When the external source record is accepted for further onboarding in the external source record handling workflow it advances to the matching and linking process.
The matching and linking process first creates a match code for the external source record which is used to check if there is already an existing product with the same match code in the system. Per default, the match code is the GTIN of the product.
If no existing product with the GTIN is found, the system creates a new golden record and an internal source record for this product. The internal source record is used by the retailer to enrich the product and will contain the retailer's own product data like web descriptions, data from the ERP system, etc. If the external source record causing the matching and linking process to be executed has corresponding external packaging objects, they will be duplicated to internal packaging objects which will be linked to the created internal source record.
If there is already a product with the same GTIN, there is a match and the external source record will be linked to the existing golden record.
As part of the process, data from all linked sources (external and internal source records) will be promoted to the golden record using a set of survivorship rules, which are defined on the products matching algorithm.