Sometimes your vendor introduces a new style that isn’t set up in NuORDER yet, or you create an exclusive item that’s still in development. To start planning, you can add a placeholder product, or an SMU (Special Make Up), into your assortment.
Once the brand adds the official product to NuORDER, you can link your SMU to that product to pull in the brand’s imagery, product details, and style information—all without changing the quantities, door distributions, or notes you’ve already added.
Note: Linking updates fields that come from the brand’s catalog (for example, style name, color, and image). Your assortment-level data stays intact, including:
- Quantities and door distributions
- Notes, tags, and internal comments
- Custom attributes (if applicable)
Before you begin
Before linking, make sure:
- SMUs have been created in your assortment (manually or via import).
- The brand products you want to link to are available in NuORDER.
The way your assortment is set up determines how SMUs are associated with brands:
- In single-brand assortments, all SMUs are automatically tied to that brand and can only be linked to its products.
- In multi-brand assortments, SMUs created in All Brands view aren’t tied to any brand until you link them. Once linked, the SMU becomes associated with that brand and appears under it.
Tip: If you don’t see a product when searching to link, check which brand view your SMU was created in.
Linking a single SMU to a product
You can link one SMU at a time directly from the assortment grid.
- Open your assortment and find the SMU you want to link.
- Right-click the SMU, and then select Link to a product.
- When the modal opens, use the Search field to locate the correct product.
- Select the matching product card to link the product.
After linking, a toast message will confirm Product(s) Linked! and the SMU will be updated with the product’s data.
Linking SMUs to products in a bulk workflow
A dedicated Link products modal allows you to work in bulk if you have an assortment with many SMUs that you need to link to real products.
You can open the Link products modal in your assortment a few different ways:
- Select the kabob menu > Add Product > Link Products
- Select multiple SMUs using the checkboxes and from the Bulk actions menu, choose Link products.
(Note: If you select real products in addition to SMUs, they’ll also be brought into the Link Products modal and will appear in the Linked tab.)
Linking SMUs in a single-brand assortment
Modal structure:
If you’re working in a single-brand assortment, a Link products modal will display after you select Link products.
Note: This modal structure remains the same for both manual linking and auto-matching.
The modal is divided into two sections:
The left side of the modal displays a table titled Select items to link. This table shows all SMUs under the ‘Unlinked’ tab, while real products appear under the ‘Linked’ tab.
The table acts like the main grid with two default fields visible—Brand Color and PID, but you can configure the table and add or edit the columns.
To configure the table, select the column visibility icon next to the search bar, and then choose up to 15 columns to display on the modal.
The column fields are filterable, sortable and rearrangeable, just like they are on the main assortment grid.
The right side of the modal is similar to the Shop tab. In a single-brand assortment, you can view the linesheets of the brand on the right side of the modal.
Here, you can select the linesheets you’re looking for. You can also use the search or filter icons, just like you would on the Shop page.
Next, follow steps 1-5 to link your SMUs to products:
Step 1: Select the linesheet that has the products you want to link.
Step 2: Select the checkbox for one or more SMU(s) you want to link on the left side of the modal, and you’ll see the Link product button become active on the right side of the modal.
Step 3: Select Link product to link the checked SMU(s) to a product.
Step 4: Once your product is linked, you’ll see a toast display that says Product(s) linked! and the SMUs will move from the Unlinked to the Linked tab.
Step 5: Once you finish linking your SMUs, your changes are automatically saved, and you can close the modal to return to your assortment.
Note: You cannot unlink an SMU once it’s linked to a product. However, you can find it again under the Linked products tab and re-link it to another product. You can also link unlinked and linked products at the same time.
Linking SMUs in a multi-brand assortment
Modal structure:
In a multi-brand assortment, a ‘Link products’ modal will display.
Note: This modal structure remains the same for both manual linking and auto-matching.
It’s divided into two sections:
From the left side of the modal, select the Brands from which you want to link products.
As you select your Brands, the right side of the modal will get populated with tabs for each brand. Click on the tab to select the linesheets or catalogs associated with those brands. If you want to save your selections, check Save selection for next time. Then, select Continue.
The next screen of the modal will also be divided into two sections:
On the left side, you’ll see a table titled Select items to link. This table shows all SMUs under the ‘Unlinked’ tab, while real products appear under the ‘Linked’ tab. The table acts like the main grid with two default fields visible, but you can configure it by selecting the column visibility icon next to the search bar, and then choosing up to 15 columns to display. The column fields are filterable, sortable and rearrangeable.
