B2C Commerce Variation Group Guide
B2C Commerce Variation Group Guide
● Colors visible for category position, making it easier to adjust the category position of variations in your category landing pages.
● You can put the Variation Group in each category rather than slicing in each category
Product Type Color slicing which is grouping by color/size only With Variation Groups you can
merchandise by any product attribute
When using color slicing a product image represents a Variation Groups represent a product
variation product or single SKU and not all the variants for that object that represents all the variations
Inventory color. So when a product variant went out of stock, the of an attribute.
Management product or image disappeared from the storefront. As these
variant images disappeared, URL changes causing SEO
implications.
Merchandising You have to slice in each category. With Variation Groups you can put the
group in each category.
Sorting Colors are not listed in the category list to be able to Put images of a style in a specific color
manipulate order. order using category position or visual
merchandising in the Storefront with
Variation Groups
Workflow A color slice represents a single product or single SKU and A Variation Group is a product type
does not represent a product object. As a result, representing a subset of variation
merchandising is limited. For example, you can not link a color products. As a result, you now have
slice from a content slot or apply to a promotion. enhanced merchandising capabilities,
such as associating to a content slot or
promotion.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Search and locate the product page you wish to create Variation Groups for. In our example, we will be creating Variation Groups for
Long Sleeve Ruffle Front Trim Cardigan, product ID 25501032.
5. Click on Add to create the first Variation Group. If you want to name each group, then enter a name in the ID field and then create Add.
6. Select the color for this Variation Group. In this example, Fawn Heather is selected.
7. Continue until all Variation Groups have been created for all colors of the master – OR – all the colors you want to display in specific
categories.
8. Click on Apply.
9. IMPORTANT: Next click on each Variation Group ID and change Searchable to Yes and change Online to Yes.
10. While on each Variation Group. Continue on to the Categorization step.
INSTRUCTIONS
2. Assign all Variation Groups to the specific category. In our example, that will be Women > Clothing > Tops
3. When completed, review the category and you will see the Variation Groups in the category.
STEP 3: Positioning Variation Groups in a Category
Once Variation Groups are created, you can use Category position or Drag and Drop to easily reorder them in the
category page.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. While in the category list, merchandisers can add category numbers to the Variation Groups to change their position.
2. You can also use the Grid View and use Drag and Drop to reorder the Variation Groups.
3. This will allow you to easily drag and drop the Variation Groups into place.
4. When you are done merchandising, run the Product Index
5. Also if you go into the Storefront and turn on the Storefront Toolkit, you will see that the first few images in the category are actually
Variation Groups.
Variation Group Fallback
Attribute Fallback
Variation Groups have a defined fallback. Similar to a Variation Product a Variation Group inherits attributes from the
master product, e.g. name, description or SEO data and all relations (e.g. product recommendations). If the variant does
not define its own value, the value is first retrieved from Variation Groups, sorted by position. If the value is not
provided by one of the Variation Groups, the value is retrieved from the Variation Master. But divergent from slicing you
can maintain attributes at a Variation Group level. Attributes maintained at the Variation Group level for related variants
will be included in the attribute value fallback for variants. Please note that no fallback for price is provided for Variation
Groups (it takes the price (range) of the variations) and slicing will be disabled for a Product Master with a defined
Variations Group.
● Create a ‘Red’ Variation Group on the Floral Luxe Scarf and categorize it into the Scarves category.
● As you will notice when you do so, it merchandises the product nicely in the category by color variations but if you
perform a site search it appears duplicated in search suggestions as well as on the search results page.
To fix this, there is a new Search Site Preference called 'Merged Variation Groups Display Mode.' When this feature is
enabled it will display search results containing Variation Groups as merged master products. If you are interested in
using this new feature please reach out to your CSM to work with our Product team to be part of the beta.
Navigate to the Master Product ID and mark it offline and perform a re-index:
● Note, marking your Master offline could have additional implications depending on how you are merchandising
products throughout your site. If you are categorizing your master, as most clients do, you will need to take a step
back and determine a strategy of merchandising all your Variation Groups associated with the master.
Then when you perform the same search only 1 product will appear in the suggestion and it will land you on the product
detail page of the product.