This guide is for merchants who are restructuring their Shopify store by consolidating multiple individual products (e.g. separate colour variants) into a single product with colour/variant options. It covers how to ensure your existing reviews follow the new structure.
What happens to your reviews during consolidation?
REVIEWS.io links reviews to products by SKU. When you consolidate variants in Shopify — retiring individual colour SKUs in favour of one parent SKU with variant options — the old SKUs no longer exist in your product feed. Any reviews linked to those old SKUs will appear under Unmatched SKUs in your Product Catalogue once the old products are removed from Shopify.
Reviews will continue to display on the old SKUs for as long as those products remain live in your catalogue. Once removed, they move to Unmatched SKUs and need to be remapped.
Before you start ✅
Make sure the new consolidated SKU is live and synced in your REVIEWS.io Product Catalogue before attempting to remap. Go to Collection >> Product Catalogue and confirm the new SKU appears there. If it doesn't, allow time for your Shopify product feed to sync.
Option 1: Remap reviews via Unmatched SKUs
This permanently moves reviews from each old SKU to the new consolidated SKU. Choose this option if you want all reviews to live under the new product going forward.
Manual (small number of SKUs)
Go to Collection >> Product Catalogue
Click Unmatched SKUs at the top of the page
Find each old colour SKU in the list
Type the new consolidated SKU in the 'Move to Product' field next to it
Repeat for each old SKU — each one maps to the new SKU
Once saved, the reviews will move over and display under the new consolidated product. 🎉
Bulk (large number of SKUs)
If you have many old colour SKUs to remap, contact us via live chat and we'll export all your unmatched SKUs as a CSV. You then fill in the new SKU for each row and send it back:
Old SKU | New SKU |
SHIRT-RED-S | SHIRT-CONSOLIDATED |
SHIRT-BLUE-S | SHIRT-CONSOLIDATED |
SHIRT-GREEN-S | SHIRT-CONSOLIDATED |
Multiple old SKUs can all map to the same new SKU — this is the standard pattern for a consolidation. Once you send the completed CSV back to us via live chat, we'll process the bulk remap for you. 🎉
Option 2: Use Product Grouping to display reviews across variants
⭐️ Product Grouping is available on Grow and Plus plans only.
If you'd prefer to keep reviews linked to their original variant SKUs but have them all display together on the new consolidated product page, use Product Grouping instead of remapping.
Product Grouping tells REVIEWS.io to treat a set of SKUs as one group — so any widget showing the new SKU will also pull in reviews from all the old colour SKUs in the group.
Go to Collection >> Product Catalogue and enable 'Manual Product Grouping'
Go to Collection >> Product Grouping
Create a new group and add both the new consolidated SKU and all the old colour SKUs to it
Save — reviews from all SKUs in the group will now display together in widgets
See the Product Grouping article for full setup instructions.
Which option should I use?
Option | Best for | Plans |
SKU Remap (Unmatched SKUs) | Permanently migrating reviews to the new SKU; old products are being fully retired | All plans |
Product Grouping | Keeping reviews on their original SKUs but displaying them together in widgets; old SKUs may remain partially active | Grow & Plus only |
Frequently asked questions
Will reviews still show on the old SKUs while I'm in the middle of the consolidation?
Will reviews still show on the old SKUs while I'm in the middle of the consolidation?
Yes — reviews will continue to display on old SKUs for as long as those products remain live in your Shopify catalogue and REVIEWS.io Product Catalogue. They only move to Unmatched SKUs once the old products are removed from the feed.
Can multiple old SKUs all remap to the same new SKU?
Can multiple old SKUs all remap to the same new SKU?
Yes. This is the standard pattern for a consolidation — all your old colour SKUs (SHIRT-RED-S, SHIRT-BLUE-S, etc.) can all map to the single new SKU (SHIRT-CONSOLIDATED). All their reviews will be combined under the new product.
Do I need to update the Product URL when consolidating?
Do I need to update the Product URL when consolidating?
If the product page URL is changing (e.g. the Shopify handle changed), you should update the Product URL in the Product Catalogue: go to Collection >> Product Catalogue, find the product, click the three dots (...) in the Action column, and choose Edit Product. This is separate from SKU remapping — the URL edit and the SKU remap are done in different places.
Does the Platform Product ID need to change?
Does the Platform Product ID need to change?
No. The Platform Product ID is an internal identifier used by the catalogue — you do not need to update it when consolidating SKUs or changing a product URL. Leave it as-is.