When entering your catalogue of stock into the Buzz Commerce Dashboard, you may wonder what the difference is between the three product types available in the Add Product menu:
Digital Product
Simple Product
Configurable Product
Digital Products are non-physical items that are available for sale in a soft copy data format that can be downloaded by a customer upon purchase. Examples include ebooks, audiobooks, music files, images, and video files.
For instructions on adding a Digital Product to your Inventory, click here.
Simple Products are physical items that do not have add-ons or upgraded versions that can be requested by a customer at the time of purchase. They are straightforward; what a customer sees for sale in your shop is exactly what is available for purchase. For example, if you had a pair of jeans for sale, the customer could only purchase the jeans as is; they cannot pay extra for another item that is only sold with the jeans or pay to upgrade the jeans in some fashion. When customers visit a simple product listing in your Buzz Marketplace or Buzz Webstore, they see one item with no options and a fixed purchase price.
For instructions on adding a Simple Product to your Inventory, click here.
Configurable Products are also physical sale items, but these products provide customers with purchasing options. A base product will be made available for sale, which can then vary in price depending upon the selection of add-on items or upgrades to the original item. For example, if you have a basic backline female carnival costume for sale and the customer has the option at the time of sale to purchase additional items that are not sold separately such as a large headpiece, an extra pair of hot shorts, etc. then this should be created under the configurable product page. Another example would be if you sold a cell phone model that has device storage options of 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB. Entering your stock under this product type would allow the basic 8GB cellphone to be available for sale at one price, and enable customers to pay for either the 16GB or 32GB upgrades at varying additional fees. When a customer visits a product listing in your Buzz Marketplace or Buzz Webstore, they see one item with one or more configurable options and a purchase price that changes based upon their selections.
Configurable Products are currently in development and will be available soon.
What is the difference between adding Simple Products and Configurable Products?
The Simple Product inventory item creation page allows you to add General Product Information, Attributes, Variations, Advanced Information, and Linked Products. The Configurable Product Inventory Item creation page allows you to add all the information of a Simple Product while also providing an additional information area: Components. This section allows you to add the stock information for your add-ons or upgrades of the product for sale. These Components appear on your product page in the Marketplace and/or Web Store, which enables customers to make selections to add to their cart and then purchase.
Which one should I choose for my products?
It is entirely dependent upon each stock item you have for sale. You can choose to use any of the three Inventory Item Product Types that best suits the sale of your products on a case by case basis. This means that you may have different Inventory Product Types in your Buzz Stock Catalog when multiple items have been entered. When choosing the best type for your product, think about the individual item and ask yourself:
It is a physical item? If not, It should be added as a Digital Product. If yes, I must now choose between a Simple Product or a Configurable Product.
Is there another stock item in my inventory that is the same model as this but slightly different in price because of an upgrade, modification, or additional product item that is packaged together in a bundle and therefore not sold separately? If not, it should be added as a Simple Product. If yes, It should be added as a Configurable Product.
I added an Inventory Item under the wrong Product Type, what do I do?
Please note that when an Inventory Item is created, it cannot be converted to another type of product e.g. changing a Simple Product Inventory Item into a Configurable Product Inventory Item. The incorrect Inventory Item Page that was created should be deleted from your All Products Inventory area, and then the information re-added using the correct Product Type.
What if I am still not sure?
If you require further assistance, please send us a message and we will work together to see which Product Type best suits your available sale products. Click on this image located on the right of your screen to chat with us.
Figure 1.1 shows our Help Chat Box