5. Circular Buyback System
Shadow Products & SKU Architecture
⏱️ 4 min read•📅 Updated 4 days ago
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Understand the underlying architecture enabling customer scrap trade-ins to pass through Shopify without corrupting sales analytics.
What are Shadow Products?
When a customer submits a scrap appraisal, SpotMetal generates a draft shadow product record with zero catalog visibility (hidden from storefront search and collections).
The BB-* SKU Convention
Every trade-in receives a unique SKU formatted as BB-[INQUIRY_ID]-[KARAT] (e.g. BB-1042-14K) carrying metadata for fine weight, purity, and offer valuation.
Sales Analytics Isolation
Shadow items are categorized under Precious Metal Buyback to keep scrap acquisitions cleanly separated from retail merchandise reports.