Import duplicates - update or replace?

[hippodrome]

We have a catalog of about 1000 items. Our company has custom product pricing for logged-in users.

That is, we give special prices on certain items to certain customers.

Each price is negotiated; it is not based on a discount percentage (which means we can't just apply one price schedule per ustomer and be done with it).

So we create a price schedule for each customer, then manually adjust the price for that customer in each product's price tab.

Here's the problem:

From time to time we need to update the product catalog. Our master catalog data is in a flat CSV file, which we import into Actinic as needed.

When I import (flat) with replace, I lose all my custom pricing. When I import with update, I get duplicate products.

How can I import with update without duplicating products?
What triggers product duplication?

Thanks

[cdicken]

What triggers product duplication?

It sounds like you are automatically generating product reference numbers. This means Actinic will automatically assign a product reference number to each product you create/import - hence you get duplication.

How can I import with update without duplicating products?

Go to 'Business Settings | Options' and de-select 'Auto Generate Product References' and also select 'Hide Product Reference In Online Catalog'. Now, each product in your store will have a 'Reference' field. You need to enter these product references into your master speadsheet you are importing. Then the 'Update' feature of the import will successfully update your existing products.