Drupal Commerce - the product vs display conundrum and how to explain it to a customer
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The document discusses the complexities of Drupal Commerce regarding products and product displays, emphasizing the need to understand their distinct roles, with products being the actual items and product displays serving as representations for customers. It outlines the advantages and disadvantages of this system, including the potential for duplication of effort and complexity in managing variants. Strategies for improving user experience and understanding, as well as scenarios for different product types and displays, are also addressed.
Drupal Commerce - the product vs display conundrum and how to explain it to a customer
- 1. DRUPAL COMMERCE THE PRODUCT VS DISPLAY CONUNDRUM (AND HOW TO EXPLAIN IT TO A CUSTOMER) Richard Jones, Technical Director, i-KOS DrupalCamp, Scotland 2012
- 2. SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? • Drupal commerce has products and product displays • It's the single most important concept to get your head around • Iteither obvious or really confusing
- 3. WHY IS IT THIS WAY? • Products often have multiple variations • Size, colour etc • You need to know which one of the variations the customer wants • Youneed don't want to display multiples of similar things
- 4. THE UPSIDES • Single product display can represent multiple products • Fine control of variables for each variant • Stock and pricing • Alternativedisplays for different contexts
- 5. THE DOWNSIDES • Ifyour products are simple you have onto create two things to create 1 product • Ifyour products are complex you could end up with thousands of variants • Admin user experience
- 6. ELIMINATE THE DOWNSIDES • Two main problems to solve • Duplication effort when it seems a waste of time • Manual creation of hundred of variations
- 7. PLANNING YOUR PRODUCT STRUCTURE • Consider when the product display is used and when the product is used • Anythingproduct variant specific goes in the product (eg colour image) • Anythinggeneric about the product goes in the display (eg marketing description)
- 8. PLANNING YOUR PRODUCT STRUCTURE • Anything you need in the following scenarios should go in the product • Confirmation email • Order tracking
- 9. PLANNING YOUR PRODUCT STRUCTURE • Canalso have multiple product types • Where products have different descriptive elements • Or you need separation for logic
- 10. PLACING YOUR TAXONOMY • Ifyou need to have search or navigation based on taxonomy apply the taxonomy to the product displays
- 11. BULK PRODUCT CREATION • With the product display system number of variants can multiply quickly • A product with 5 sizes, 3 colours and 2 fits gives you 30 products for 1 product display • Bulk product creation set them all up • Then delete the ones you don't need
- 12. IMPROVING THE OWNER EXPERIENCE •A store admin doesn't want to hear that they have to do something twice no matter how well you explain it • Use inline edit module
- 13. EXPLAINING AND TRAINING • Getting this message across is the key to acceptance of commerce
- 14. TERMINOLOGY • Findthe terminology that fits with the client product range • Consensus seems to be • Product display = product • Product = variant
- 15. ANOTHER SIMPLE RULE • Products(variants) are for the back end • Productdisplays are for the front end
- 16. WAYS TO USE MULTIPLE DISPLAYS • Youcan group products together in any way you like • Different product displays for different contexts • Promotionallanding pages are a good example
- 17. LANDING PAGES • Use an alternative product display for promotional landing pages • Youcan change layout in other ways (display suite) • Best use of alternative product display when you want to group different products
- 18. SALES AND PROMOS • Alternative product display scenario • Normal display shows all products (variants) • Sale version shows only a subset
- 19. MULTIPLE PRODUCT TYPES • Products (variants) have different data requirements • Also different rules • Egbooks - need a way to identify different VAT condition
- 20. RULES BASED PRICING • Sales and promos • Usealternative product types for promo price rules
- 21. QUESTIONS? Richard Jones, Technical Director, i-KOS DrupalCamp, Scotland 2012