A configurable product is one of the many Magento product types the platform offers. It's called Magento configurable product since it allows customers to "configure", choose different options, such as size, colour, or material, to buy a product.
It gives people more flexibility when shopping. No wonder it's the most popular product type in Magento, you definitely need to know how to use.
So in this guide, you'll learn more about configurable products, how they work and how to set them up in your store.
Simple vs Configurable Products: What's the Difference?
People often confuse Magento simple products with configurable ones. That's why, before we get to creating configurable products, we should make this one clear.
Although they look similar at first, simple and configurable products play different roles. Besides, they influence both customer experience and backend management in different ways.
A simple product in Magento 2 is the basic product type. It represents a single item which has its own SKU (Stock Keeping Units), price, and stock details.
It doesn't provide any selectable options for a product, like size or colour. That's what makes a single product much easier to manage and set up.
This product type is ideal when you sell unique items (accessories or books) that don't need to come in different variations.
However, if you have a product in different colours or sizes you might want to create a separate simple product for each variation.
But think about how cluttered your catalogue may look, or how challenging it can be to update and describe each variation. Not to mention the negative impact it might have on customer and SEO.
e.g. you can create separate pages for the black shirt in size M, S, or L. But what if you also offer different colours? That's more than inconvenient.
So, that's the case when configurable product options come in handy. It allows customers to see all the available variations in one place and saves you ton's of time on management.
Moreover, since configurable products consist of simple ones that have separate SKUs, it's more convenient to track every single product variation.
Why Create Configurable Products in Magento 2?
When you sell products with options like colour, size, and material, configurable product feature is a must for both performance and customer experience, since it:
- Keeps your catalogue well-organised
Instead of creating several different product pages for each product variation, you can manage all variations under a single configurable product. It makes both your backend and frontend look tidy.
- Improves user experience
Customers can easily select the option they need without jumping between different pages. For example, if they want to compare the T-shirt colours, they don't need to click back and forth between pages to see the variations.
- Improves inventory tracking and management
As each variation (that is, a simple product) has its own SKU and stock level, it is easy to track inventory and avoid stock shortages.
- Simplifies product updates
Whether you need to bulk update quantity or images for just one variant, you can do so without impacting the entire configurable product. It saves time and reduces errors.
- Boosts SEO
Instead of making separate pages for each product variant, you manage just one main page. This means your SEO effort, such as keywords, backlinks, and traffic, is focused on one URL. It increases your chances of being higher in search results rather than distributing the keyword value among multiple pages.
How to Create Magento 2 Configurable Product?
At this point, with all the simple variants and options, you may think that creating Magento configurable products takes a lot of time and effort. Yet the process is quite straightforward.
However, before you start creating configurable products, make sure to create the configurable product attributesand assign them to the corresponding attribute sets.
e.g. you can create the configurable Material attribute and add it to the current Bags attribute so the customers can choose bags in different materials.
Once you do that you can start creating your product.
Step 1: Choose a product type
To create a configurable product, navigate to Catalog > Products and choose the Configurable Product option from the Add Product dropdown.
Step 2: Add the attribute set
Now it's time to select a proper attribute set for your Magento configurable product. It's a group of characteristics that define your product.
e.g. The attribute set for a bag may contain attributes like colour, size, and material, while the set for glasses may have colour, size, frame and lens attributes.
All the variations of a Magento configurable product will share the same attribute set. So, just select one out of the listed options in the corresponding field.
You can add more attributes to the attribute set if they are missing in a given list of attributes. For that just hit the Add Attribute button above.
Step 3: Fill out the required information
Once you choose the attribute set, fill out all the mandatory information, such as name, price, and SKU, as when creating a simple product.
- Product Name — defines how the product appears in the store. It helps SEO and product searches.
- SKU — helps with the inventory tracking as it's a unique identifier for a configurable product.
Note: SKU for each variation of a configurable product will be different to avoid confusion
- Price — depends on the selected variation.
Note: although this field is required for configurable products, the price will be calculated based on the price of the constituent simple products.
Don't forget to disable a product before saving the changes at this point, since the product is not ready to be published yet. You can turn it on after everything is set up.
Step 4: Complete the basic product information
Now it's time to complete other important product fields.
- Tax Class — shows whether a tax rate is applied to the product or whether it's a non-taxable one.
- Quantity — depends on the product variation in stock. You can skip this option for now.
- Stock Status — shows whether the product is in stock or out of stock.
Note: if you don't provide the information about the quantity of items, the stock status will be set to Out of Stock by default.
- Weight — is disabled for configurable products, as each variation may have a different weight.
- Category — assigns a configurable product to a special category. You can also create a new category from here.
Once you fill out all the options for the Magento 2 configurable product, click Save and configure with the configurations.
How to Add Configurations to Configurable Products?
Creating a configurable product is just the first step. Now, you need to add configurations (simple items) that your configurable product will consist of.
For that, scroll down the configurable product page and find the Configurations section. Then, press the Create Configurations button and start the 4-step product configuration process.
Step 1: Choose attributes
Select the configurable attributes customers will be able to choose from.
Note: when you remove or add an attribute, all configurations are automatically updated, and you need to recreate the current configuration manually.
You can also create new attributes by hitting the Create New Attribute button. Press Next once you complete this step.
Step 2: Pick the attribute value
After setting attributes for your Magento configurable product, move to the next step. Tick the Values for each attribute to define the product's characteristics.
e.g. if you sell T-shirts, the values for its colour attribute are blue, green and purple, while for the Size attribute, the values are XS, S, M, L, and XL.
Later on, you can rearrange the attributes using the Change Order grid to manage how your Magento 2 configurable product is displayed.
Step 3: Add images, price, and quantity
Now it's time to customise images, price, and quantity for configurable product variations. You can add new value to each product, set one value for all products, or skip any configurations for each of these options.
To understand the difference and importance of these options, let's have a closer look here and start with applying images.
When you set a single image for all SKUs, customers will see the same image for every variation of your configurable product. The size or colour they choose won't change the picture.
However, when you set a unique image by attribute to each SKU, every variation will show a unique image based on the chosen colour or size. The same logic works for both prices and quantities.
Step 4: Generate product configurations
Check all the options once you finish and press the Generate Products button. It will generate product variations for a Magento configurable product.
Step 5: Publish the product
Once the products are generated, you can change the values if needed, upload new images and publish the product as is. But don't forget to Enable it before saving.
Then check your configurable product on the frontend. Play with the options and see how they work.
Step 6: Apply configurable cart thumbnail (optional)
The last, rather optional thing to set up for the Magento configurable product is cart thumbnails.
Since a product can be of a different size, colour or material, customers might want to see the exact product they added to their cart. So instead of the general product image, a specific variation, e.g. a green M-size T-shirt, is displayed in the cart.
It helps your customer to proceed to the checkout without unnecessary hesitation. As a result, fewer people abandon their carts.
To enable this feature, go to the Stores > Settings > Configuration > Sales > Checkout > Shopping Cart. Then find the Configurable Product Image option and choose Product Thumbnail Itself.
Save the changes, and that's it. You've created a configurable product in Magento. You can now diversify your catalogue and satisfy your customers' needs with a wider set of options.
But the real challenge starts when you need to edit those products during sales or price changes. So, once you complete your catalogue set up, learn how to use mass actions in Magento or bulk update products to save time on management.
