Some Thought sabout Configurable Product in Magento 2

Some Thoughts about Configurable Product in Magento 2

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Some Thoughts About Configurable Product In Magento 2

As you know, the configurable product in Magento 2 is the favorite of many Magento sites for its flexibility and convenience. However, displaying Magento 2 configurable products in the front end still has several drawbacks.

Realizing that pain point, in this blog, we will share these cons and offer the best solution to help you optimize the site’s look and feel.

EXPLORE Top 3 best Magento 2 configurable product extensions to refine the appearance of your product page!

Overview of Configurable Product

What is a configurable product?

A Magento Configurable Product is similar to a simple product but has different custom options. You can understand that a Magento Configurable Product is a set containing multiple simple products, allowing the customers to select many product variants from drop-down lists. Each option is a separate simple product.

Some examples of configurable product

To understand it more clearly, we should take a look at some of the examples.

For instance, your store sells a type of shirt in different sizes and colors. That kind of shirt has 2 colors (black and white) and 3 sizes (small, medium and large). You will have to create six different simple products such as black – small, black – medium, black – large, white – small… and link all of them into a configurable product. After that, the customers can choose their desired size and color and add-to-cart. Each selectable variation has its own SKU and additional necessary costs.

Vital elements of Magento configurable product

1. Inventory

When creating the configurable product, in the general information section, you must set “No” in Managing Stock on the Inventory Tab because the configurable product contains associated products in Magento to manage some associated products and inventory.

2. Magento is not visible individually

M2-configurable-product

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The associated product will not be displayed individually (Magento is not visible individually), so customers cannot access the associated products page directly on the front end.

People can order each product from the configurable product by selecting the desired values for Magento configurable product attributes.

3. Price of Magento configurable product

The price is taken from the configurable product, not associated products.

When you set price in Associated Products, the price is taken from the configurable product, not associated products of Magento configurable themselves.

If you put the number in the field for the price, this will not be the product variation price. Instead, the number will be added to or subtracted from the price of the Magento configurable product.

4. Thumbnail image

The thumbnail image in the shopping cart can be set to display the image from the configurable product record or the associated product of Magento configurable product. It will allow customers to check whether they buy the right products that they desire or not.

M2-configurable-product

5. Drop-down list

A configurable product allows the shopper to select options from drop-down lists. Create an attribute for each drop-down list of options in your configurable product.

Each option is a separate, simple product. The drop-down list values are based on attributes that must be set up in advance with required settings.

M2-configurable-product

How To Create Configurable Products In Magento

Step 1: Create attributes

The first thing you have to do is to create an attribute for each drop-down list of options that you want to include in the configurable product. Go to Catalog > Attributes > Manage Attributes, then click the “Add new attribute” button. We will take the example above for this part. For instance, you want to create an attribute for the shirt’s color. Here are some required properties of the attribute.

  • The Scope has to be “Global.”
  • The Catalog input type has to be “Visual swatch.”
  • Set “Use to create configurable product” box to “Yes.”
  • “Apply To” has to be “Configurable Product” or “All Product Types.”

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After that, we must assign values to the attributes in the Manage Options. The shirt’s color attribute includes the values of black, blue, white, etc. The figure below will show you more clearly.

M2-configurable-product

Step 2: Create an attribute set

After creating attributes for drop-down lists, we have to generate attribute sets. Select Catalog > Attributes > Manage attribute set on the admin menu, then click the “Add new set” button.

M2-configurable-product

There will appear like the figure above. Your job now is to assign a name to the attribute set. In this case, we create an attribute set entitled “T-shirt,” including 2 attributes shirt size and color. Leave the default for the “Based On” option, then click “Save attribute set.”

Now, from the list of “Unassigned attributes” on the right, drag and drop each attribute you want to include in the product to the center column called “Groups,” you’re allowed to arrange them in any order.

