Providing product options without creating variants

[JonArmodilo]

Hello all,

I'm looking for a way to provide product options without creating variants. We sell a product with a wide range of unique customization options and I need to be able to allow people to configure their products without using variants. I've found some apps that allow you to exceed the variant limit, but they create temporary variants at time of order. This, unfortunately, interferes with my shipping rates. No matter what options are chosen, the individual products always ship in the same box. I've added a shipping options app that gives me the ability to set specific box sizes for each product, but when the temporary variants are created it causes the app to use the default box size. My box sizes vary dramatically, so this is a significant issue. does anyone know how I can provide customization options without any use of variants? For reference, my basic product would require a minimum of 420 variants using the Shopify product section. I appreciate any help or recommendations.

[gr_trading]

Hi @JonArmodilo ,

Would you mind sharing the store URL or password if required here or via private msg.

[JonArmodilo]

Our website is www.armodilo.com.

This is live and we are conducting business using the site, I'm making adjustments and improvements in real time.

[PaulNewton]

Hello 

I've added a shipping options app that gives me the ability to set specific box sizes for each product, but when the temporary variants are created it causes the app to use the default box size.

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Double check with their support that there is not an option to set all new products to a size you dictate, or if they have an app where you could create some middleware to do the box assignment.

If not shop around for other shipping box size apps.

Beyond shipping, 

Things to know and work with:

• There is currently no price addon feature in shopify (or even negative discounts to fake that effect)
• All products are a variant, even if no options there is always a default variant in shopify.
• If a products variant options affect the price you must use variants, and or if it impacts sku's and the effects of that.
• Or if you are a developer there is custom line items through order editing,  though that can cause issues with inventory,reporting, etc same as variants generated on the fly.
• There is an upcoming bundles feature that may be another possible workaround for this shopify limitation but timeline and possibility unknown.

• If the options do not affect price use either line-item properties or cart-attributes

  https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-design/product-pages-get-customization-information-for-produ... https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-design/cart-use-cart-attributes-to-collect-more-information/...

Notice in this you could use multiple products to "represent" component prices.

Or just generate a standalone-product for every variation and build the frontend to get the customer the correct product. (aka product-families aka flat-product-model there are some posts on the forums about this which is often used for multi-channel or SEO purposes).

It can be an ordeal to create a UI for associating products as subfeatures of another product especially past the first option (i.e. color then size ) . But the gist is set every sku to be it's own product with tags or metafields of it's attributes then put sets of related products "options" under a collection of that name of that product line the heavily customize either the collection template or product template to present the options.

[JonArmodilo]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for replying. I understand that all products, even if there is only a single option are technically a variant. The issue is that if I allow my customers to have the full customization options required for our products, we run into issues with app conflicts. What I'd like to do is have some basic choices made upfront, and then have a final, no cost, configuration option at the checkout/cart screen. I did some reading and it looks like potentially this is possible, but I can't seem to find an app for it and it may require modification to the liquid code (I think, but I'm not 100% certain). Does that clarify my inquiry somewhat? I really do appreciate the input and thank you for taking the time to respond.

[JonArmodilo]

Sorry Paul, you actually linked to the exact article I had found about cart attributes. So it looks like that is my solution and I just need a developer to help me implement this.

[gr_trading]

Hi @JonArmodilo 

Please help in finding the box option for your product.

[JonArmodilo]

I don't have the element I'm trying to implement set up yet. I've just built it this morning and am reading a tutorial on how to implement it.

[gr_trading]

Ok, Let me know if you are willing to hire someone for the same.

[gr_trading]

Hi @JonArmodilo 

Thanks for sharing the URL but im not able to find the product where box option available to select.

Request you to share product url or screenshot if any specific variant or option required to enable box option.

[jhsnyc1]

Hi, maybe already resolved. Came across your post seeking info on creating multi color options with creating multi-duplicate variants and figure maybe this link could help resolve your issue though: https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-design/product-pages-get-customization-information-for-produ... its about using custom fields for additional product info etc. xx J