Magento for eyeglass store - is bundle of configurable products the only option ?

[sonik]

I want to setup a eyeglasses store which will sell frame+Lens as a bundle.

Lens - has around 11 attributes (spherical, cylindrical, index, surface coating, etc) with lots of values totaling to ~5000 combinations for it.

Frames - Will be around 200. I could think of following solutions

Option 1 - setup each Frame+lens as a configurable product with 5000 simple products for attribute combinations Front-end show perfectly with frame on left and lens attributes on right for selection. But problem is I will end up with 1 million simple products (200 frames each having 5000 simple products) and updating prices every 2-3 months will be a nightmare. Plus not sure if the system will work well with so many products loaded.

Option 2 - Setup Lens as a configurable product and Frame as a simple product and somehow allow customer to purchase it only as a bundle. The option 2 is looking more sensible to me but problem is Magento is not supporting bundle of 1 simple + 1 configurable product.

Is there any other other way to setup these products ?

[JennaW]

First, I can attest that Magento does work with 1 million+ SKUs. It can require some optimization work though to make sure the store is performing best. An experienced Magento Partner can help you with this if needed. We've helped several clients with this size catalog (and larger) so I know its possible.

I wonder if Custom Options would work for the Lens attributes? If you aren't tracking inventory/stock for those attributes (i.e. the lens are made-to-order), it might be a good alternative.

[jhollingtofcdc]

I agree with you. That's why you have to be careful when choosing. They can look good but be of poor quality. My girlfriend tried glasses with plastic frames, but they didn't fit her and I didn't like them. After that, she was offered Read more about glasses online. She was attracted to the number of glasses she found here. It might be helpful.