Yes. After the initial product setup, which is usually done with a CSV file containing all your product data (primarily Name, Barcode/UPC, SKU, Image URL), new products that appear in orders will be identified by their SKU, which our system will recognize as an item that does not yet exist. GroovePacker will then request all available data for the new item so that it can be setup*. The integrated order managers will be able to provide these primary fields if the data is present, and your new product will be ready to scan.
*Note: Are products that already exist in GroovePacker updated when changes are made to the product elsewhere?
No, this automatic process only occurs for products that did not previously exist. GroovePacker will not request data for existing items. In other words, it will not try to update product data for every item in every order during every import. Doing so would make imports very slow. Changes to existing products can be made in bulk using the CSV product importer. It's also possible to modify or add barcodes directly to the products in GroovePacker.
Note 2: Products are created when orders are imported.
Creating products in your store or order manager does not immediately create them in GroovePacker. The new products gets created in GroovePacker when an order containing it is imported. If you wish to import the new products before you import them in an order, you can create a test order containing the new items and import it, or you can use a product CSV file to import them. In the case of Shopify you can also update products via their API.
Note 3: Orders imported for products that did not have barcodes yet.
You may find orders were imported before some of the products in the order had barcodes assigned in your store. Barcodes have since been added for the items in the store, but the items in GroovePacker were already created without barcodes and now are not getting updated since they exist. In this case, you can either add the barcodes in GroovePacker directly or, if you see that the newly added barcode is in your order manager, you can delete the open orders that contain these items from GroovePacker and re-import them. This should re-create the items and the barcodes that are now in the order manager (ShippingEasy, ShipStation etc.) will now be included. If you initially imported the product from Shopify (either by importing an order from Shopify or by using the Update Catalog option) it will be possible to use the Update Catalog button again to import barcodes that were recently added in Shopify.
The order managers nearly always have the product name, SKU, and product image if they are integrated with your online store. There is a good chance though, that your barcode/upc data will not be in your order manager, unless it was added for inventory purposes, or it was added in your shopping cart/online store. (The barcode can be added in the order manager directly, but if it is added in the online store it will often automatically transfer to the order manager when the item appears in an order, so this is usually the preferred workflow)
So, in order to ensure that your new items always have barcodes/upcs, and are ready to scan when they are first found in orders imported into GroovePacker, you'll want to be sure that the barcode is entered in your online store when the product is created. If you know that some items have barcodes and others need to be added, you can export your products to CSV or Excel, add the missing barcodes, and then re-import those items into the store.
For situations where products are added slowly over time, and products are received with barcodes on them from the manufacturer, you might also consider allowing packers to scan them in during the Scan and Pack process as explained here.
What about cases where the barcodes are the same as the SKU?
It is possible to have barcodes automatically generated from the sku, for all items, or for only items that do not have a barcode saved in the order manager. This in ensures that newly added items always have their SKU-based barcode. However, *the same caveat above applies. If the item already exists in GroovePacker prior to the order import the barcode will need to be added in GroovePacker. Existing items are not updated during order imports. If you need to generate barcodes from your SKU for items already in GroovePacker please see this article for a quick way to do that.
