Using Combinations for Products in PrestaShop 1.5
Product combinations often occur when there are variety of attributes that may distinguish the product when it is purchased in quantity. For example, if your product comes in different colors. Some customers may want to purchase the product in different colors. The issue is more of an issue when there may be differences weight thereby affecting shipping weight and cost. This information can be accounted for in the COMBINATIONS tab for a product. The following tutorial will show how to use COMBINATIONS in PrestaShop 1.5.
Adding Combinations for Products in PrestaShop 1.5
- Login to the PrestaShop 1.5 Administration Panel as an Administrator
- Go to the menu bar and hover over CATALOG until the drop-down menu appears. Click on PRODUCTS
- If you are managing an existing inventory, you will see a list of your products. Select one of your products and then click on EDIT. Otherwise, select ADD NEW from the top right hand side of the screen in order to add a new product to your list. On the lefthand side of the menu of a product you will see the option for COMBINATIONS. Make sure that you are selecting a product that can be sold in combination in order to set this option. Here is a screenshot of the COMBINATIONS interface:
If you want to use the PRODUCT COMBINATIONS GENERATOR (the button for this option is at labeled at the top of the page), please go to Using the Product Combinations Generator in PrestaShop 1.5 for for further information.
NOTE: In order to add combinations, you will have needed to have already added the attributes or groups of attributes. - Select the drop-down menu labeled ATTRIBUTE and select the attribute you wish to use in your combination
- Click on ADD after you have selected the ATTRIBUTE
- When you select the product if the information is provided with the product, then the REFERENCE, EAN13, UPC, SUPPLIER REFERENCE, and LOCATION will be filled. Select the WHOLESALE PRICE if you need to adjust the price. Then select IMPACT ON PRICE and select either INCREASE or DECREASE if there is an impact on price.
-If necessary, select IMPACT ON WEIGHT and add the adjustment to the weight
-If necessary, select IMPACT ON UNIT PRICE and adjust price per unit - The next field is MINIMUM QUANTITY which sets the number of products where this combination takes effect. Set 1 as the minimum quantity if you wish to disable this option
- You can also set the available date when a product is unavailable because you have run out of stock. Click on the field after AVAILABLE DATE in order to set the date when the product will be available again
- The last option allows you to set the IMAGE used to represent your combination. You are also able to set default setting for the combination(s) that you have defined above
- Select SAVE in the top right hand corner to save your entries. Note that as you ad combinations, the table is updated at the bottom of the screen
COMBINATIONS are an important option in that they allow you to set definitions for combinations of products that may affect shipping and price costs for the product. Customers will not see the actual settings for the change in settings. The only place they may see the impact of the combinations are on the pricing that appears in the customer invoice when they check out. Here is a screenshot of a sample invoice:
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Comments
n/a Points
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2014-04-17 7:24 pm
You are missing one very critical and important piece to your combinations explanation... Where are the fields to adjust for the impact on dimensions that a combination (attribute) might have? You said above weight has an impact on shipping, but so do the dimensions. Where are the dimension fields for the combination? I cannot believe I'm the only one who notices this... and no, they have not addressed this or fixed this in the newest version. 1.6.x |
Staff 17,314 Points
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2014-04-17 8:05 pm
Hello Draygon,
Thanks for the question. It's actually a very good question, but I'll explain why they don't manage shipping cost by dimension (length, width, height). Currently, when you set up the carriers, they can be set to have a maximum package length, width, depth, and weight. This way carriers are limited based on the dimensions of the package being shipped. Product dimensions should already specified for the product (under features). These dimensions should reflect the packaged product (not the products actual dimensions). The COST of shipping is always either based on weight or price. Using dimensions would not be possible to use as a limiter because of the various size and shapes that products may have. Therefore, as long as you have already added your base product's dimensions, if you ship a combination, carriers will be restricted based on the assigned maximums that you have placed per carrier. If you believe this is in error, you will need to bring that up with PrestaShop as they are the authors of the software. I hope that helps to provide an explanation. If you have any further questions, please let us know. Regards, Arnel C. |
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n/a Points
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2014-04-17 8:22 pm
Yes, we are all aware that you can set the maximum limits for the carrier. If you contact UPS, FedEx or any of the big carriers, dimensions play a huge part in cost. It does not cost the same to ship an item weighing 1lb with dimesions of 12x12x12 as it would an item 1lb with dimension of 24x24x24. You would get eaten alive by shipping costs as you would not be charging enough to the customer for the shipping. Or, you are way overcharging your customer. Modules like the UPS module for Prestashop grabs the product dimesions and send the request to their server and returns a price based on weight,dimension,origin and destination. Look at the following example, if you were selling milk in your store. Your attributes would be quart, half-gallon and gallon. Besides the weight difference, each of those containers has different dimensions. Thus, you cannot account accurately for you or your customer the shipping cost because Presta does not allow for different dimensions for product attributes. |
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Staff 17,314 Points
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2014-04-17 11:31 pm
Hello Draygon,
Customers don't determine the available carrier choice on a PrestaShop site. You as a site administrator are the one that provides the carrier choice. So, if you are not providing a carrier that can handle the dimensions at a cheaper price, then the customer is limited to the carrier that can ship that product that you have provided. If you are interested in keeping costs down, then it is in your interest to obtain the module like you've suggested, or to do the research and set up a carrier so that it is an option that the user can select when they purchase product on your PrestaShop site. I can understand your concerns, but again, we are simply the recommended hosts for PrestaShop. We can only report what users are saying, which you can also do by directly going to PrestaShop's forums. Your concerns would be better voiced directly to PrestaShop if you wish to have their current carrier/shipper interface changed. Regards, Arnel C. |
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