Product variants are used to give single products a variety of different characteristics and options for customers to choose from, such as size, style, or color, just to name a few.
Product variants can be managed by navigating to Sales app ‣ Products ‣ Products, clicking a product with variants, and clicking the Variants smart button.
Example
An apparel company has the following variant breakdown for one of its best-selling t-shirts:
Unisex Classic Tee
Color: Blue, Red, White, Black
Size: S, M, L, XL, XXL
Here, the T-shirt is the product template, and T-shirt: Blue, S is a specific product variant.
Color and Size are attributes, and the corresponding options (like Blue and S) are values.
In this instance, there is a total of twenty different product variants: four Color options multiplied by five Size options. Each variant has its own inventory count, sales totals, and other similar records in SecureIO.
Configuration
To use product variants, go to Sales app ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings, then enable the Variants feature in the Product Catalog section, and click Save at the top of the Settings page.
Attributes
Before product variants can be set up, attributes must be created. To create, manage, and modify attributes, navigate to Sales app ‣ Products ‣ Attributes.
Note
The order of attributes on the Attributes page dictates how they appear on the Product Configurator, Point of Sale dashboard, and eCommerce pages.
To create a new attribute from the Attributes page, click New. Doing so reveals a blank attributes form that can be customized and configured in a number of ways.
First, create an Attribute Name, such as Color or Size.
Next, select one of the options from the Display Type field. The Display Type determines how this product is shown on the online store, Point of Sale dashboard, and Product Configurator.
The following Display Type options are available:
Options appear as radio buttons.
Options appear as selectable buttons.
Options appear in a drop-down menu.
Options appear as small, colored circles; the colors can be defined using any HTML color code.
Options appear as selectable checkboxes. This allows customers to choose multiple options, e.g., to add extras to food orders or highly customizable products.
Options appear as images.
The Variant Creation field determines when new variants are automatically created once an attribute is added to a product. Once added to a product, an attribute’s Variant Creation mode cannot be edited.
Instantly: Creates all possible variants as soon as attributes and values are added to a product template.
Dynamically: Creates variants only when corresponding attributes and values are added to a sales order.
Never: Prevents the automatic creation of purchaseable variants with this tag. Instead, this tag is treated as being informational. If more than one value is assigned to an attribute with this tag, all values are loaded when the product displays, since the creation of
Never: Prevents the automatic creation of purchasable variants with this tag. Instead, this tag is treated as being informational. If more than one value is assigned to an attribute with this tag, all values are loaded when the product displays, since the creation of discrete variants is prevented.
Important
If the attribute’s Display Type is Multi-checkbox, you must set the Variant Creation field to Never.
In the eCommerce tab, the Category, Filter, On Product Cards, and Show Thumbnails fields can be found.
Category: Sets the category to regroup similar attributes under for comparison purposes.
Filter: Determines whether these attribute options are visible to customers as they shop online.
On Product Cards: Makes variants available for selection from the shop’s pages. This option is only available if Variant Creation is set to Instantly.
Show Thumbnails: Uses product variant images in place of the attribute value text. This option is only available if Variant Creation is set to Instantly.
To view the details related to the selected attribute category, click the category’s list entry.
Here, the Category Name and Sequence are displayed at the top, followed by Related Attributes associated with the category. These attributes can be dragged and dropped into a desired priority order.
Attributes can be directly added to the category, as well, by clicking Add a line.
Tip
To create an attribute category directly from this field, start typing the name of the new category, then select either Create or Create and edit… from the drop-down menu that appears.
Clicking Create creates the category, which can be modified later. Clicking Create and edit… creates the category and reveals a Create Category pop-up window, in which the new attribute category can be configured and customized.
Attribute values
Attribute values should be added in the Attribute Values tab. Values can be added to an attribute at any time. To add a value, click Add a line and enter the name of the value in the Value column.
Product variants
Once an attribute is created, use the attribute (and its values) to create a product variant. To do that, go to Sales app ‣ Products ‣ Products, and select an existing product to view that desired product’s form. Or, click Create to create a new product, to which a product variant can be added.
