Variations Overview

Variations in SureDone are configurable by channel depending on the limitations of the channel and in some cases by the age of the integration. This guide and corresponding chart provides an overview of how variations are configured by channel:

General

In a variation relationship, there are three important things to define: the variation parent, the variants, and the variation dimension(s). 

The basic construct of managing a variation in SureDone is determined by the SKU and GUID relationship. One item in each variation will have the same SKU and GUID, and this item will be considered the variation parent. All other items in the variation will have the same SKU as the parent, but will have unique GUIDs. When posting the variation to the channel, the parent and all variants will be items available for sale. See example below illustrating a variation configured in SureDone:

From there, on the Product & Inventory settings page there is a setting called  “Variation Fields” that controls which attributes will dynamically create variation options. The attributes which define how the listing items vary are also referred to as “dimensions”. By default, a variation option set needs to contain at least one field with varying values across the variation set to use as the variation dimension. For example, a hat with SKU HAT123, and child SKUs/GUIDs of HAT345 and HAT456 would need to have unique sizes of Small, Medium and Large for SureDone to have awareness of being a variation set.

Please note that each channel works a bit differently when it comes to variations and not all channels follow this construct to define and control the variation relationship sent when posting a listing. Below is a description of the channel-specific instructions to create and manage a variation listing on that channel.

Amazon

When a variation is posted on Amazon, a dummy parent SKU is created to connect all of the variants. Amazon requires a unique SKU to be used for this parent SKU. The parent SKU on Amazon is a non-buyable product that correlates to the parent ASIN and attributes that are common to the entire listing. Since SureDone variation relationships do not require a non-buyable parent SKU, SureDone will generate this at the time of posting a variation to Amazon by adding the suffix “-AMZ” to the end of the parent SKU in SureDone (which is also one of the variants).

Defining variation relationships: There are two options to define the variants in a variation listing via SureDone. By default, SureDone will group items that have the same SKU as a single variation. When the item is posted to Amazon, all items that share the same SKU will be sent as variants available for sale. A dummy “parent” SKU will be included in the data sent to Amazon. By default, SureDone will send the parent item’s GUID (aka the SKU shared by all variants) as the parent SKU to Amazon with a suffix of -AMZ.  

This relationship may be overridden by updating the amznparentsku field with the same value on all items that should be included in the variation listing. This field requires “Force” when updating via bulk upload. When this is done, the relationship defined by sharing the same SKU value will be ignored and instead, the items with the same amznparentsku value will be sent as variants, and the amznparentsku value will be sent as the dummy “parent” SKU to Amazon. This option can be used to define a variation relationship specifically for Amazon, to connect items in SureDone to an existing variation listing, or to define the parent SKU used to a specific value.

Defining variation dimensions: The product-level VariationTheme field controls the dimension(s) for the variation that will be sent to the Amazon listing. For example, VariationTheme may be set as "Size" which will cause Size to be sent as the listing dimension, and the values in the “size” field on each variant will be shown in the Size dropdown on the listing. Amazon limits which categories support variation listings, and for the categories that do, the VariationTheme/dimension options are also limited. To determine the allowable VariationTheme values for a desired category, the category-specific XSD file available in Amazon’s developer documentation should outline this. 

While the product field VariationTheme will be used by default to define the dimension(s) for any category the item is posted to, it is possible to use a different product custom field to control this information per-category instead. This is typically only needed when posting the same item to different categories if you have multiple Amazon instances. To do this, you can map the desired custom field to VariationTheme for the desired category under Menu > Channels > Amazon > Manage Fields. 

eBay

Defining variation relationships: eBay variation management uses the native SureDone variation grouping strategy defined by shared SKUs across a group of products, as described in the General section above.

Defining variation dimensions: The native Products & Inventory setting “Variation Fields” is used to define the dimension value(s), as described in the General section above. This means that variations generally will be set up the same across multiple eBay stores managed within a single SureDone account. Despite this restriction, eBay variations are highly configurable and may contain numerous dimensions by which the items in the variation listing vary. Each item in the variation must have a unique combination of dimension values to be able to differentiate it from other items in the listing. For example, if multiple items in the listing have the same Size of “Small”, there must be another dimension where the items have unique value, such as “Color”. In this case, as long as the size small items all have different colors, the listing can be posted. Unlike Amazon, eBay has very few restrictions as to which fields can be used as dimension on your variation listings. 