M2-configurable-product

Step 3: Create a configurable product

Select Catalog > Products, then click the “Add configurable product” button. It will appear like the figure below.

M2-configurable-product

After selecting all the necessary information for a parent product, click the “Create configurations” button to choose the data for the color and size properties.

M2-configurable-product

Repeat the above steps to create more simple products until reaching the required quantity. You have two colors (black and white) and 3 sizes (small, medium, large), and you will have to create six simple products, for instance.

M2-configurable-product

Step 4: Add associated products

After the above step, we will be led to a regular product-creating page; there is a tab at the bottom called “Associated Products.” Here, you will see a list of all the simple products with color and size properties you selected above for you to associate with the configurable product. Besides this method, there are two more for you to add the associated product here, including using the “Quick, simple product creation” form or “Copy from Configurable.”

The method that I have mentioned is a straightforward one. Subsequently, you will have the result as below.

M2-configurable-product

Limitations of Configurable Product in Magento 2 default

First, the Magento default provides selecting option display for configurable products, making customers inconveniently order and review products.

Customers must choose each custom option and quantity per child product before adding it to the cart. Thus, they cannot add multiple simple products to the shopping cart at one if they want a large number of products. 

M2-configurable-product

Secondly, the default configurable product in Magento 2 only shows SKU and availability of configurable products, not children products.

As shown in the picture below, stock status and SKU belong to the configurable product, not its children products. Hence, customers cannot know whether children products are still available for sale or not. This not only leads to some confusion but also causes inconvenience for customers.

M2-configurable-product

Moreover, the price is also a need-to-optimize issue. Currently, the default configurable product will show the lowest price of the associated product, but sometimes many store owners want to display the highest one.

Like the above picture, that is the lowest price of a children product, so how are other different prices children products displayed? How could customers know about the price of each child product? The only answer is no. They couldn’t because the default does not support it.

Furthermore, the lowest special price of child products will be displayed below:

If customers visit your product page, they see that special price. Obviously, they cannot know exactly which child product is discounted, or they may misunderstand that all children products would have this special price. Of course, you don’t want to let it happen as an online store owner.

Finally, the default configurable product does not support automatic subtotal. It only sums up after adding products to the cart and checking them out in the shopping cart. This issue needs to be optimized because customers need an overall view of their order and price to make a buying decision.

With the default configuration, they have to check the total in the shopping cart after adding items.

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Now, let’s imagine when they want to continue shopping, they have to return to the product page to choose items again. How annoying and time-consuming it is, right?

Best Magento 2 Extension to Improve the Configurable Product Display

Therefore, as we discussed, these drawbacks of default configurable products in Magento 2 cause customers some inconvenience in the order process. So, we recommend using the Configurable Product Grid Table View for Magento 2 extension to optimize the display of configurable products.

Have a look at this image:

M2-configurable-product

The extension provides a grid table view, which will be a better idea for the configurable product instead of the selecting option display. With a professional table including all associated products, customers can easily add all children products to the cart and follow the availability of products when stock status and some stock can be configured in the backend. Consider how to display product stock status in your Magento 2 store to improve the shopping experience with Magento 2 Configurable Product Inventory.

As we have said about price, a need-to-optimize issue, Magento 2 Configurable Product Grid Table View module completely satisfies online store owners by supporting showing unit price and price range.

  • Show a price range for the configurable products. The lowest and highest prices of children products will determine this range.
  • Present the unit price of children products in the grid table.
  • Choose to show only when children products have different prices. Furthermore, the extension supports displaying special prices for each children product on the table.

The total amount problem will be solved thanks to automatically calculating the entire amount feature when customers select quantities of products in the table. Additionally, the extension can show the total amount and price in detail at the bottom of the grid table, so customers quickly review their orders.

Therefore, the Magento 2 Configurable Product Grid Table View extension will provide a better professional display for the configurable product in Magento 2 and bring more sales benefits.

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Magento 2 Configurable Product extensions

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