Product Configuration & Variant Management | Brightpearl Video Lecture | Using Brightpearl: Product Management - Data & Analytics

this is the first in a series of videos
where we're looking at product variants
in Brightpearl so a product with
variations is where you've got things
like size or color to differentiate
different physical items so you've got
different inventory levels of each
combination here we have a men's t-shirt
that's available in three sizes small
medium and large and two colors which
gives a total of six combinations all of
these products in bright pearl are
created as separate records each with
the same name and because they've all
got the same name they're grouped and we
call this collection of six variations a
product group this product group the
men's t-shirt is defined by two
different options option 1 being size an
option 2 being color and because we've
got three sizes and two colors we've got
six variants and each variant has its
own SKU you can see what this looks like
in tabular format so a product group
with two options is displayed in two
dimensions Brightpearl supports product
groups with up to four dimensions and
here's an example of a product group
with four dimensions
we've got size small medium and large
we've got fit of baggy and slim we've
got two colors brown and green and then
two styles husky and wolfs so even
though there are only four options we've
actually got 18 different products in
this particular group and you can see
it's possible to have gaps in the grid
so the wolf pullover is only available
in slim it's not available in baggy we
can also see these products in list
format where the options are displayed
below or to the right of the name and
you can see how each item has got its
own inventory level here's a different
product group the men's t-shirt with six
different individual variants each of
which has got their own SKU it's a two
dimensional product group which means
it's got two options
on the right hand side I can drop into
edit variants to edit all of these items
on one screen here's where I can create
and manage the variants themselves which
is the screen we're looking at we can
edit the SKUs price list SKUs barcode we
can check inventory levels and edit
prices and see how the price of each
variant can be different
so a product group or a set of variants
is defined by product options and here
we've got the option of size and option
values of small medium and large on the
left hand side we've got the option of
color and two option values red and blue
you can create these options and the
option values on the fly as you're
creating product variants or you can
create them beforehand in the setup area
by going to the left hand side products
slash inventory product options and
option values once you've created
product options they're available for
every product you create subsequently if
you change the name of an option or
option value it'll update for all of the
products that currently use it you can
also see here how each option has got a
number of options assigned to it so here
are all the values for color and from
this screen we can see all the products
that have been assigned the brown color
by clicking on the link the important
thing to remember is that products are
grouped automatically when they are
given the same name another way of
looking at this is that when products do
share the same name you need something
to differentiate them and that's what we
use the product options for let's take a
look at an example here we've got a cone
mountain bike seat post which is
available in two different lengths we've
got two hundred and ten millimeter and
two hundred and eighty millimeter if we
actually put that information into the
product name then these two items have
got different names and they're not part
of the same product group whilst there's
nothing technically wrong with doing it
this way it gets much harder to manage
when you've got second third and fourth
options for a certain product also if
you're connecting to eBay or other
integrated sales channels it makes more
sense for your Brightpearl data
structure to match that structure on the
sales channel and most of the time
that's done with a concept that's very
similar to product variants and product
groups what we'll do here is we'll give
both of these products the same name and
then we'll assign the options so let's
edit the name to remove the attribute
and then do the same for the other one
the green message at the top of the
screen shows that bribe police now put
these two different items into a product
group but at the moment they don't have
anything to differentiate them so we
need to add variants let's click create
variants where we can choose what
differentiates them for the seatpost its
length which I don't actually have as an
option yet so let's create it on the fly
and we'll give it two values two ten
millimeter and two 80 millimeter that's
created a product group but Brightpearl
doesn't know which of these variants is
actually going to match which of your
SKUs because my SKU contains enough
information for me to identify them all
I need to do is choose the right length
here and then assign the options we've
now put those two different products
into the same product group by virtue of
them having the same name we've also
assigned an inventory attribute which is
the option of length it's worth at this
point introducing the concept of an
inventory or a variant attribute which
is different from a product attribute so
an inventory attribute defines how the
variants are different from each other
something like size color height width
and diameter a product attribute is
something that's common to all of the
variants so you shouldn't use a product
option in this case examples of product
level attributes are brand product type
the name itself specification the
category and so on product options
appear throughout Brightpearl here for
example we're looking at the inventory
summary screen where we've got a couple
of kayaks one in yellow one in blue and
some winter pullovers with various sizes
colors fits and styles when we do an
inventory query for one of these
products we're actually just looking at
that variant itself but if a product has
other variants we can flip to the
variants tab and see something we call
the grid mode where we can see the
inventory level of all of the other
variants in the same product group and
there's a separate video which talks
more about this grid mode there's a
close link between product options and
product types and here you can see we've
got a product
option called memory if I click to edit
that we can see that the option memory
is only available for default products
and for hard drives in a similar way the
option height is only available for
default products and boxes you can also
see this relationship when you edit the
product type so here if we have a look
at boxes we can see that boxes can only
be assigned to depth a height and a
width what we'll do now is we'll create
a new product with variants so start off
in the normal way by adding a new
product give it a name choose the
product type and this is important so
you can assign the right attributes
choose a brand a category don't give it
a SKU at this point because we're going
to create a product group in a second
choose your price and let's say retail
is going to be $10 whether it's taxable
or not add a description add any custom
field values and assign vendors click
Save which creates the first variant in
the group which we're going to now copy
to create further variants so click
create variants and you can see because
this is a product type of box we're only
being given depth height and width so
let's select all of those and don't
forget you can only have four options on
a product group click Next and then
choose from your existing values so
let's say we're going to have 100 and
200 on all of depth height and width and
actually we're going to have a new depth
as well so let's go with 50 millimeters
click next and what Brightpearl just
done is it's copied that first variant
11 more times to create a total number
of 12 from this screen you then drop in
to edit the SKUs or you could set them
by spreadsheet and there's a separate
video to show you how to create products
by spreadsheet and how to update
existing products by spreadsheet to
going back to the list view we can see
all of the 12 variants in this product
group in the next video we're going to
spend a little bit more time looking at
the product grid mode sometimes called
the size color matrix