Complex Variations Advice

  • Resolved callumalden

    (@callumalden)


    8 years ago

    Hello, I sell prints through a website I’m currently building using WooCommerce (with a modified Storefront child theme). The most important function of the site I’m building is that each print I sell can be produced in a number of different formats, I’m trying to make it super simple for my customers to engage with these options. I don’t want to show them an ugly, and huge, drop-down.

    So I’m trying to break down the buying process. Ideally on one page, using Product Variations / Attributes.

    However- I’d love your thoughts on a problem:

    Let’s say I sell three primary Types: Fine Art Prints | Greeting Cards | Wallpaper

    Within each Type there are numerous options, only valid in each Type.

    ie.

    Fine Art Prints > Size (18×24|24×36|36×100″) > Frame (BoxFrame|ClassicFrame|Modern) > Glazing (MuseumQuality|Perspex|Standard) etc.

    Greeting Cards > Kind (Postcard|GreetingCard)

    Wallpaper > Quality (Professional|Economy)

    —

    So you see I have many many attributes. On my ‘basic’ site, which currently offers just one variable Type (which is Size). Things are simple. Adding further attributes is totally blowing my mind. I’ve investigated two plugins: ‘Gravity Forms’ and ‘TM global extra product options’ but neither give me the option to set a specific SKU for each constructed variable. This is key to the solution, as I have pre-defined SKU’s on an offline system that Woocommerce should reflect.

    Related plugins I’ve also tried;
    ‘Uni CPO – WooCommerce Options and Price Calculation Formulas’
    ‘WooCommerce Product Add-ons’
    ‘WooCommerce TM Extra Product Options’
    ‘Gravity Forms’ (demo, didn’t seem to offer SKU’s)
    ‘Simple Linked Variations for WooCommerce’

    Anyone got any wild ideas? Or recommend another route.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Kristina

    (@kristinaplauche)

    Automattic Happiness Engineer

    7 years, 12 months ago

    Hi there!

    There are a number of ways you could set this up to be visually appealing for the customer. Here is a screenshot of a setup that I think you might like. I used the built in grouped product feature for the frame sizes. Then I used product addons for the glazing and quality options: http://cld.wthms.co/bFWBMv

    But I understand you want to have a different SKU for each combination of products. You can do this with the variable products option that is built in to WooCommerce.

    For the Fine Art Prints you’d make an attribute for Frame Size and then add the attribute options of 18X20 | 24×36 | 36X100. Do the same for glazing and quality (and any other attributes you need). Make sure to check that the attributes are used for variations.

    Then on the variations tab, click to create variations from all attributes. A dialog box will popup to ask if you’re sure, because it will create a lot of variations. That’s what you need. Once each combination of variations are created you can add a unique SKU and image to each one. You may want to do this with an csv import file to make it faster. But first try that out for one of your products and see if it works for you.
    You can read more about how to set this up here: https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/variable-product/

    Thread Starter callumalden

    (@callumalden)

    7 years, 12 months ago

    @kristinaplauche thank you so much for your input. I actually went down that route initially. Spent about a week trying to get the right visual ‘look’, but I couldn’t nail it. So I just discovered a plugin called Composite Products… which reads as the best option for me https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/composite-products/

    However it still doesn’t really solve my problem with existing SKU’s. The only option I have is writing a script that maps the ‘composite sku’ to my existing sku. Which is what I’ll have to do for now. In future I think I’ll have to search for a better solution, or have someone develop something that does the job correctly.

    But thank you. That’s a really kind reply, and if I wasn’t so specific with my aesthetics… it might work. I’ll share the final project when its complete!

    Thanks for your time 😀

    Kristina

    (@kristinaplauche)

    Automattic Happiness Engineer

    7 years, 12 months ago

    I’m glad composite products will work for you. We’d love to see the final project! 😀

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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