Creating and managing product choice sets

Product choices vs. product variations

The product choice system is an alternative to the product variations system. The two systems provide a similar function, but there are some key differences. Here are the pros and cons of the product choices system:

Pros of product choices

• A product choice set can be used across multiple products, but only needs to be created once. This is quicker than adding variations to each product. Each choice in a choice set can have an individual price which you can add when you create the product choice set or you can add when making a product choice set available on a product.

• You can add as many choice sets as you need to a product. The product variations system only allows you to have 3 different types of variants.

Cons of product choices

• Unlike the product variations system, you cannot add SKU codes or use the stock management system for individual choices on a product that has a choice set added to it. You would only be able to manage stock for the base product.

• You cannot set individual delivery weights or load an individual image for each choice. If you want to do either of these things you will need to use the product variations system instead.

Creating product choice sets

To create a product choice set select Products > Create Product Choice from the menu.

Use the ‘Create A Product Choice Set’ section to enter the information for your choice set:

In the ‘Name Of The Choice Set’ box enter the name for the set that you want to be displayed on your website. Some common choices are size or color.

In the ‘Internal Reference Of The Choice Set’ box enter what name you want the choice set to have for you to be able to see on the internal system. This is useful if you are going to have multiple choice sets with the same display name on your website but with different options. For example, if you have different sets of colors available, you would want all of them to have the display name of ‘Color’ but you would want a way to distinguish them yourself. In this box you could then type ‘Color 1’, ‘Color 2’ and so forth.

Once you have filled in the names select create choice set.

Editing product choice sets

After creating a choice set you will be taken to the ‘Edit A Product Choice Set’ page:

You can also get to this page, where you can add or change choices, by selecting Products > View Product Choices from the menu and then selecting Edit on any of your choice sets in the ‘Existing Product Choice Sets’ section:

On the ‘Edit A Product Choice Set’ page you can change the names for the choice set, and you can add the available choices.

Use the ‘Configure The Available Choices’ section to enter a choice name and if there is an additional cost for that choice place the extra amount in the ‘Usual Cost’ box. You should only place an amount in this box if the choice should cost more than the base product. The customer will be charged both the base product price and the price you put in this box.

To add multiple choices select the + add another button as many times as you need:

Use the compass icon to swap the order of the choices by dragging and dropping the choice into a new position:

Select save changes when you have finished adding choices.