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| Click Here to view our Training Video covering the Products Options section |
Understanding Product Options
Product Options are displayed to the customer on the "Product Details" page.
Options can be dropdown menus, checkboxes, radio buttons or even text
boxes. They may be used for allowing the customer to choose "Size", "Color"
or anything else.
From the Inventory dropdown, click the link titled "Product Options".
At the top of this "Product Options" page, you'll also see a tab titled "Options
Categories". These two tables "Options" and "Option Categories" work
together as follows:
The "Option Categories" table specifies the name of the list, for
example "Size", "Color".
The "Options" table specifies the actual choices in the list, for example "Small", "Medium", "Large";
or "Blue", "Red", "Yellow".
Options may also be grouped into another organization structure when displayed
by using the "Heading Group" field of the "Option Categories" table.
For example, you may organize some options under the heading group "Colors",
where you might have option categories for a striped T-shirt as "Stripe
1 Color" and "Stripe 2 Color". And then you may have another heading
group "Size", where you might have the option category "Shirt
Size".
 Naming
the "Heading Group" the same as the "OptionCategoryDesc" will
allow the "OptionCategoryDesc" to not be displayed. |
EXAMPLE: To create a dropdown menu option for "Size":
In the "Option Categories" table:
1) Set the "Heading Group" to "Size".
2) Set the "OptionCategoriesDesc" to "Size".
3) Set the "AboutOptionCategories" to "N/A".
4) Set the "DisplayType" to "DROPDOWN".
5) Add the new record.
Now in the "Options" table:
1) Set the "OptionCatID" field to that of the "Option Category" you
just created.
2) Set the "OptionDesc" field to "Blue".
3) Set the "PriceDiff" field to 0 (meaning no cost difference for
this color).
4) Set the "ArrangeOptionsBy" field to 10.
5) Add the new record.
6) Repeat steps 1-5 (changing the "OptionDesc" field to "Red", "Yellow",
etc. and also changing the "ArrangeOptionsBy" field to 20, 30, etc.
in the order you want them to appear).
How do I sell an optional product at a discounted price if a customer buys it
along with another product?
Set up the first product; let's call it BICYCLE and make it cost $200. Then set up
the second product which, we'll call HELMET and make it cost $75. Now let's say we
want to sell our helmet for only $50 if the customer buys the helmet along with
the bike. So now you want to add an option to the BICYCLE product and simply
set the field "PriceDiff" to "50.00" and the field "IsProductCode" to "HELMET".
This way when added to cart, the customer will only pay $50.00 for the helmet. You can
also set the configuration variable in your store called "Config_EnableDisplayOptionProducts" to "Y" to
enable a clear breakdown of options which are actually products in the cart.
JumpToProductCode - This field of the OPTIONS table is useful
to have the first dropdown menu choices basically jump to a different product.
For example if your first option dropdown determines what productcode should
be added to cart, and the rest of the options are simply attributes to any of
these products, then you'll want to fill in the "JumpToProductCode" field of
each OPTION in your first dropdown menu. On the customer side, when selecting
a choice from the first dropdown menu (or radio buttons) and then clicking either
"update price" or "add to cart" button, the system will jump to the other product
code first, then apply all the attributes you selected to that other product,
and either add it to the cart, or if you clicked "update price" it would take
you to that other product's page.
Color Swatches and Alternate Views
In version 3.0 you are able to add color swatches and alternate view images for each of your products.
Adding Color Swatches
Color swatches can be added by creating new image files for each of the options available for the products and then uploading them to /wwwroot/photos/options/. The three files need to be named as follows:
Tiny Swatch image – productcode-optionid-S.jpg (25x25)
Medium Thumbnail – productcode-optionid-T.jpg (300x300)
Large Photo – productcode-optionid.jpg (500x500)
The sizes listed are the store defaults. You may use other sizes for the images if you changed the sizes when adding the original product photos.
There are no Configuration Variables needed for color swatches.
Adding Alternate Views
To add alternate views for your product you will need to first specify a title for the alternate views in the Configuration Variable Config_ProductPhotos_AlternateViews_Title and then create three photos with the following names and upload them to /wwwroot/photos/:
Small Swatch – productcode-3S.jpg (75x75)
Medium Thumbnail – productcode-3T.jpg (300x300)
Large Photo – productcode-3.jpg (500x500)
The sizes listed are the store defaults. You may use other sizes for the images if you changed the sizes when adding the original product photos.
Inventory Control for Options
Using SmartMatch™ Technology:
This feature is designed to manage inventory for your options. The following
assumes that you've already created Options & Option Categories. Go to the
"View All Products" link from the home page of your admin area, and click to
edit one of your existing products, then follow these steps:
STEP 1) Fill in the OptionID(s) field, then click the SAVE CHANGES
button for this product. This will generate the inventory control table below
the product (towards the bottom of the page).
STEP 2) Make sure your "Option Categories" are
set to a DisplayType of "DROPDOWN_SMARTMATCH" (SmartMatch™ Technology).
STEP 3) If you'd like to keep track
of stock status, specify a different ProductCode for each combination in the "Kit_IsProductCode" field,
then click the "Save Changes" button below...
and to make this super easy, enable the configuration variable
"Config_SmartMatch_AutoCreateChildInventory",
which will generate new products named intelligently with your options text as
a suffix
whenever you hit the above "Save Changes"
button, before generating the inventory control below. If you already generated
the inventory control
below, try this: (1) copy the OptionIDs
above, (2) remove them and hit "Save Changes", (3) paste them back in and hit "Save
Changes".
NOTE: If you do not need to keep track
of stock, you may leave the ProductCodes set the same as this main product.
STEP 4) To prevent ordering of combinations
you do not carry, simply set the "Stock Status" field to 0 or just erase the
contents of the appropriate
"Kit_IsProductCode" field in this inventory control list.
NOTE: The above steps also work with the "Option Categories" DisplayType
of "DROPDOWN". The point of enabling "DROPDOWN_SMARTMATCH" is to automatically
hide certain size + color combinations that are currently out of stock or just
not available.
IsProductCode:
The "IsProductCode" field of the "Options" table is another way to control inventory.
For example, if you sell computers and you have an option for the customer that
says "Choose a monitor" and one of the choices is "Sony 19-inch LCD Monitor",
you can fill in the field "IsProductCode" for this option to be "SONY-19LCD". This ProductCode must exist in your system. So if somebody buys
the computer and happens to choose the "Sony 19-inch LCD Monitor" as
one of the options, the inventory will be deducted appropriately for that monitor
in your store.
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