How can I manage both product and variant SKU's for accurate inventory tracking?

[edsg]

Currently, when you enter variants into products, the variant SKU's override the product SKU's. Its very helpful to have different variant SKU's but what about when both the products SKU and the variant SKU needs to be pulled for accurate inventory? There is not currently a system wide solution. Our work around has been a bundle app but it forces us to build a ton of bundles to include each variants so that both the products and variant SKU's gets pulled out of inventory. This is extremely time consuming and cumbersome. 

An easy solution, if Shopify added it, would be to allow the product SKU to still be entered even after adding variants and then give the user the option to have the variant SKU override the product SKU or have both SKU's included so the inventory stays accurate. 

Am I missing something? Is there an app or add on or widget I can use to solve this problem?

[tobebuilds]

Hi Edsg,

It sounds like there are many manual steps in your inventory process, so I can understand why you might be frustrated.

I’m interested to learn more about how you track inventory. Can you walk me through what that process currently looks like for you?

Here's what I'd like to understand:

1. Can you tell me why both the product SKU and the variant SKU need to be pulled for accurate inventory? It sounds like there's a special relationship between product and variant SKUs in your business.
2. When did you decide to use an app to solve this problem, and why did you decide to use a bundle app?
3. It sounds like you're using the bundle app to make Shopify associate variants with their product SKUs. How did you set this up? Do your bundle products have multiple SKUs, or something else?
4. When you say, "allow the product SKU to still be entered even after adding variants," where are you entering SKUs? Is there a specific page in the Shopify admin where you're doing this? And when do you enter these SKUs?

If you can provide me with this information, it'll go a long way towards helping me figure out the best way for you to track inventory.

Thanks,

Tobe

[edsg]

Hey Tobe, thanks for your interest in our problems and your questions. I will try to explain it as best I can but if you find you need further explanation, I would be happy to try again. I will admit, I am new to the shopify software and all it has to offer so I could be missing something or not knowing its capabilities.

We sell commercial doors and frames along with some accessories. Some of these products we have to weld and a lot of them require boring for the door handles or other types of assembly to prepare them for our customers.

Let me give you two examples to help understand our issue. One of them seems to be solved and the other I am still solving but both are a bit of a headache at the moment.

We sell a welded frame. That frame comes to us as 3 different parts, the header, the strike jam, and the hinge jam. Each of those parts have different SKU's when we receive them, and it is possible for a customer to purchase only 1 of those parts, though it is very rare. So, in order to accurately track that inventory, each part needs to be tracked by itself but the frame as a whole needs to look like one piece on the website. I chose to use a bundles app to accomplish this task. Conceptually the app pulls each of the 3 SKU's out of inventory and into one product for the customer to purchase. So far, this seems to work for now.

The second example is a door. Each door has its own SKU, but the door can have variants included with it that have their own SKU as well. One of these examples is a lite kit (a window). There are several options for lite kits but whichever Lite Kit they choose will have its own SKU that needs to be pulled and tracked in inventory. My thought currently is to use the bundle app for each one of those variants but as you can imagine, that a lot of bundles and products on the front end. The reason I am thinking this is our only solution is because when you add variants into a product while building the products out, there is a place to add those variant SKU's but it removes the product (door) SKU which obviously needs to be pulled from inventory along with the chosen variant SKU.

So, I am entering SKU's in the products page. Each products gets its own SKU. As soon as you add variants, it removes the products SKU and assumes the variants will now get the SKU so it allows you to add variant SKU's. I do need the variant SKU's but i also need the product SKU to be included for inventory purposes.

I am currently having to add all variants that have their own SKU's as their own products in our products list on the back end and then bundle those products (lite kits) with the door so each of the SKU's can be processed in inventory separately.

[EasifyApps]

Hi @edsg,

In your situation, I recommend a solution that's more effective than using bundle apps—Easify Product Options. This tool allows you to create bundles from existing products while keeping them separate for improved inventory management 🤗.

For instance, you can set up the main product "Doors" and designate Handles, Frames, and other accessories as custom options. Link these options to your existing products using the Add-on product feature.

• Storefront:

• App Settings: