Solved

Add-on items that are not available separately

newwavepool
Tourist
13 0 2

Hi, 

I'm new here so sorry if this is very obvious.

One of my main product types is refurbished cameras. I would like to be able to sell a roll of film and batteries as add-ons. Since I'm selling these add-on items at cost, I'd rather have them *only* available to people buying a camera. 

Just wondering if this is possible? 

Currently I'm doing this on Etsy through the use of variants with different prices, eg 'Camera only', 'Camera + Batteries', etc. But it seems different on Shopify as the variants each have their own inventory number. 

Thanks in advanced for tips.

Accepted Solution (1)

Helen
Shopify Staff (Retired)
1425 174 285

This is an accepted solution.

Hi, @newwavepool!

 

I’m Helen from Shopify Support. Welcome to our Community.

 

This is a great question. You can offer add-ons to specific products, and there are two ways to do it.

 

The first way is to create a product for your cameras and have the add-on items set up as variants for that one product. For example, you will have a variant for batteries and apply a price to the battery variant. You will also have a second variant set up for film, and apply a price to the film variant. It will look like this on your storefront:

 

11-26-0jlnw-fe5hs

 

 

However, as you have identified, there is a consideration with this method in terms of inventory. If you are using Shopify to track your inventory, then it is tracked per variant, and not by the main item. For example, the refurbished camera with no batteries and one roll of film would have an inventory quantity associated with it. While the same refurbished camera with batteries and no film, would have a separate inventory quantity associated with it.

 

If this poses an issue to the way your business tracks inventory, there is a second way to set this up. You will use a third party app which allows for each component to be considered individually. You would have a separate product set up in Shopify for: the camera, the batteries and the film. Then, as a product is added on, the inventory would adjust for each. I recommend any of these apps for this method:

 

 

Each app has a trial period, so feel free to add them to your store to determine which one works best for you. Uninstalling an app before the trial period ends will ensure that you do not get billed for it, and any questions you have about the functionalities of the app and how to set it up are best directed towards the app developers directly. You can find instructions on how to contact them here.

 

Have you already created an account with Shopify? We do offer a 14 day free trial, which is a great time to use to work with the apps and get familiar with the platform. 

 

If you have questions about anything else, let me know.

 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

View solution in original post

Replies 14 (14)

Helen
Shopify Staff (Retired)
1425 174 285

This is an accepted solution.

Hi, @newwavepool!

 

I’m Helen from Shopify Support. Welcome to our Community.

 

This is a great question. You can offer add-ons to specific products, and there are two ways to do it.

 

The first way is to create a product for your cameras and have the add-on items set up as variants for that one product. For example, you will have a variant for batteries and apply a price to the battery variant. You will also have a second variant set up for film, and apply a price to the film variant. It will look like this on your storefront:

 

11-26-0jlnw-fe5hs

 

 

However, as you have identified, there is a consideration with this method in terms of inventory. If you are using Shopify to track your inventory, then it is tracked per variant, and not by the main item. For example, the refurbished camera with no batteries and one roll of film would have an inventory quantity associated with it. While the same refurbished camera with batteries and no film, would have a separate inventory quantity associated with it.

 

If this poses an issue to the way your business tracks inventory, there is a second way to set this up. You will use a third party app which allows for each component to be considered individually. You would have a separate product set up in Shopify for: the camera, the batteries and the film. Then, as a product is added on, the inventory would adjust for each. I recommend any of these apps for this method:

 

 

Each app has a trial period, so feel free to add them to your store to determine which one works best for you. Uninstalling an app before the trial period ends will ensure that you do not get billed for it, and any questions you have about the functionalities of the app and how to set it up are best directed towards the app developers directly. You can find instructions on how to contact them here.

 

Have you already created an account with Shopify? We do offer a 14 day free trial, which is a great time to use to work with the apps and get familiar with the platform. 

 

If you have questions about anything else, let me know.

 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

UkeTastic
Visitor
3 0 0

Thank you, useful information. I imagine now with the bundles app from shopify. It can be used in the same way. I am thinking of displaying bundles, with added items, bit then keeping the product item as draft and not active in my store. Hopefully this also might work. 

PdW

cchaffin
Visitor
1 0 0

Hi!  Your question about the add-ons that aren't available separately is something I'm very interested in.  I found your store on Shopify and see that you do have add-on options and I'm wondering if you used one of the recommended apps in the solution here and if you are happy with the results?  I do not want to have the individual products available for sale alone, but would like to offer them as add-ons only after another product is selected, while also being able to keep an inventory of those add-ons.  (the same add on would be available on more than one other Product purchase, so it is very important that I be able to control how many total I have, and have sold to avoid overselling).

