Why does a marketplace listing need to be linked to a stock product?
Because the listing and the warehouse product are not the same object. A listing can be a bundle of three units, the same product can appear in several listings, and a listing can exist for a product you no longer stock. Matching has to be quantity based: selling one three-item bundle must move three units. If a listing is unmatched and it sells, the honest behaviour is to raise a warning rather than silently write a wrong stock figure.
Three cases that break one-to-one matching
The bundle. One listing, three units. Matching one-to-one understates consumption by two thirds on exactly the listings that sell best.
The shared product. The same unit appears in a single listing, a two-pack and a gift set. All three draw from the same stock.
The orphan. A listing left active for a product you stopped stocking. It sells, and there is nothing to take the units from.
Silent failure is the expensive one
An unmatched listing that quietly sells leaves stock untouched. Everything looks fine — until a stock count disagrees by exactly the number of units nobody recorded, weeks later, with no trail back to the cause.
A warning at the moment of the order turns a month-long mystery into a two-minute fix.
Checklist
- Is every active listing matched to a product?
- Is matching quantity based, so bundles consume correctly?
- Does an unmatched sale raise a warning rather than pass silently?
- Are listings for discontinued products closed rather than left active?
Frequently asked questions
Why match listings to products?
So that a sale moves the right stock. A listing is a sales object; a product is an inventory object, and the relationship between them is not always one to one.
What happens if a listing is not matched?
A sale on it cannot move stock. The right behaviour is a visible warning; the dangerous one is silently doing nothing.
How are bundles handled?
By quantity. A listing that contains three units of a product consumes three on each sale.