Use of product families
On this page you can read more about articles in product families.
What is a product family?
Product families, also called product variants, are variants of the same item which differ in only one or two characteristics and are otherwise identical. These product families are shown on the product detail page. Examples are a sports shoe in blue and yellow and in eight different sizes, a water bottle with three different sizes or a book in paperback and hardcover. Examples of items that cannot be put in a variant are a sports shirt and trousers of the same clothing line, different parts of a book series and different serial numbers of a laptop.
Variants in the product catalogue
Items within a product family each exist as a separate item in the catalogue, with their own EAN. A product family only indicates a relationship between these variants, which are displayed in different ways (depending on the shop) on the product detail page, in the search results and on the list pages.
Prices and providers within a product variant
Product families have no impact on prices. Within one product family, different providers may exist and they may have different prices.
Distinguishing features
In order to create a product family and display it on the product detail page, a distinguishing feature must be set for these items. This is the characteristic in which the articles differ from each other. This can also be two attributes. It is important that these characteristics are entered in order to distinguish the articles. If you want to put a purple sports shoe in the variant with all yellow ones, the characteristic ‘Colour’ must be filled in. If this is not the case, it will not be shown on the product detail page.
For the examples above, these are
- For a sports shoe in the colours blue and yellow and in 8 different sizes: ‘Colour’ and ‘Size’.
- For a drinking bottle with 3 different sizes: ‘Contents’.
- For a book in paperback and hardback form: ‘Binding style’.
A distinguishing feature is set for the entire product group. Are there no distinguishing features for the product family? Then you get the message: ‘Sorry. We cannot yet link the items in this product group’. If this is the case, please contact our Supplier Service so that they can check whether the distinguishing features can be created for you.
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