Hidden Product Builder

Suppose your website lists a T-Shirt, available in red, green and blue and in small medium and large, making for 9 combinations. The best way to implement this in SellerDeck is as per the adjacent image, using attributes and choices. Each time you sell a T-Shirt, the product reference TS1 will be recorded, along with the choices selected for size and colour.

However, if you want to export this order to an accounting system like Sage or QuickBooks, you will run into problems. Such accounting systems generally require a unique product code for any combination so your attributes and choices will not be recognised.

The Solution

Product Builder will convert the structure seen in the image above into that seen below so that every product option you sell results in a unique product code. This is achieved as follows:

• A new componnent is created between the product and the attribute if one does not exist already
• For each Attribute / Choice combination, a new permutation is created against the component
• For each permutation, a new 'hidden' product is created
• Finally, each permutation is linked to the corresponding hidden product

The customer's buying experience remains exactly as before, with a 'Master Product' and then choices for size and colour. Using this structure however, the Sellerdeck order records the product reference of each of the hidden products depending on the choices selected, allowing you to use this reference when linking to your external accounting system.