On the product form, click the Attributes & Variants tab to view, manage, and modify attributes and values for the product.
To add an attribute to a product and subsequent attribute values, click Add a line in the Attributes & Variants tab. Then, choose the desired attribute from the drop-down menu that appears.
Tip
Attributes can be created directly from the Attributes & Variants tab of a product form. To do that, start typing the name of the new attribute in the blank field, and select either Create or Create and edit… from the mini drop-down menu that appears.
Clicking Create creates the attribute, which can be customized later. Clicking Create and edit… creates the attribute, and a Create Attribute pop-up form appears. In the pop-up form, proceed to modify the attribute in a number of ways.
Once an attribute is selected in the Attribute column, proceed to select the specific attribute values to apply to the product, via the drop-down menu available in the Values column.
Note
There is no limit to how many values can be added.
Tip
Similar product variant creation processes are accessible through the Purchase, Inventory, and Similar product variant creation processes are accessible through the Purchase, Inventory, and eCommerce applications.
Configure variants
On the attribute line is a Configure button. When clicked, SecureIO opens a separate page with that product’s specific product variant Values. The layout of this page may differ slightly from what is pictured based on the apps, modules, and prior configurations of the database.
Variants smart button
When a product has attributes and variants configured in its Attributes & Variants tab, a Variants smart button appears at the top of its product form. The Variants smart button indicates how many variants are currently configured for that specific product. Using the smart button is the primary way to access variants for products.
When the Variants smart button is clicked, SecureIO reveals a separate page showcasing all the specific product variant combinations configured for that specific product.
Impact of variants
In addition to offering more detailed product options to customers, product variants have their own impacts that can be taken advantage of throughout the SecureIO database.
Barcode: barcodes are associated with each variant, instead of the product template. Each individual variant can have its own unique barcode/SKU.
Price: every product variant has its own public price, which is the sum of the product template price and any extra charges for particular attributes.
Example
A red shirt’s sales price is $23 – because the shirt’s template price is $20, plus an additional $3 for the red color variant. Pricelist rules can be configured to apply to the product template. A red shirt’s sales price is $23 – because the shirt’s template price is $20, plus an additional $3 for the red color variant. Pricelist rules can be configured to apply to the product template or to the variant.
Inventory: Inventory is counted for each individual product variant. On the product template form, the inventory reflects the sum of all variants, but the actual inventory is computed by individual variants.
- Manufacturing: a single BoM can be used for multiple variants of the same product.
Refer to Managing BoMs for product variants documentation for more information.
Picture: each product variant can have its own specific picture.
Note
Changes to the product template automatically apply to every variant of that product.
Adding and deleting attributes from product variants
When attributes are added or deleted from products, variants that have already been created are affected. Depending on whether or not these variants have been used in orders, they are archived or deleted and recreated.
Variants that have not been used in an order are deleted and recreated with the new attributes. This may result in the deletion of additional customizations, depending on how the variants were configured.
Variants that have been previously used in one or more orders are archived and removed from the product catalog instead of being deleted.
Example
A business offers leather motorcycle jackets with the following attributes and values for a total of 27 product variants:
Size: Small, Medium, Large
Color: Black, Brown, Natural
Material: Leather, Vegan Leather, Premium Leather
Due to rising costs, the business makes the decision to stop offering different leathers and removes the “Material” attribute from the product form. This has the following effects:
Any leather jacket variants that have been sold will be archived
Any leather jacket variants that have not been sold will be deleted
A new set of variants using just Size and Color attributes will be created, for a total of 9 product variants
The business owner can find archived product variants by navigating to the product’s form, clicking the Variants smart button, clicking the drop-down in the search bar, and finally clicking the Archived tag in the . The business owner can find archived product variants by navigating to the product’s form and clicking the Variants smart button. On the Variants page, click the drop-down in the search bar, then click the Archived tag in the Variants. Any deleted variants and their customizations will be lost.
See also
Import products