eBay Variations
The connector publishes items with Business Central variants as eBay variation listings: one listing with selection fields (e.g. colour and size) instead of many individual listings. Technically it uses eBay inventory item groups.
How it works
- One eBay inventory item per BC variant — with its own SKU (
ItemNo-VariantCode-<MarketplaceCode>, e.g.4711-RED-DE) and the variant-specific aspect values. - All variant SKUs are combined into a group, including the specification of which aspects vary (variesBy).
- One offer of its own per variant SKU — with its own price, its own quantity and the fulfillment policy of the group.
- The group is published (
publishOfferByInventoryItemGroup): eBay turns the offers into one multi-variation listing. When a variant is added, the sync publishes the group again.
Membership is controlled by the eBay Group Key field on the marketplace item; a new group gets the key ItemNo-<MarketplaceCode>, e.g. 4711-DE. Every variant carries its own offer ID; the listing ID is stored on the variants and the parent item. The parent item (without variant code) only stands for the group: it has no offer and sells nothing itself.
A group of its own per country
As with single items, eBay allows an SKU — and a variant group — on one marketplace only. When an item with variants is listed in several countries, every country therefore gets a group of its own with its own group key and its own variant SKUs. The connector creates new variants for every country the item is listed in. Existing groups with an offer keep their keys and SKUs (see eBay SKU per country).
Inventory and handling time per variant
- Quantity: The hub calculates it separately for each variant — with the variant's own stock and the item settings of its marketplace item (see Inventory Calculation). Supplier stock counts for variants only when Count Supplier Stock for Variants is switched on in the merchantCENTRAL setup: supplier offers belong to the item, not to a variant. The quantity goes to the variant's offer.
- Price: The price sync sends the price of every variant to its own offer.
- Handling time: A listing shows one handling time only. When the sales channel uses the handling time, the group therefore carries the longest promise of its variants, and all offers of the group run on the same fulfillment policy. The slowest variant thus ships in time, the others earlier. When one offer changes policy, the others follow with their next quantity update.
Transition of existing group offers
Earlier versions of the connector created one single offer for the whole group on the parent item. The next variant sync converts such groups automatically: it creates the offers of the variants, publishes the group as a new listing and only then deletes the old group offer. Until then the quantity keeps going to the old offer. The result is recorded in the activity log; if the deletion fails, the next run tries again. No action is needed on your part.
Maintaining variant aspects
The eBay Variant Aspects page assigns each BC variant combination its eBay aspect values — e.g. variant RED-L → Color = Red, Size = Large.
Open the page
- Via the eBay dashboard → Variant Aspects
Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Item No. | BC item number. |
| Variant Code | BC variant code. |
| Aspect Name | eBay aspect that varies between variants (e.g. Color, Size). |
| Aspect Value | Aspect value of this variant (e.g. Red, Large). |
Synchronising variations
| Action (dashboard) | Description |
|---|---|
| Sync Variant Groups | Pushes all variant groups with pending changes to eBay — and every group that still needs the transition — on every active eBay marketplace (with progress dialog and one combined result message). |
| Variant Aspects | Opens the aspect mapping. |
Tips
Every variant needs aspect values
The varying aspects must be maintained for every variant of the group — otherwise eBay cannot distinguish the variant within the listing.
Who sends what
The regular listing sync skips items with an eBay group key — inventory items, the group and new offers of the variants are created by the variant sync only. Price and quantity of the variants are sent by the price and inventory sync, as for single items.