Configurable products
Questions:
- How can I make products configurable?
- How can I allow product customization?
- How can I exclude the right of withdrawal?
- How can I offer product variants?
- How can I set up product variants?
Description:
With configurable articles, the customer has the opportunity to customise their desired article according to their wishes and ideas. In contrast to group articles, however, configurable articles are not actual articles in stock. Rather, configurable articles are articles that require processing before they can reach the customer. The situation is similar for the customer: both are product variants from their point of view.
Solution:
Configurable articles are defined via the product data type.
- Go to the customer area > Product management as an administrator or as a user with extended rights
- Click on "Manage product data type" in the "Advanced functions" area
- Here you will find your currently stored data types. By default, only "Standard product" is stored. You can add a new type at any time using the "New" button or click on "Edit product data type" in the line menu for the appropriate product
- In the product data type editor, you now have an overview of additional product fields, configuration parameters and evaluation fields. The "Configuration parameters" area is relevant in our context. Here you can add new parameters using the "+" button. A configuration parameter is the "dimension" of the parameter, e.g. "size", "length". The product data type is therefore not about the value, but about the basic dimensions. In the context of configurable articles, we call this a configuration parameter.
- If you create a new configuration parameter or edit an existing one, you must specify the name and type
- The "Selection field" type offers the end customer a so-called radio selection field. This means they can see all possible variants in one go. The selection is recommended if you store few possible values
- The "Dropdown" type offers the end customer a dropdown selection field. It only shows the current value and only reveals the different variants when the selection field is opened. It is recommended if you have many possible values.
- The "Free text" type offers the end customer an input field so that the end customer can enter any text.
After saving the product data type, the product data type is available to you in the product editor under "Additional data".
- Go to the customer area > Product management as an administrator or as a user with extended rights
- Click on "Manage products" and search for a product to be edited
- Click on "Edit product" in the line menu.
- Click on the "Additional data" tab and select your desired product data type.
- If the product data type has configuration parameters, a new tab "Configuration parameters" appears.
- Here you can now enter the individual values for each configuration parameter
- Enter the name of the variant
- Specify whether additional costs are incurred for the corresponding variant
- Specify whether additional shipping costs are incurred for the corresponding variant
Please note
You can only store variants for the "Selection field" or "Dropdown" type. With the "Free text" type, the customer can enter the desired value themselves. Consequently, no variation in price and shipping costs is possible here.
After saving, the variants are immediately available in the article.
Tips and Tricks:
The selected configuration parameters are saved directly when they are placed in the shopping basket. This means that the desired configuration is saved for the entire order processing.
With configurable items, you have the opportunity to offer a wide variety of your products without having to create your own product data. This is an important aspect from the customer's point of view, especially when it comes to customisation. But the topic should not be neglected from the retailer's point of view either, as individualisation means that the right of withdrawal can be excluded. So you create a win-win situation.
Configuration parameters can be misused if you want to request additional information from the customer when ordering. This could be a vehicle identification number or the name of the recipient, for example. However, if you want this information to be used later for an extended automatic process, it is advisable to record and process the data separately.