 

I appreciate any assistance you are able to provide and value your recommendation.

Helen
Shopify Staff (Retired)
1425 174 285

Hi, @cchaffin

 

I wanted to chime in here to let you know of a few other app options that may be a better fit for what you are describing. Since you are looking for giving your customers the option to add another product in addition to the one they’ve already chosen, I recommend using one such as:

These apps work more as an upsell, so you can use them to provide the option of additional products, or related products. Whichever works best for your business. 

 

What types of products and add-ons are you selling in your store?

 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

VireSabers
Tourist
3 0 4

Why is this not a standard feature with Shopify?

If I have an item, and I want to give customers the option to easily upgrade or add something minor TO that item, why would I have to have seperate inventory?

What if I only have one item left, but still want to give people all the options?

I understand there are apps that will allow this, but why should I pay extra for something so basic?

Helen
Shopify Staff (Retired)
1425 174 285

Hi, @VireSabers. Thanks for expressing your concerns. 

 

Shopify is a continually evolving platform. We appreciate all inquiries and suggestions and use them towards improving the platform so that our merchants and their customers can have an optimal experience. Therefore, I have submitted your feedback to our developers on your behalf; The Shopify Changelog is a great place to stay current on all the recent updates to the platform.

 

Let me know if I can help with anything else!

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

shopcami
Explorer
49 0 18

Hello,

I also want to ensure that customers do not purchase a product on its own. I only have two products (I plan on providing a simple printing service) and so the additional product can only be purchased if product 1 is also purchased. Has Shopify found a way to achieve this yet?

Helen
Shopify Staff (Retired)
1425 174 285

Hello, @shopcami! I appreciate you contributing to this thread.

 

This feature has not currently been integrated onto the platform, and so I have passed along your feedback to our developers so they are aware of how you would benefit from this. Remember to keep an eye on the Shopify Changelog for all upgrades to the platform; Hopefully we’ll see this on there too one day. 

 

In the meantime, from what I gather from your description, the third party app SellUp may be more aligned with your needs. It allows you to set up rules per product. So, only once a specific product is added to cart, will your customer be prompted with the ‘add ons’ that are available. Take a look at the example website the developer created to see it in action. 

 

Let me know what you think!

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

shopcami
Explorer
49 0 18

Thank you for that app but the upsell product will require that a file be uploaded. It seems that app does not work with the uploadlift app.

https://printmylabel.ca/ password: camishop

 

Helen
Shopify Staff (Retired)
1425 174 285

Thanks for providing a link to your store, @shopcami. I see what you mean. As far as I know, those two apps do not work with each other. Therefore, what I recommend you do as a next step if you are interested in using SellUp, is to reach out to the app developers directly. Let them know what you are trying to accomplish and that you are also using the UploadIt app. They may have a solution to help with the integration so that their app can be used alongside UploadIt

 

Let me know what you find out!

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

kmurphy220
Visitor
1 0 0

Hiya! I was wondering if there was a more concise solution to this. I'm looking to sell radios, and cameras, and other retro items with additional batteries, and records and more in kits, similar to the Etsy variation style. I'll only have one item, but want to add the battery, film, and the records, as well. I'm currently setting up my shop and can't seem to find the best option. To be more concise, I'd like to sell an item with three options. Radio, Radio+Battery, Radio+Battery+Cassette or Record. Any info or help with this would be excellent!

Helen
Shopify Staff (Retired)
1425 174 285

Hey, @kmurphy220. Welcome to the Community!

 

The most concise way to do this, without the use of any third party apps, would be to set up variants for your add on option. So, using your example, you would create a product for your Radio, then an option entitled something like ‘Add-ons’ with the following option values, and your customer would then have to choose one of these variants before adding to cart.

 

04-42-30066-15669

 

 

Of course a main consideration to this as discussed previously in this thread is Inventory, since the built in functionality is that each variant is assigned it’s own inventory, and not the main product itself. So technically if you had more than one customer purchasing at the exact same time, you could end up over selling 4 separate Radios with and without add-ons, when really there is only one Radio available. Do you know what I mean?

 

This is when a third party app comes into play. With an app like Product Addons, the Radio, Batteries, Cassette and Record would each have separate inventories, could be added to cart from one main product page, and would prevent overselling.

 

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions or would like to continue to discuss further.

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

Crotheram28
Tourist
8 0 1

Hello,

did you ever find a solution to this as I am facing the same problem!

thanks

 

Kornelius
Visitor
2 0 1

Hi,

This can be done out of the box in Shopify by hiding it from the "all" collection and hiding it from the search / seo queries.
Detailed explanations are provide from this person here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQGTvHbwDDg