SKU / MPN Cross-Reference Builder

Paste two product lists — your internal catalog and a supplier or manufacturer file — and this SKU cross reference tool links them into a single map keyed on normalized manufacturer part numbers and shared GTINs. It is built for distributors who need to know which of their SKUs already exist in an incoming feed before they buy, merge, or onboard it.

What it checks

The builder takes two columns of identifiers and produces a reconciled cross-reference table. For each pair it reports:

• Exact MPN matches — rows where the manufacturer part number is identical after normalization (case-folding, stripping spaces, dashes, dots, and leading zeros).
• GTIN-anchored matches — rows that resolve to the same GTIN/UPC/EAN even when the MPN strings differ, the strongest signal that two records are the same physical product.
• Normalized near-misses — pairs that match only after cleanup (for example HBL-5262 vs HBL5262 or a 7H caster coded 7H-X8 vs 7HX8), flagged so you can confirm the rule is safe.
• One-to-many and many-to-one links — a single internal SKU pointing at multiple supplier lines (kits, repacks, pack quantities) or several SKUs collapsing onto one MPN.
• Unmatched rows on each side — your SKUs with no supplier equivalent, and supplier lines you do not yet carry, which is the gap analysis sourcing teams actually want.
• Conflicts — the same MPN tied to two different GTINs, or the same GTIN tied to two MPNs, surfaced as warnings rather than silently merged.

How the cross reference tool works

There is no single global registry that maps every distributor SKU to every manufacturer part — a SKU is internal to whoever assigns it, while the MPN and GTIN are shared. Cross-referencing is therefore a join: you align rows on the identifiers that travel with the product across companies.

The builder applies a deterministic pipeline:

1. 1
   Normalize identifiers
   Both sides are lower-cased and stripped of separators and insignificant leading zeros so that formatting differences do not block a real match.
2. 2
   Match on the strongest key first
   A valid shared GTIN wins; an exact normalized MPN comes next; normalized near-misses are offered as suggestions you accept or reject.
3. 3
   Resolve cardinality
   Each link is labeled one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-one so kits, repacks, and pack-quantity rows are visible instead of hidden.
4. 4
   Export the map
   Download the reconciled table — matched, unmatched, and conflicting rows — as CSV for your PIM, ERP, or sourcing sheet.

This works across MRO, CPG, furniture, and industrial distribution because the logic is identifier-based, not category-specific. All processing happens in your browser — nothing is uploaded to a server, so you can run a confidential supplier price file or your full item master without it leaving your machine.

For a few thousand rows a client-side join is plenty. When you are reconciling dozens of supplier catalogs against a live item master on a schedule — with descriptions, pack data, and attributes rather than clean identifiers — that becomes a matching problem at scale. Claro’s identity resolution and catalog matching layer runs deterministic and probabilistic matching together and writes confidence-scored links back to your system of record.

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