thread Re: Product variation & item modifiers in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Product variation & item modifiers

PeteS — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 05:41:33 GMT

Hello, after spending weeks looking for a self hosted platform that would suit my needs I figured I'd take a look at Square since its highly rated and I assumed it would have better product setup and controls....or would at least be easier to use.

Unfortunately I'm finding what seems to be a rather large shortcoming in how variations and modifiers are handled. Using an example of selling t-shirts makes this very easy to explain.

Let's say my website sells t-shirts and they come in different sizes and colors.

The shirts size would be used for the product variation and would allows inventory management and price control for each size .

Item modifiers would be used to allow the customer to select what color shirts they wanted based on a list of colors assigned to each size.

Now my issue is with how the product modifiers are implemented. Lets say I have 10 of each size shirts in stock.... but that doesn't mean I have 10 of every color in stock, I may only have 4 black shirts and 6 white shirts. Because the color option is done using a modifier it does not have inventory control so the exact stock levels for each color can not be set.

If you reversed this and used the color as the variation and the color as the modifier you run into the same issue. I may have 10 red shirts in stock, but that doesn't mean that I would have 10 red shirts avaible in every size.

If I used just the item variation and created a variation for every possible color and size I would be able to control stock correctly, however this would turn the product variation list into an abomination that would be very hard to try and look at. Imagine a list that offered 6 sizes(Small, Med, large, XL, 2Xl, 3Xl) and then also offered each size in 5 colors. You would have a product variation list with 30 items, now for t-shirts that are simply size and color it may not be that hard for a customer to select the item they want. However for any kind of tech related product it would be very confusing and hard to clearly identify each items options using a single list.

What type of work around or suggested method is used to deal with this sort of situation?

Re: Product variation & item modifiers

Goldneye — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 11:04:32 GMT

HI, first create the Option Sets you need, once you apply to your item, the system will create the appropriate Variations.

Re: Product variation & item modifiers

PeteS — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 18:46:04 GMT

Your suggesting to use both color and size as variations?

Yes, that would address the issue of being able to track stock but it would create a very confusing selection box for the customer since there would be several dozen versions they could select.

Re: Product variation & item modifiers

Goldneye — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 22:24:40 GMT

HI, giving customers too many options can hurt sales. Just because you CAN offer that many does not mean you SHOULD. With t-shirts, White, Black, Blue, Gray, Pink or Red.

You can review any big t-shirt website and they will always have a small selection of colors.

ex. EDIT ITEM

ex. CUSTOMER FACING

Re: Product variation & item modifiers

PeteS — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 22:30:40 GMT

In your picture of what the customer see's, are the size and the color both being used as variation?

If they are both variations, what are you doing to create 2 different sets of variations? I am only given a single dropdown in Variations to add thing into and they end up in a single list.

Re: Product variation & item modifiers

Goldneye — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 22:39:37 GMT

HI, you would create Option Sets before creating an item. When you create a new item, add the option set Size and option set Color then platform auto creates the Variation list as shown

This is where and how Option Sets will look.

Re: Product variation & item modifiers

PeteS — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 22:54:23 GMT

Well, that seems to be my issue then. I do not have an "options" item in my side menu. Any idea why I don't have that option listed?

Re: Product variation & item modifiers

Arie — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 04:50:22 GMT

Take a look at this guide to get started with options @PeteS! Please let us know how you go 🙂