You might sell some products that are very similar to each other, but differ slightly in color, size, flavor, or contents. Maybe you sell eggs, and offer then in packages of 12, 18, or 36, and also have varieties like brown, blue, or white. Perhaps you harvest bulk produce, and then package it in different size containers like individual clamshells or larger wholesale cases for restaurant use. Or how about CSA share boxes that have different contents? You might even sell t-shirts with your farm logo, and want to offer different sizes and color options. For these and many other scenarios, you can create product variations to provide a streamlined experience for your customers in your online store.
To do this, you'll navigate to Market, and select Products. You'll first need to create a new product, and then you'll see an option for variations. The product you create first is a "parent product", which serves as the top-level container for your variations. Your variations will inherit some of these details, like tax over ride percentages, financial category selections, and delivery options. Your online store customers will first pick the parent product, and then be presented with the variations as options for purchase. Tip: Add a generic photo to your parent product so your online store customers see an image for it.
Note: Variations cannot be added to existing products that have been added to orders. If you have been using the market prior to this feature being available, you'll create new products to define variations. You previous products can be archived, and will still be shown in reports.
Creating your first variation is very similar to creating the parent product. You'll choose Variations in the menu, and then New Product Variation. There are less fields available for the variation, so you'll supply the details that are unique for this product. That might be a unique SKU, price, status, and description. Save, and you'll see an additional option to add photos to the variation. In our example below, we create two variations for our eggs; a package of a dozen, and another of 18. You can create as many variations as you need for the parent product.
Online Shop and POS Experience
Product variations are mainly used to provide an easier shopping experience for your customers browsing the Online Shop, or your cashier's using the POS. When they access the site, they'll see the parent product listed on the main page, and can click View to see the variations available. Each variation is shown with photos and prices. The variations can be added to their cart from here.
Adding Variations to Admin Orders
While the variations are designed to be most beneficial to your online shop customers, you can still add them when creating orders administratively within Farmbrite. You can search for your variation when adding the product, and you'll see it listed with the parent as "Parent : Variation" in the menu. You can add it to the order and then pick it as well.
Connecting Variations to Inventory
Speaking of picking, note that you'll connect a variation to it's own inventory item if you'd like to pick it from inventory. That means you'll likely have an inventory item for each variation, so you know how many you have in stock and can then pick from your warehouse storage when fulfilling the order. This relationship is 1:1; in the example below we are connecting the Dozen Eggs variation to the Packaged Dozen Eggs inventory item. Note that we also have an inventory item for Eggs (Bulk), which we add our harvests to first, and then use Inventory Recipes to create dozens, 18/24/36 packs, etc.
Bulk Updating Variations
Just like any other product, you can also update the quantity you have available for online sales regardless of how much you have in your inventory for the linked item. This helps you account for inventory set aside for other purposes that should not be sold. If you need to update the amount for sale in the online shop you can always access any variation individually, or you can use the bulk update feature within the variations list as shown below.
