With online shopping continuing to grow, retailers need ways to offer more product options and variations to customers, without listing hundreds or thousands of individual items. Configurable products provide an efficient solution to this retail challenge. Configurable products allow the shopper to customize a product by selecting from options like size, color, material, etc. This enables retailers to offer many permutations of a product, while only having to manage a single parent product page and associated child variants. For example, rather than list every possible color, size and length combination of a shirt, the retailer sets up one configurable shirt. The customer can then pick their preferred specifications, generating a child product tailored to their custom selections.
Configurable products streamline catalog management for sellers, while providing flexibility for buyers. However, there is some added complexity with configurable products, both in terms of product setup and inventory tracking. Each child product configuration has its own inventory count which retailers need to closely monitor. The elevated customer experience and operational efficiency gains are worth the extra effort for most online retailers. With some upfront planning and organization, configurable products can greatly enhance a modern digital catalog strategy. You can also buy simple Details on Configurable Product extention for readmade use.
Attributes
The attributes that are encoded in a configurable product determine how simple products relate to it. The attribute values must be easily measured and reliably recorded to establish a map for decoding motor intent signals into a control signal during the configuration phase.
When you create a Configurable Product, Magento stores the relationship between it and its associated Simple Products in two separate tables. This is because different types of product relationships are supported in Magento.
Variants
In the case of configurable products, a variant can be defined by one or more selectable attributes. A t-shirt for instance could be sold in different sizes and colors, resulting in multiple variants. Each variant is a child of the parent product, and each variant can have its own inventory levels and stock tracking.
Variants are a great way to help avoid overselling, but they can also lead to complex situations if not managed carefully. For example, if a customer chooses the small blue variant of a t-shirt, it is necessary to ensure that the parent t-shirt in large enough quantity for the order (and the store's return policy) as well as the variant's own stock level are sufficient.
In addition to the usual pricing tagging, variations can be tagged with additional information, such as a customised name, a customised identifier for each individual variant (instead of the standard Magento identifier), and the availability status of the entire variant, including its parent product. This allows for a more granular view of the overall stock status of a variant, and also provides a means to enable Nosto to track and monitor sales of individual variants.
Decoders are settings that determine how the reader behaves during scanning. The default decoders are set to decode all major barcode symbologies, but the configuration settings for each Profile allow you to reduce the number of nonessential Decoders to improve scanner performance. Decoders that have configurable parameters appear with a checkbox to enable/disable them.
SKUs
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to SKU structures, but there are some basics that businesses should aim for. First, SKUs should be unique. It’s important to differentiate product variants with a distinct code that can be easily understood by everyone involved in the process, from employees and customers to wholesalers and manufacturers. This way, it’s easier to track inventory coming in and out of the warehouse and prevent duplicate orders.
Second, SKUs should be human-readable. Unlike barcodes and UPC codes, which require specific equipment to break down, SKUs should be easy to read so that anyone can understand what’s being referenced. This also helps with keeping a consistent system of organization, so that the same code can be used to identify products regardless of where they’re being sold.
The format of SKUs is up to the company generating them, but most follow a similar structure. For instance, the first section of the code might indicate a broad identifier like item type or department (e.g. jeans vs. shirts) while subsequent sections might identify traits like color or size. To take the example of UGG boots: a pair of purple boots in the Bailey Bow style, size 7, might be assigned the SKU UGG-BB-PUR-07. The final section would then indicate the details of the product, such as brand and color.
Pricing
When a configurable product is added to the cart, Magento will charge its respective tier price. This is a great way to ensure that the correct pricing is applied and that the customer is not overcharged.
However, there is a downside to this approach. When a configurable product has many traits, it is difficult to price these features separately. For example, an air cargo shipment has many different features, including the origin and destination airports, the service level, and the weight of the package. Trying to calculate the price for each of these characteristics can be very complicated and is often inaccurate.
Another problem is that each of these features can interact with other aspects to affect the final price. For example, the box size may not be a significant feature for an 18’ box truck, but it is important for a tandem axle day cab.
Salesforce CPQ enables you to streamline the quotation process and handle complex product structures and pricing models. It also ensures that customers receive accurate quotes and can quickly purchase the right products for their business. Amy Bock, Lead Scientist at PROS, partners with businesses to develop pricing science that achieves precisely targeted profitability.
