Using Actinic Ref as MPN

[Bedspring]

Hi,
I am still battling with MPN`s and EAN`s, some of the firms I deal with come up with EAN`s no problem while some are more tricky, just wondering if I could use the Actinic Product ref as an MPN, this would have a couple of benefits, it would be easy because it would be right in front of me when entering and I could be 100% sure that I would not duplicate within the site, can anyone see a problem with this scheme.
Cheers Steve

[TraceyHand]

The Actinic product reference can be anything you like!
You can give a block of cheese a product ref of "marmite" and no one would care!

It all depends on what you use the product ref itself for.
There's no reason you can't use MPNs as your product references.

What sort of problems were you envisaging?

[Bedspring]

Hi,
sorry I was not clear, I want the MPN`s for google .

[TraceyHand]

specifically for google, why?
For SEO on your website or for google's product search feed?

If the latter, how are you producing the feed? Are you using the in-built export?
If so, I think you would need to create a custom variable for the MPN (as only EAN/ISBN and UPC are included in Actinic by default) and you would need to use this for the MPN as exporting it from the Product Reference field would just export it as Product Reference (or Product ID or something)

Without some manual tinkering of the resulting file, you couldn't straight export your Product ref as the MPN....

You could, of course, if you use the Mole End Product Mash

[Bedspring]

LOL, your getting complicated, I mean type the ref number from the reference box in Actinic into the MPN area of the product, then submit it to google.

[TraceyHand]

So you're not talking about using MPNs as Product references... you're talking about using Product references as MPNs?

That doesn't make sense because MPNs are supposed to be just that, Manufacturer Part Numbers (and need submitting along with "Brand") so, unless all your Product References happen to be MPNs already, you'd be submitting invalid MPNs

Or maybe I've got the wrong end of what you're saying

[Bedspring]

But what if the manufacturer does not have an MPN or is unwilling to supply one.

[TraceyHand]

No idea

All you can go on is Google's guidelines

http://www.google.com/support/mercha...&answer=160161

If you can't supply any of the required identifiers for an item, you'd either have to exclude it or apply for exemption, I suppose

[Mike Hughes]

But what if the manufacturer does not have an MPN or is unwilling to supply one.

That strikes me as a weird scenario but maybe it's the industry you're in.

How are you supposed to order products if they won't tell you what their product numbers are? And are they not somewhere on the product labels / packaging anyway?

Mike

[Bedspring]

You order it as a Model Name + Size, no need for an MPN and for products we sell a lot of we could examine the packaging but that does not help with products rarely sold or drop shipped items.

[Mike Hughes]

I did think that might be the case although it is surprising they won't tell you what the internal part number is.

As Tracey says. You'll either need to get hold of the number or ask for exemption. I wouldn't generally advise giving Google any old number when they're specifically asking for something else.

Mike

[Bedspring]

I did think that might be the case although it is surprising they won't tell you what the internal part number is.

Mike

Within the bed trade there is resistance to the internet by some manufacturers, some just forbid products on the internet, others kind of like the business but don`t like to be too helpful.

[malbro]

You order it as a Model Name + Size, no need for an MPN and for products we sell a lot of we could examine the packaging but that does not help with products rarely sold or drop shipped items.

Then that could be the MPN, the MPN is to uniquely identify a product within a manufacturers range and does not have to be a number. So if that's what you order from the manufacturer that is the MPN.

[Jan]

If there really is no MPN then you can apply for exemption from google.

Regards,

[Air-Tech]

But what if the manufacturer does not have an MPN or is unwilling to supply one.

I have a small range of products which don't have specific MPN's, the manufacturer simply uses the product descriptions as their MPN's & these are too lengthy to be described as MON's or used in Google as MPN's.

It may come back to bite me in the ass, but I made up some relevant(ish) imaginary MPN's for these products & they have been in my feed without any warning for several months now................