Grouping Variants in same inventory grouping?

[Sharon_Hepburn]

I'm having a problem tracking inventory for my roasted coffee business. I've set up my products with variants for bag size (1 lb, 2 lb, 1/2 lb,  etc) and grind (whole bean, ground medium, ground fine, etc.). The problem is, I want to group all variants by bag size for inventory purposes but not the grind.

If I sell a one pound bag, whether it's whole bean or ground a certain way, I only need to track a "one pound" bucket, not a "one pound/whole bean" or "one pound/ground" bucket. Is there a way to add an option to products that doesn't get tracked as a separate inventory item? I need customers to indicate the grind for each bag size, but I don't need to track the grind for inventory purposes. In fact since I'm not stocking inventory pre-ground (I only grind when ordered), this forces me to create inventory that's not really there and people could order more than I actually have.

My only other option is to spread all of my inventory across different grind values and then I get prematurely "sold out". I have to constantly babysit my inventory to make sure it's all spread out evenly across grinds, which is not a good solution, imo. Square can do this, but I don't like their shipping solutions. 

Yes, some customers DO order 1 lb ground Colombian and another bag that's 1 lb whole bean Colombian.  In this case, I want each bag to ding the same inventory bucket. So my inventory of 1 lb Colombian should go down by 2. They way it's set up now, separate 1 lb ground Colombian and 1 lb whole bean buckets go down by one. 

For reference, my store is https://mysticcoffeeroaster.myshopify.com/collections/roasted-coffee

Thanks for any suggestions!

[BeProfit_App]

Hi @Sharon_Hepburn - although I don't have an answer to your question, I wanted to leave this comment because I hope someone else can help. Hopefully my comment raises your post to the attention of others so you can get the answer you're looking for!

I would like to quickly mention that I'm on the team of a Shopify app by the name of BeProfit - Profit Tracker. Our app actually does allow you to create and export custom reports, which you can use to help track your inventory, plus view metrics for each product/variant.

Best of luck!

[coastalcoffee]

Has anyone figured this out? I'm losing my mind trying to find a solution to this.

I have my FB pixel set up from Shopify + it's bringing in each grind setting. I have all grind settings under the same SKU and I'm wondering if there's a way to create a group sku? Furthermore, is there a way to have only the group sku sync to FB commerce?

[PaulNewton · Accepted solution]

@Sharon_Hepburn @coastalcoffee 

Shopify native has no concept of inventory pooling, or SKU grouping.

For the backend you must use an app to reconcile and sync inventory with such schemes.

Automation apps like usemechanic let you script custom business backend logic  https://tasks.mechanic.dev/?q=sync 

An alternative for the online sales channel is if the SKUs do not actually matter or affect price is to make a single product and use line item properties to inform you of what the customer is purchasing, requiring an advanced theme customization.

[Sharon_Hepburn]

I decided that it is too expensive to pay for both Shopify and an app to track my inventory. I switched to Square, though I hate their interface. But their inventory tracking has this feature built in. 

[coastalcoffee]

With all of this being said, how can I allow for a dropdown for a grind
preference without creating a new variant? Can this be done with code
rather than paying for another app?

[coastalcoffee]

How can I create a dropdown for a grind preference without creating a new variant? Can this be done with code rather than paying for another app?

Can I hire a Shopify developer to assist with this? I'm nervous I'm going to mess something up!

[coastalcoffee]

Can I hire you to do this for me? Inventory doesn't matter and a line item with a dropdown would solve the issue!

[ian_l]

Hi @Sharon_Hepburn,

Interesting problem! Would Bundle Kit meet your needs?

Consider the case where you have a product called 'Coffee Beans' with a variant called '1 lb' which tracks the inventory of 1 lb coffee beans across grinds.

With Bundle Kit, you can create a bundle product called 'Ground Coffee Beans' with variants such as '1 lb - whole bean', '1 lb - ground medium' and '1 lb - ground fine', each specifying 'Coffee Beans - 1 lb' product variant as a bundle item.

When a bundle variant is ordered (e.g. '1 lb - whole bean'), Bundle Kit will automatically decrease the inventory of 'Coffee Beans - 1 lb' product variant, hence achieving your goal of managing inventories of coffee beans of different bag sizes across grinds.

You can try the app for free at: https://apps.shopify.com/bundle-kit

Hope this helps!

Ian

[brstcrt]

I'll leave my solution just in case. I don't think it's necessary to make grind coffee as a Variant. It is a free option. So I don't need to count it in the stock. So I made the option to select the grind through a simple dropdown list, with no linkage to the stock. For example, this video explains how to do it.