Variants, Composite Items, and... Configurable Items with Ad Ons?

Variants, Composite Items, and... Configurable Items with Ad Ons?

So I had to review a few of these concepts, and felt like there may need to be some clearer distinction made between the abstractions that we use to create associations between multiple items in inventory - sometimes with selections available to the customer, sometimes bundling multiple items into a single SKU, either because something's been manufactured or discounted at a bundled price, or simply for marketing purposes and how we'd like to group associated items on our product pages..

In this regard, I think there's a lot of room for confusion and that it may be helpful to others if I share my personal understanding of these concepts, and invite others to enhance or correct as necessary.

Hopefully this will help provide a better understanding as to how and when these features can or should be used in order to achieve both better inventory management and product presentation within your store.

As such, the following are how I've come to understand define the following concepts that can easily be confused.  These are - Item Variants, Composite Items, and Configurable Items / Add Ons (the last is not currently a Commerce feature, but one that I would propose should be, and is functionality within several other ecommerce systems.  More on that below...):

Variants
A Variant generally should be in item that comes prepackaged from a supplier, usually with its own dedicated UPC or SKUs. It's a variant because it may be conceptually grouped along-side with other very similar items with variations that pivot on one or more specific attributes. Some of these attributes might be size, color, flavor, etc. Each one of these attributes will multiply the number of SKUs by the number of new options within that attribute. (It's worth mentioning that you don't need to keep all of possible the variants SKUs if, for example, all colors are not being ordered for all sizes of a particular item - in which case the automatically generated SKUs can simply be deleted).

The inventory for any variant is increased when it's received and decreased when it's sold.  

Presentation at the point of sale is such that all variants are presented on a single product page.  Selecting the appropriate attribute options on a product page allows the customer to ultimately arrive at the specific product variant they wish to order.  

It's important to emphasize that selecting a variant on the product page is a "deductive" process during the point of sale, whereby each attribute option that is selected further hones in and reduces the number of remaining variants until the last attribute is selected.  This makes it much easier for your customer to quickly and specifically identify one variant among perhaps hundreds of other similar items without having to wade through pages of items.

Composite Items
A Composite Item is a pre-bundled "composite" of multiple SKUs. (Note the word "PRE-bundled"). This feature is really meant for those who bring in various pieces, parts, and components (which may or may not also be sold individually), but are assembled into AND presented as a single bigger product - hense the name "Composite Item".

As such, from a presentation standpoint, the Composite Item is a single SKU that you sell to your customer.  Behind the scenes, a composite item comprises of the pieces and parts initially received and inventoried as other SKUs.  The magic here is in the bundling.  Once bundled into a composite item, the inventory quantities are automatically reallocated reducing the on-hand counts all of those parts that are used to manufacture the Composite Items.

Composite Items are quite useful to you if you are a manufacturer in order to help you maintain and track your on-hand parts, make adjustments, and see if you're running short on this part or that for one product or another.

Generally, Composite Items are planned for in advance, and are usually bundled, allocated, and typically prepackaged well before the sale.

Composite Items are meant to define in your inventory a finished product from the parts that it's made from. This provides a means for automatic parts allocation for the purpose of assembling components into finished goods with the needed visibility and reporting that you otherwise would have to deal with manually in other painstaking ways (e.g. maintaining multiple inventories, one for manufacturing, and one for sales, etc.).

As such, the Composite Items feature allow manufacturers to have both the parts and the finished products coexist happily in one place and allocate the former into the latter as needed. It's inclusion into Inventory (and now into Commerce) has likely been a big deal for many, and a pretty significant accomplishment on Zoho's part.  Considering that that EDI can also available be integrated with Zoho Inventory, this is a pretty serious level of functionality for manufacturers that would otherwise be difficult to rival at Zoho's price point.
  
Configurable Items / Add Ons
There is however a third concept however, which I believe is very much desired, but is not yet included as part of Commerce, and oddly I think it's the arguably a feature that would probably be fairly east for the Commerce group to implement, being that it shouldn't be contingent on the changes to the Inventory Schema shared by the other Zoho apps.

I also think that it's something that is one of the more desired features, but not identified as such because it gets confused for and/or grouped in with certain other features when it's really quite a separate feature all together, for example... by that I mean that Variants and Composite Items are often being mistaken by users for what should really be considered as an entirely different and separate feature - that being the "Configurable Item with Add Ons".

The feature I'm describing here is used and implemented frequently on websites selling computers.  You sell the "bare-bones" system, which might be the enclosure and the motherboard, then you have a dropdown box to select what CPU, another dropdown box allows you to select the RAM, and another for the power supply.

It's important to understand that this is not a deductive selection (like it is with variants) in that each of the selections under each of these drop-downs is not honing down to a singular SKU.  Nor is it a Composite Item in which a single SKU is the composite of many that were preallocated into a final product.

Rather, this is an additive process at the point of sale, enabling the customer to configure their own system by selecting from multiple SKUs that are simply associated to a base "Configurable Item".  It's a function of presentation, and requires no preallocation of inventory.

It's important to understand that the base Configurable Item can be sold by itself, but is presented with optional "Add Ons".  When Add Ons are selected, pressing the "Add to Cart" button ads the base Configurable Item, along with the SKUs (and relevant Quantities, which should also be optionally presentable) of the other associated "Add On" items.

So in this way, there is never any sort of preallocation required for Add Ons within a Configurable Item.  It's only the relationship between the Configurable Item and its available Add Ons that needs to be established (e.g. perhaps within the Configurable Item's product page editor) that determines that such "Add Ons" be presented within the product page. 

Since this is only a function of presentation, the SKUs for the individual items (the base Configurable Item plus the Add On items) are still maintained within the cart, with no need to package them for the purpose of how they're seen from the perspective of the customer.

One other important distinction in this regard might be with respect to discounting.  Composite Items (not Configurable Items) can also be presented with package discounts.  Applying package discounts to Configurable Items might not be so straight forward if desired.

Anyhow, hopefully this will provide better understanding for those who are trying to strategize how to setup their inventory, and also serve as a proposed implementation that Zoho might consider in order to add in some sort of "Configurable Item / Add Ons" capability within the product page templates and be manageable on the back end via the product page editor.

This can theoretically be accomplished using custom fields and some modification to the Face product template files, but it would be nice if this functionality was part of Commerce itself without needing to hack it in.

Thanks,
Bryan

    • Recent Topics

    • open word file in zoho writer desktop version

      "How can I open a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) file in Zoho Writer if I only have the file saved on my computer and Zoho Writer doesn't appear as an option when I try 'Open with'? Is there a way to directly open the .doc file in Zoho Writer?"

    • How to invite friends on other social media platforms to one of my group chats in arattai?

      Hello, I have formed chat groups in arattai. I want to invite my friends on other social media platforms like WhatsApp/ FB to one of my groups. Different friends would be invited to different groups. How to share an invite link of one of my groups to

    • Zoho PDF editor has a lot of issues.

      Zoho PDF editor needs a lot of work. It hangs and glitches a lot. Deletes annotations and clearings randomly.

    • Zohom mail

      Plz resolve the problem . I hope u understand .

    • stock

      bom/bse : stock details or price =STOCK(C14;"price") not showing issue is #N/A! kindly resolve this problem

    • Zoho sheet desktop version

      Hi Zoho team Where can I access desktop version of zoho sheets? It is important as web version is slow and requires one to be online all the time to do even basic work. If it is available, please guide me to the same.

    • ZOHO SHEETS

      Where can I access desktop version of zoho sheets? It is important to do basic work If it is available, please guide me to the same

    • Zoho Books - France

      L’équipe de Zoho France reçoit régulièrement des questions sur la conformité de ses applications de finances (Zoho Books/ Zoho Invoice) pour le marché français. Voici quelques points pour clarifier la question : Zoho Books est un logiciel de comptabilité

    • Using Zoho Flow to create sales orders from won deal in Zoho CRM

      Hi there, We are using Zoho Flow to create sales orders automatically when a deal is won in Zoho CRM. However, the sales order requires "Product Details" to be passed in "jsonobject", and is resulting in this error: Zoho CRM says "Invalid input for invalid

    • Is Zoho Sheet available for Linux ?

      Is Zoho Sheet available for Linux ?

    • Bharat

      a

    • how to disable staff selection Zoho Booking integrated to SalesIQ?

      currently there is only one Consultant in my Zoho Bookings like this I integrate Zoho Bookings into Zoho SalesIQ to create a chatbot. Unfortunately, even though I only have one consultant for a consultation, the user have to pick the consultant. It will

    • Zoho Bookings No Sync with Outlook

      Zoho Bookings appointments are showing on my Outlook Calendar but Outlook events are not showing on Zoho Bookings. How do I fix this?

    • End Date in Zoho Bookings

      When I give my appointments a 30 minutes time I would expect the software not to even show the End Time.  But it actually makes the user pick an End Time.  Did I just miss a setting?  

    • Custom confirmation message

      How can I change the message that users see after they submit the booking form? I have to confirm some details before their appointment is officially "confirmed", so I want to change it where it doesn't say their appointment is "confirmed" but rather

    • Issue showing too many consultations in my workspace link.

      Hi Team, I’ve set up two Workspaces to track meetings from different sources. So far, this has been working well, and the two Workspaces are differentiated without any issues. However, when I navigate to Consultations and share the link to my personal

    • Deluge sendmail in Zoho Desk schedule can't send email from a verified email address

      I am trying to add a scheduled action with ZDesk using a Deluge function that sends a weekly email to specific ticket client contacts I've already verified the email address for use in ZDesk, but sendmail won't allow it in its "from:" clause. I've attached

    • Zoho Learn & Zoho Connect

      Hi, Is there a way to sync the knowledge base we have in Zoho Learn with the manuals section is Zoho Connect? Thanks,

    • Addin Support in Zoho Sheet

      Is there any addin support available in zoho sheet as like google marketplace to enhance productivity by connecting with other apps, providing AI data analysis, streamlining business processes, and more?

    • Changing Corporate Structure - How Best to Adapt Current and Future Zoho Instances

      My current company is Company A LLC with a dba ("doing business as" - essentially an alias) Product Name B. Basically, Company A is the legal entity and Product Name B is what customers see, but it's all one business right now. We currently have a Zoho

    • how to add subform over sigma in the CRM

      my new module don't have any subform available any way to add this from sigma or from the crm

    • How to Install Zoho Workdrive Desktop Sync for Ubuntu?

      Hi. I am newbie to Linux / Ubuntu. I downloaded a tar.gz file from Workdrive for installing the Workdrive Desktop Sync tool. Can someone give me step by step guide on how to install this on Ubuntu? I am using Ubuntu 19.04. Regards Senthil

    • How to upload own video?

      How can you upload your own video on your zoho website? I do not want to use another host, but i want to insert my own files. how can i do this?

    • Support new line in CRM Multiline text field display in Zoho Deluge

      Hi brainstrust, We have a Zoho CRM field which is a Muti Line (Small) field. It has data in it that has a carriage return after each line: When I pull that data in via Deluge, it displays as: I'm hoping a way I can change it from: Freehand : ENABLED Chenille

    • Announcing new features in Trident for Windows (v.1.32.5.0)

      Hello Community! Trident for Windows just got better! This update includes new features designed to improve and simplify email and calendar management—and it includes a feature you’ve been waiting for. Let’s dive into what’s new! Save emails in EML or

    • How to render either thumbnail_url or preview_url or preview_data_url

      I get 401 Unauthorised when using these urls in the <img> tag src attribute. Guide me on how to use them!