On the right side of the modal is a section titled Brand products. Here you’ll see the products from all the linesheets you chose in the previous step, in order of selection. Under Brand products, there are 3 tabs:
Filters: This tab combines all the filters from the various linesheets you selected. Use this to further filter the products on the right side of the modal.
Brands: This tab contains all the Brands you selected in the first step. Use this tab to select or deselect brands you want to link products from.
Catalogs: This tab contains all the catalogs or linesheets you selected in the first step. Use this tab to select or deselect catalogs you want to link products from.
You can also use the search bar to find specific products or categories.
Next, follow steps 2-5 listed under the Linking SMUs in a single-brand assortment section to link your SMUs to products:
Step 2: Select the checkbox for one or more SMU(s) you want to link on the left side of the modal, and you’ll see the Link product button become active on the right side of the modal.
Step 3: Select Link product to link the checked SMU(s) to a product.
Step 4: Once your product is linked, you’ll see a toast display that says Product(s) linked! and the SMUs will move from the Unlinked to the Linked tab.
Step 5: Once you finish linking your SMUs, your changes are automatically saved, and you can close the modal to return to your assortment.
Note: You cannot unlink an SMU once it’s linked to a product. However, you can find it again under the Linked products tab and re-link it to another product. You can also link unlinked and linked products at the same time.
Bulk linking SMUs to products with auto-matching
If you want to link SMUs to products in bulk to simplify your workflow, you can use the auto-matching functionality.
Select the SMUs you want to link, and select Link products from the main menu.
Note: The Link products modal structure remains the same for both manual linking and auto-matching.
In a single-brand assortment, select the Auto-match products button on the Link products modal.
In multi-brand assortments, open the Link products modal and complete the brand and catalog selection steps. Then, select the Auto-match products button.
What is auto-matching?
Auto-matching is an automated matching functionality for SMUs that identifies corresponding or ‘matching’ brand products for users to confirm or reject. This helps you reduce the time spent on repetitive linking tasks and minimize errors when linking SMUs through suggested matches.
To bulk link your SMUs through automated matching, select the Auto-match products button.
On the top left side of the new modal are four tabs: Suggested matches, No match, Confirmed and Rejected.
On the top right side of the modal, there are two buttons: Reject all matches and Confirm all matches.
When you select the Suggested matches tab, you’ll notice a table with rows of SMUs with their brand data in the columns (like images, PID, description, color etc).
Next to them will be a column called Suggested matches, which includes the closest suggested product that matches the corresponding SMU.
The column next to it communicates the Match score, which shows how closely two products align based on their details (such as brand, description, colour, and ID). The score comes from our search engine, which uses a standard relevance algorithm to measure similarity.
The score is influenced by:
- Term Frequency: How often a product detail appears in another product’s information.
- Term Importance: Rare or unique details have a bigger impact on the score.
- Field Length: Matches in shorter fields (e.g., brand) count more than matches in long text fields (e.g., descriptions).
Higher scores mean a stronger match between the two products.
Finally, the column next to the match score has two action buttons: Reject and Confirm.
How it works
If you think a suggested product for an SMU is an accurate match, select Confirm. That product will be moved from the Suggested matches tab to the Confirmed tab.
If you think the suggested product for the SMU is an inaccurate match, select Reject. That product will be moved to the Suggested matches tab to the Rejected tab.
Continue to confirm or reject each match until you no longer have SMUs left in the Suggested matches tab. You can also bulk confirm or bulk reject matches by selecting the Confirm all matches and Reject all matches buttons above the columns.
SMUs that had no product matches will display under the No match tab. These products may not be in the brand catalog or may need to be linked manually.
Once you’re done linking all your SMUs to products, your changes are automatically saved, and you can close the modal to return to your assortment.
Important considerations:
- The accuracy of the Auto-match functionality depends heavily on the quality and completeness of the SMU data, because matches are based on user inputs. Generic or vague SMUs (for e.g., “Blue Jeans”) may return many potential matches with low match scores. For better matches, make sure that your SMU data is complete and includes all necessary details.
- Products with incomplete brand data may not produce a confident match score and may require manual linking.
- Products in the “no matches” tab should be reviewed manually
- You cannot unlink a product once you accept a match. However, you can relink the SMU to the correct brand product again.