Item Variations

Item Variations are a powerful feature in UltraCart that allows you to offer products with different attributes, such as size and color, while maintaining separate inventory and pricing for each combination. This guide provides a conceptual overview of the feature and detailed instructions for creating and managing variations.

What are Item Variations?

Item Variations are used when a single product listing on your storefront represents multiple physical items, each with its own unique SKU, inventory, and pricing. This is distinct from Item Options, which are simple customer selections that do not have their own separate inventory or items (for example, adding a gift message).

The Item Variations system is composed of two types of items:

• Parent Item: The master item that is displayed on your storefront. It contains the configuration for all variations and is not added to the cart directly.

• Child Items: The individual, inventoried items that are added to a customer's cart after they select a specific combination of variations (e.g., "Large Blue T-Shirt"). Each child item has its own inventory tracking.

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Creating and Managing Variations

UltraCart provides three methods for creating and assigning variations to your items.

Method 1: The Variation Wizard

The Variation Wizard is a guided tool that simplifies the creation of parent and child items and their variation assignments. This is the recommended method for most users.

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1. Navigate to Home → Items → Item Management.

2. Click the New button to create your parent item or edit an existing item.

3. Go to the Options tab for the new parent item.

4. In the Variations section, click the Variations Wizard button.

5. Follow the wizard prompts:

   • Enter the names of your variations (e.g., "Size", "Color").

   • Enter the values for each variation (e.g., "Small", "Medium", "Large" for "Size").

   • The wizard will automatically create the required child items and assign them to the correct variations.

6. Once the wizard is complete, you can review the generated variation matrix.

Method 2: Manual Configuration

This method is for experienced users who prefer to create and configure items manually before linking them together.

1. Create the child items first. For example, if you sell a shirt in three sizes and two colors, you will need to create six separate child items (e.g., "TSHIRT-SMALL-BLACK", "TSHIRT-MEDIUM-BLACK", etc.). The Copy tool can help speed up this process.

2. After creating all child items, create a new parent item.

3. On the parent item's Options/Variations tab, add each variation name (e.g., "Color," "Size") and click Add.

4. For each variation you added, enter the variation values (e.g., "Black," "Blue" for "Color") and click Add New.

5. After configuring all variations, scroll down to the Variation Item Assignment section.

6. Enter the Item ID for each child item and assign the corresponding variation values (e.g., "Small" and "Black") to it.

7. Click Save to finalize the assignments.

Method 3: Batch Import

For merchants with a large catalog, using the batch item import tool with a spreadsheet is the most efficient way to manage variations.

1. Create a spreadsheet with your item data.

2. The parent item must be listed first, followed by all of its child items.

3. Create three columns for each variation: Variation Name, Variation Parent, and Variation Value.

   • The Variation Name column should contain the name of the variation (e.g., "Color").

      

   • The Variation Parent column should contain the Item ID of the parent item.

   • The Variation Value column should contain the specific value for that child item (e.g., "Black").

4. Once your spreadsheet is complete, you can upload it using the batch item import tool.

Configuring Variation Display and Behavior

Sorting Variations

You can control the order in which variations and their options appear on the storefront.

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• To change the order of the variations themselves (e.g., Size before Color), enter a number in the Sort Order field next to each variation name.

• To change the order of the options within a variation (e.g., Black before Blue), you can either use the Sort Order field or use the drag-and-drop feature. Click and drag the variation value to your desired position.

Setting a Default Option

You can configure a specific variation value to be selected by default when a customer loads the buy form. This saves the customer from having to make a selection unless they want a different option. To set a default, click the Make Default button next to the desired variation value.

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Troubleshooting and Best Practices

• Dropdown menus are empty: If the variation dropdowns are not populating, ensure that each child item has inventory available. If you are not tracking inventory, verify that the child item is marked as active.

• Sale pricing: When using variations, you must apply the sale price to each individual child item, not just the parent item. The parent item is a placeholder, and only the child items are added to the cart.

• Deleting variations: Be cautious when deleting variations or items from the variation configuration screen. There is no confirmation dialog, and the change will be saved immediately.

• Item IDs are not interchangeable: You cannot configure variations on a child item. Variations must be configured on a distinct parent item that serves as the placeholder for the children.

• JQuery Dependency: UltraCart's variation system requires JQuery 1.7.2. The buy form automatically includes this library if it's not already present on your webpage.

Variation Wizard Example

The wizard will pop up on the screen.  Enter the names of the variations for the product and click next as shown below.  In the case of this shirt we have Size and Color as our two variations. 

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Next we enter the values for the Size variation as shown below and click next

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Then we enter the values for the Color variation as shown below.

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Finally we assign items to the variation matrix.  Notice that the system will automatically suggest item IDs for the child items and will create them if they don't exist.

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Once the wizard completes the complete matrix will display on the page as shown below.

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The item list should now look like the screen shot below.

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Batch Item Import Example

Obviously there was a lot of clicking to perform the configuration of a single item with variations.  The fastest way to configure variations is with a spreadsheet and the batch item import.  The easiest way to illustrate the composition of the spreadsheet is with a screen shot of the example configured above.

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Obviously there are additional columns in the spreadsheet associated with description, cost, weight, etc, but the example above shows the variation configuration.  Notice the parent item always has to come first in the spreadsheet.  If you use a naming convention where the child item always has the parent item as a prefix then the nature sorting of your spreadsheet will take care of this requirement.  Next there are three columns for each variation: name, parent and value. Make sure the name and parent are consistent for each variation in the spreadsheet.  In this example we have Color,SHIRT and Size,SHIRT in colors Z,AA and AC,AD.  The variation value columns cover the individual values associated with each child item.

Once your spreadsheet is created you can upload it with batch item import tool.

FAQ

Q: I have a parent item with 3 color options and 2 size variations, do I have to include the 3 color options on the child items or are the color options passed through

A: Item Variations is a configuration to map customer selectable options such as size and color to a specific SKU. For example, if the the customer selects "Size" Large and "Color" in Green, the item added to the cart would be a specific item that represented "Size" Large and "Color" Green. This requires a specific item for each possible purchase variation. So, the "Color" item option configured to the parent item would not be an appropriate configuration. Instead you would need to remove the item options and configure a second item variation for the color and assign child items representing each of these purchasable variations. 

Q: I have items configured using item variations, do I configure the sale price only on the parent item?

A: When using variations, it's the "Child" items that eventually get added to the cart, so in order for the sale cost to properly apply to the item the customer is selecting, make sure to apply the sale cost to parent and also all children items.

Q: Can I apply “sale cost” to items using the Price Update tool?

A: No. The price tool does not contain the sale cost as a update field. you can update the retail cost, and also any configured pricing tiers and COGS. So, unless you are using the retail cost field for implementing a sale price, you will want to use make the sale cost configuration from the item editor or the batch item export/import tools.

Q: I have items configured using item variations, but I'm not seeing the child items appearing in the drop-down list?

A: If the drop-down list is not being populated, check to see:

1. You have a parent item and separate child items (you cannot configure the variation configuration on an item assigned as a child item, you'll need a separate parent item and set of child items.)

2. Make sure that if the child items have "Track Inventory" configured, that the item has  allocatable inventory. If the item is out of inventory it will not appear in the variation drop-down list.

3. Also check to make sure that the child items are not set to inactive.