    • Zoho CRM Calendar | Custom Buttons

      I'm working with my sales team to make our scheduling process easier for our team. We primary rely on Zoho CRM calendar to organize our events for our sales team. I was wondering if there is a way to add custom button in the Calendar view on events/meeting

    • Create Lead Button in Zoho CRM Dashboard

      Right now to create Leads in the CRM our team is going into the Lead module, selecting the "Create Lead" button, then building out the lead. Is there anyway to add the "Create Lead" button or some sort of short cut to the Zoho CRM Dashboard to cut out

    • Searching customer field

      Hello, When entering a receipt, we select customer information. The customer information is synced with Zoho CRM. However, we can't find the customer information because it searches for words that begin with the entered value. It needs to search for words

    • Introducing Version-3 APIs - Explore New APIs & Enhancements

      Happy to announce the release of Version 3 (V3) APIs with an easy to use interface, new APIs, and more examples to help you understand and access the APIs better. V3 APIs can be accessed through our new link, where you can explore our complete documentation,

    • Zoho CRM Tracking Google Enhanced Conversions

      Can anyone @Zoho, consultants, or users help me understand if Zoho CRM is going to support Google's Enhanced Conversions? I included some information from Google below about it. We use Google Adwords for our pay per click advertising for lead generation,

    • zoho click, and nord VPN

      Unfortunately, we've been having problems with Zoho Click, where essentially the line cuts off after about a minute's worth of conversation every time we are on VPN. Is there a way we can change this within the settings so it does not cut the line off

    • Connecting Portals from different Zoho apps

      Hi, I note that Zoho has functionality for customer portals for several of the Zoho apps, like CRM, Projects, Desk etc. Is there any way to connect these portals?  It would be great if we could give our customers access to a portal in which they could

    • Billing Management: #5 Usage Billing

      After understanding the nuances of Advance Billing and Retainers, we will explore one of the booming billing models. Long ago, villagers drew water from a shared well in a small village. The well was a lifeline for the entire community. Ravi, the well

    • Function #10: Update item prices automatically based on the last transaction created

      In businesses, item prices are not always fixed and can fluctuate due to various factors. If you find yourself manually adjusting the item rates every time they change, we have the ideal time-saving solution for you. In today's post, we bring you custom

    • Inventory Adjustments

      Hi, How to transfer the material from one head to another ? Like materials purchased for manufacturing the laptop need to transfer from consumption inventory (Quantity of raw materials reduced) to destination inventory ( Quantity of Laptop increased)

    • Zoho CRM Community Digest - Aug 2025 | Part 1

      Hey everyone! The first half of August went by, and we have a few announcements and some good noteworthy discussions. So, let's take a look at them! Product Updates: Introducing Connected Records feature: Zoho CRM’s Next-Gen UI now includes Connected

    • Please make it easier to Pause syncing

      right now it takes 3 clicks to get there. sounds silly, but can you make it just 2 clicks to get it done instead? thats how dropbox does it, 2 clicks to pause instead of 3.

    • How to create a Zoho CRM report with 2 child modules

      Hi all, Is it possible to create a Zoho CRM report or chart with 2 child modules? After I add the first child module, the + button only adds another parent module. It won't let me add multiple child modules at once. We don't have Zoho Analytics and would

    • SalesIQとPageSenseの利用について

      初めての投稿で場違いだったらすいません。 弊社ではSalesIQを運用しているのですが、追加でPageSenseの導入もしたいと現場からの声があります。 両サービスともクッキー同意バナーが必要なサービスなのですが 弊社では同意無しに情報はとりませんという方針なので 2つ入れると2つバナーを出す必要がでてきます・・・ 両サービスを運用されてる方があれば運用状況とか教えてほしいです。 PageSenseについては詳細まで機能を理解してないなかでの質問です。

    • Next Page