrix variant to a product

In Retail, a variant can be converted to a product and a product can be converted to a variant. When a variant is converted to a product in Retail, omnichannel deletes the variant in eCom and creates a new product. Metadata associated with the deleted variant is deleted in eCom.

Changing the variant title in eCom

Variant attributes in Retail are pushed to eCom as part of the variant's title. The format of the variant's title in eCom is used to display drop-down menus for each attribute when viewing the product in the storefront. For this reason, the variant's title in the eCom store's default language is not editable. If the eCom store has other languages, the variant's title can be edited in those languages.

Products in eCom can be deleted through specific actions in Retail

Certain product metadata exists only in eCom. This includes HTML product descriptions, search-engine metafields, product weight, dimensions and more. There are scenarios where a change in Retail deletes the product and associated metadata in eCom.

Although you can Delete items from eCom, the following actions will delete products in eCom as well:

• Merging items
• Removing the last item from a matrix

Matrix images

• Up to 12 images of Retail matrices and its variants are pushed to their corresponding products in eCom. All images saved to the matrix are pushed first. All images saved to each matrix variant are pushed second. The created date of the variant determines the order in which the images are pushed.
• Images of Retail variants are not pushed to their corresponding variants in eCom. However, you can assign one of the 12 matrix images to a variant in eCom.