Product option level stock availability and pricing

You can now control stock levels and pricing at the product option level. 

If a product combination is out of stock, or just not an available configuration, then the option will be unselectable.  eg when you have 2 tshirts which are "Red XL" and 1 which is "Blue Small" then you have none which are "Red Small". So if you select "red" first, then you can only select "XL" or if you select "Small" first then you can only select "Blue" colour. 

In this page we will refer to "child products" being the product option combinations which are valid for purchase. When a product has child products, the parent product is not actually purchaseable itself, and only a valid child product can be selected. When no child products exist, then the parent product is treated like an ordinary product. 

Product Option Display Type

Each product option set can be displayed in different ways. You should select the most appropriate one based on the number of options, number of combos, or need to indicate pricing variance. 

  • Default, multiple option combos. Giving a different selection options for each colour, size and style. If you have "child products" then only those variations are selectable. if colours/styles have image swatches associated, then these will be displayed on the main product view page.  No pricing information is shown with options, but any price variations will effect the value in the cart. 
  • Radio buttons, is same as above, but forces radio button style display at all times. No pricing information is shown with options, but any price variations will effect the value in the cart. 
  • Combo boxes, is same as above, but forces combo boxes at all times. No pricing information is shown with options, but any price variations will effect the value in the cart. 
  • Product Option Combo with Pricing - merges the color style and size into a single combo box, and any pricing variance is shown, if applicable
  • Product Option Radio with Pricing - merges the color style and size into a tabular format, and any pricing variance is shown if applicable.

Adding Product Options

It is much faster if you define the global set of product options first. eg for standardised sizing and colours and styles. That way, you can use these filters in the "advanced product search". It also makes it much quicker to add your standard product options to new products. Please refer to the tooltips for these links. 

Style / Option / Custom Combo Names. 

The prompt for colour and size is set in stone, but the prompt for "style" or "option" can be changed to whatever you think is relevant. Look in the tooltips for a link to the setup page where you can change that prompt. 

Defaulting Options / Check out

You can set default options for a product, so that it is faster for people to checkout. However, sometimes defaulting a size for a client only causes the client to purchase the wrong size. Often it is better to leave the defaults blank so that a customer is prompted to enter their correct size. If a customer gets to the shopping cart, they cannot checkout until a valid product option combination with stock in hand is selected. 

Entering Child Products / Product Variations

You can quickly enter all your product option variations on a single screen into the free text boxes. All colour/size/style combo boxes will be populated automatically. Beware that changing the spelling of any item will cause additional combo box options that need to be tidied up. 

Changing prices and quantity.  

If you have child products,Select "Update Option Pricing" to update  the price of  child products automatically on changing  the price of the parent product. 
 
The parent product should have unlimited quantity set to 9999 and the child products should have the real quantities set. 

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