Product with many attributes requires many skus?

[scott_itf]

sorry for the question but I am not technical and need answers

I have been advised by my developer that I will need to create a unique sku for every product combination with different attributes, with the majority of attributes changing the overall price of the product

Basically I have asked them to build a configurator

One of the products has 7 attributes (15 attribute values in total) which change the overall price and 1 attribute (31 attribute values in total) that doesn’t change the price if selected.

If I follow their logic I will need to create 5952 induvial skus for this one product i.e. 4 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 31

Just need some advice before I go back to them as I will not be able to maintain this going forward especially if I ever need to add another attribute or value

[RebeccaBrocton]

Hi @scott_itf

In Magento you need a simple product with an individual SKU for each variation. 

For example, a t-shirt in Red, Green and Yellow in Small Medium and Large would need the following:

Tshirt = Configurable Parent Product with the below-associated products:

Small Red Tshirt

Medium Red Tshirt

Large Red Tshirt

Small Green Tshirt

Medium Green Tshirt

Large Green Tshirt

Small Yellow Tshirt

Medium Yellow Tshirt

Large Yellow Tshirt

If you have highly complex products with lots of variants it may be worth using an importer to add the products via CSV

[scott_itf]

Rebecca

thanks for your super quick reply however your answer is what I was afraid of :-)

so to confirm, I have an office chair that can be configured in many ways using the following attributes and values

arms: None, PU Loop Arms, T Height Adjustable Arms, Z Arms

base: Black Nylon Base, Polished Aluminium Base

fabric:accelerate, asap, fast, flat-out, hurry, immediate, presto, prompt, pronto, quick, rapid, speedy, swift, ultrasonic, zippy, aloud, boldly, choice, creatively, daydream, fresh, hot, instinctively, modern, natural, nighttime, now, pink, practical, tank, together

heavy weight: no, yes

ratchet: no, yes

seat side: no, yes

size: low, medium, high

for this example, I would therefore need to create every combination totaling 5952 product skus

can you foresee a better more efficient way of achieving a configurator type model?

cheers

Scott

[Store_Manager · Accepted solution]

Hello.

If you have product variations, Magento allows you to 2 variants to achieve this: simple products with custom options and configurable products with associated simple products.

Working with custom options is easier comparing to configurables.

Basically you create one simple product, let's say T-Shirt and add options for it, for example,

- Color with values black, blue, yellow;

- Size with values s, m, l , xl;

- Fabric with values cotton, linen, polyester

etc.

You can make price for some variations higher or lower by some percent or fixed value. The SKU will not be required for those options them as they are not products themselves, however, you will not be able to track inventory of combinations (will not know how many of what color is sold and how many are left)

As for configurable products you create 1 parent configurable product with all the combinations of associated simple products (T-Shirt S Black Cotton, T-Shirt M Blue Polyester etc).

It is true that if you have lots combinations you will have a tons of simple products with their own unique SKUs, though this way you will be able to tack stock of variations.

Here is the article with detailed comparison of custom options and configurable products -

Simple Products with Custom Options VS Configurable Products

If you eventually decide to follow your developer's advice and create combinations of simple products with unique SKUs there is extension that allows to generate them all in 2 clicks. If you are interested, you can check this article with video -
https://www.mag-manager.com/useful-articles/how-to/how-to-create-all-combinations-of-simple-products...

[RebeccaBrocton]

Hi @scott_itf,

So long as your variants are not dependent on each other, @Store_Manager's suggestion may work best for you. 

That way you would only have one product with multiple custom options. The only time this wouldn't work is if the price of the 2nd option changes depending on the first, but then there are modules available to resolve this also: https://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/dependent-custom-options.html

[scott_itf]

thank you so much for your responses @RebeccaLTroth and @Store_Manager

I'll now do some reading and research into your solutions and let you know how I go

thanks again!!!!

cheers

Scott