You are here: Commerce Manager > Catalog Management > Products Variations and SKUs Bundles Packages Dynamic Packages and Associations > Creating a Variation or a SKU

Creating a Variation or a SKU

To create a product variation/SKU, click through an existing catalog and click on Create New and then select New Variation/SKU.

Overview Tab

This is where you enter basic information about the Variation/SKU.

Field	Description
Name	Enter a friendly name, which can include spaces and special characters.
Available from	Enter the date and time the SKU will be available and active.
Expires On	Enter the date and time the SKU will be unavailable and deactivated.
Display Template	Chose a display template used to display the Variation/SKU in the public site from this drop-down menu.
Code	Enter a value without special characters or spaces, such as "BlueShirtXL."
Sort Order	Enter a numerical value to determine the SKU's sort order on the node list page.
Available	Set "Yes" to activate the SKU. Set "No" to keep the SKU inactive and unsearchable on the front-end site.
Meta Class	Select a Meta Class from the drop-down menu. Depending on the meta class you select, additional fields will appear in the Overview tab. The values entered within the fields of the meta class you selected will be shown on the front-end public site.

Depending on the meta class selected, more fields may become available. For instance, selecting the Wine SKU meta class will yield wine related meta fields and attributes.

Pricing/Inventory Tab

Under this tab, you can set specific pricing and inventory settings for the variation/SKU.

Clicking on Add item will open the Edit Sale Price Information dialog for adding pricing information.

Field	Description
Display Price	Enter the price that will be displayed on the public site.
Min Quantity	This sets the minimum quantity the customer is able to purchase the variation/SKUs product page.
Max Quantity	This is the maximum allowable number of items that can be purchased at one time (this number gets displayed as the upper range in the drop-down during the checkout process).
Merchant	Optional: if you use many merchants on your site, this provides another way to add more information for a product; this can only be added/edited directly in the database so please contact your site administrator/developer to make any changes.
Weight	Based on your shipping configuration, the weight you enter here will affect the total shipping cost .
Package	This value is based on width/length/height dimensions; the options for this drop-down are configured in the Administration area.
Tax Category	This separation of taxes by category allows you to charge a different rate of taxes depending on what is being purchased; for example, you can have one rate for "General Sales" items and another rate for "Luxury Sales" items.
Warehouse	The details on the available selections are maintained in the Administration system.
Track Inventory	Yes/No. If this is set to "Yes," then the quantity value of In Stock, Preorder, and Backorder fields will be deducted each time a purchase is made. If this is set to "No," then those values will not change.
Inventory Status	Enable/Disable. If this is Enabled, then the number of units of a product being purchased cannot exceed the inventory value. In other words, the check out procedure cannot be completed if you exceed the number in the inventory -- instead the quantity you can purchase will default to the actual number of remaining units. For instance, if you have Tracking Inventory = Yes, and Inventory Status = Disabled/Ignored, then the available quantity will be monitored, but it will not limit the number of units that can be checked out. If you only have a quantity of 5 and you order 6 items, the checkout will still complete and the inventory number will become -1.
In Stock	You can enter the quantity of a particular product available for sale.
Reserved	The quantity you set here allows you to reserve a specified number of inventory "In Stock" and prevent them from being used. So for instance, if you set the In Stock = 10 and Reserved = 5, then the In Stock count will not go below 5.
Reorder Min Qty	If the inventory falls below the value specified here, then this item will appear in the "Low Stock Report" in the Dashboard or Reporting system.
Allow Preorder/Backorder	Yes or No; you need to set Allow Preorder/Backorder status to Yes to turn either of these features On.
Preorder/Backorder Avail	When you turn on either of the two and specify a quantity, the count will begin to decrease after the In Stock count reaches its limit. For example, if you set In Stock = 10, Reserved =3, and Backorder =10, then the Backorder qty will start to decrease after In Stock count reaches 3. So if you place an order for 10 units, then the final count will be In Stock = 3, Reserved =3, and Backorder = 7.
Backorder Qty	The quantity you set here will determine the backorders that can be made by customers even when the item is out of stock.
Pricing	Sale Type - you can select All Customers, a single Customer or a Customer Price Group (the Customer Price Group gives you the ability to create tiered pricing). Sale Code - This is an optional setting. The Sale Code field is used for assigning a price to a specific group of customers. For instance, when you add a new price and select "Customer Price Group" as the Sale Type, you need to put the name of the customer group in the Sale Code field. The name of the group that you put in the Sale Code field needs to match one of the group names found under Customer Management > Contacts > (Name of Contact). If your entry into the Sale Code field matches one of the Customer Groups, any member of that group will receive the specified price. Unit Price - discounted price per unit Currency enter currency using the correct currency code (i.e. GBP); you can create different prices depending on the currency that is selected. Min. Quantity - minimum number of units you must purchase to get the discounted bulk rate.

SEO Tab

Search Engine Optimization can be achieved by entering the following information for the product.

Field	Description
Title	This is the friendly name that appears in your browser's title area.
URL	This is what gets displayed in the browser URL window.
Description	This is the meta description that is used for SEO purposes by search engines.
Keywords	Keywords used for SEO purposes by search engines.

If the URL field is left empty, it will be automatically filled in with a generated url (which depends on the entry name). If the Url field is not empty (you entered some url), it will be saved as it is, and will not be changed automatically even if you change an entry name. If you need the url to change, leave it blank.

Associations Tab

Different products or variations/SKUs can be linked to this Variation/SKU.

Steps to Create an Association

Click on Add an Association. A pop-up window will appear that says Edit Association Information.
When the pop-up appears, enter an Association Name, Description, and define the Sort Order. Once you're done, click on Save Changes.
The new association will appear in the drop-down list.
You can also choose to Edit Details, which will allow you to edit associated items. The Pick Item drop-down appears below Modify Existing Association.
Click on Modify Association and you can edit the name, description, and sort order of an existing association.

You can also Delete an association if needed.
Pick an item or items to add to the association. Click Add Item to do so.
Once you click on Add Item, the item will appear in a list just below. You can have more than one item tied to an association.

You can Edit an item on the list. You can change the Sort Order and the Type. Once you're done modifying the values, click on Update to save your changes. Otherwise select Cancel to navigate away without saving.

Assets Tab

Assets are downloadable contents such as documents, links, videos, and images that can be linked to specific products. Assets are uploaded and managed in the Asset Management system.

Steps to Add Assets to a Variation/SKU

1. Under Find Assets, select from the drop-down list and click Add Asset.

2. Enter a Group Name.

By default Commerce Manager offers three options with names that will allow the associated assets to be correctly displayed on the product details page of the public site.

Field	Description
Image	(Type as "image," all lowercase), thumbnail icon(s) will appear on the product details page.
Downloads	A "Downloads" tab will appear towards the bottom of the details page.
Specifications	A "Specifications" tab will appear towards the bottom of the details page.

3. Once an asset is added to the list below, you can choose to edit specific assets, such as their Group name and Sort Order.

4. Once done, click OK and the new category/node will be created. You will be redirected to the Node List. Otherwise, select Cancel to go back to the Node List without saving any changes.

Relations Tab

This shows the full catalog path of the variation/SKU. Here the relations for a product will be displayed, and you can manage the categories a product is linked to. This is useful in order to get an overview of all the different categories (nodes) where a product will occur. A product can for instance appear in the "French Market" category, as well as under "Daily Specials" and "Mixed Cases".

Browse to a product and open it for editing. The relations for the product will be displayed under the Relations tab.