However, eBay does not allow the dimensions or dimension values to be changed on an existing listing after a sale has been made. The only way to change the variation relationship on an existing eBay listing is to end and relist the variation. This would mean that updating the value in any of the fields used as variation dimensions on any variant, such as updating the field Size from “s” to “Small”, could cause errors when next trying to update the listing on eBay, as eBay would not accept the new dimension value. To help prevent these kinds of issues, SureDone will store the details of the variation, including dimensions and dimension values, in an internal field called ebayvariations and when revising the listing in the future, this data will be used in place of the current values. Listings created via SureDone will rely on the ebaysku (with Inventory Tracking by SKU enabled) to control the listing variation specifics and may have ebayvariations set for reference only.

Google / Facebook / Instagram

These channels do not have configurable variation fields and are controlled by the channels internal default field configurations (ie by Size/Color/etc). The variations sets are controlled by the native SureDone variation grouping and is not modifiable at this time.

Walmart

Walmart variation management relies on the native SureDone variation grouping strategy in combination with per category attribute requirements. Each category will have a restricted set of variantAttributeNames that control variation option values.

Etsy

Etsy variation management relies on the native SureDone variation grouping strategy in combination with per category property requirements. Each category will have a restricted set of properties that supports_variations that control variation option values.

BigCommerce

Defining variation relationships: BigCommerce listings from SureDone use the native SureDone variation grouping strategy defined by shared SKUs across a group of products, as described in the General section above.

Defining variation dimensions: The native Products & Inventory setting “Variation Fields” is used to define the dimension value(s), as described in the General section above. However, BigCommerce requires that the dimensions (or “options”) used in variation listings are first defined within the BigCommerce account before they can be used on variations. This means that the option set (aka dimension like color, size, etc) and the option values (values like red, blue, and green, or small, medium, and large) need to be set up in BigCommerce before they can be used when posting a variation from SureDone. Once they are set up on BigCommerce, the values in SureDone need to identically match in spelling, format, and capitalization. 

To accomplish this, custom fields need to be created that identically match the BigCommerce option set names. These custom fields then need to be configured in the “Variation Fields” setting. Finally, the values entered on each item in these custom fields need to identically match one of the option set values set up on BigCommerce. For example, if an option set called “Diameter” is set up on BigCommerce with the values of “20 inches”, “22 inches” and “24 inches”, this option set can be used by making sure a product custom field called “Diameter” is set up under “Variation Fields” in SureDone, and then every item in the variation needs to have either the value “20 inches”, “22 inches”, or “24 inches” in the Diameter field. 

See How Variations Work on Bigcommerce with Suredone guide for more information.

Shopify

Defining variation relationships: Variations for Shopify are defined using the native SureDone variation grouping strategy defined by shared SKUs across a group of products, as described in the General section above.

Defining variation dimensions: Shopify listings use a Shopify-specific way to define the dimension(s) for the listing. In order to designate which values the listing should vary by, the field “shopifyvariationfields” should be populated on the parent item and all children with the same list of the field names, separated by an asterisk. For example, if the listing should vary by Size (which is stored in the field named size) and Boot Style (which is stored in a field named style), shopifyvariationfields should be updated with the value “size*style”. It is important to use the correct field names for each dimension defined in shopifyvariationfields. The values to be sent for each variant will need to be defined in the designated field on each item. If any items in the variation have a blank value in one of the dimension fields defined in shopifyvariationfields, the listing will not be posted. As with all channels, Shopify requires the combination of values in all dimension fields to be unique. If the listing only varies by one dimension like Color, this means each variant must have a unique color value. If the listing varies by both Color and Size, listings can share color and size values, but the combination of the two needs to be unique for each item (for example, two items cannot be both size Small and color Red). 

Magento2

**NEEDS CONFIRMATION**

Storefront

Defining variation relationships: Variations for Storefront listings are defined using the native SureDone variation grouping strategy defined by shared SKUs across a group of products, as described in the General section above.

Defining variation dimensions: The native Products & Inventory setting “Variation Fields” is used to define the dimension value(s), as described in the General section above. Storefront supports up to 3 dimensions per listing.