Magento 2 is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms a lot of merchants prefer because of the wide range of aspects it covers. Yet, one of its strongest sides is the variety of product types it allows to create. They may seem rather complicated at first.
So, if you are just getting to know Magento or want to refresh your knowledge of Magento 2 product types, keep reading.
In this article, you'll find concise, but informative definitions of 6 product types in Magento 2, review examples, and learn how to manage them easily.
Let's waste no time and see what Magento product types are about!
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Magento Product Types
As we mentioned, Magento 2 offers 6 product types for you to opt for. All of them help to create a more diverse catalogue and give you more flexibility to implement your ideas. Let's have a look at each product type in particular to better understand its specifics.
Simple Product
A simple product is the most essential Magento product type. It is a physical product that has weight and a unique SKU. The simple product has no variations for customers to choose from, except for quantity.
That is why it is most commonly sold as part of other Magento 2 products.
e.g. as example below shows, there are no options for customers to choose from since this bag comes in a fixed colour, size, weight, and material. The only thing you can choose is the quantity.
Simple products may be a part of:
- Grouped product
- Bundle product
- Configurable product
Configurable Product
A configurable product is a product that consists of multiple simple products with customizable size, colour, material, and weight options. For every simple product, there is a unique SKU generated. So it is easy to keep track of the inventory.
It is the most popular and widely used Magento 2 product type since it allows you to create a neat and diverse catalogue.
e.g. the jacket below consists of Blue XS Juno Jacket, Blue XL Juno Jacket, Green L Juno Jacket, and other simple products. Thus, customers can choose the combination that fits their requirements best.
This Magento 2 product type is not associated with any other type since it is already composite.
Grouped Product
A grouped product is a Magento 2 product that consists of several simple or virtual products that can be purchased as a group or separately. Interestingly, grouped products have no price since every child product has its own.
That said, this Magento product type has no customizable options, except for Quantity which correspondingly defines the price of the product.
Grouped products are usually used in sales and promotions to encourage customers to buy a group of related products and save some money.
e.g. in a set of yoga straps below, you have 6-, 8-, and 10-foot straps at your disposal. So, you can choose to buy all of them or remove certain elements. The price will vary based on the items you select.
Grouped products may consist of:
- Simple products
- Virtual products
Bundle Product
A bundle product, as the name implies, is a set of products sold in a bundle. This Magento product type consists of simple and virtual products with customizable options. So, customers can build their own products by choosing from product options such as size, weight, price, etc.
Unlike in the grouped product, in a bundle customers can select different product variations, but can not exclude any items from the bundle.
e.g.the price of this Yoga Kit varies from $61.00 to $77.00. There might be different sizes, materials, and lengths of these bundle items that correspondingly have different prices.
Bundle products may consist of:
- Simple products
- Virtual products
Downloadable Product
A downloadable product is a Magento 2 product that can be downloaded. It is a digital product such as software, applications, music files, videos, ebooks, etc. When creating downloadable products in Magento you can provide free samples, except for the actual product.
e.g. our Magento 2 Extensions are a great example of a product you can download, install, and use in your environment.
The downloadable products do not have any constituent elements and thus are not associated with other Magento product types.
Virtual Product
A virtual product is a non-tangible item that has no material form and cannot be obtained physically. Since virtual products have no physical presence, they cannot be downloaded, shipped, or delivered.
Memberships, subscriptions, services, or warranties are common examples of this Magento product type.
e.g. our Magento 2 Services represent virtual products that have no customizable options to choose from. They also cannot be downloaded.
Virtual products may be a part of:
- Grouped products
- Bundle products
How to Manage Magento 2 Products?
Now you know what product types Magento offers and how each of them works. So, what comes next? Magento also offers an easy and convenient product management interface. This is another aspect to be covered.
In Magento 2 products are managed in Catalog > Products. The main components of the product management page are:
- Product Search where you can look for some products by the keyword.
- Actions select box where you can make mass changes to selected products.
- Product Selector that helps you select all products at once or all products on the page instead of checking them in the grid manually.
- Product Grid where the information about the products is displayed.
- The Add Product button you press to select the product type to create.
- Product Filters you use to get a collection of products by certain features.
- Product grid Columns that display particular product attributes you can add to the grid.
Note: sometimes you don't see your custom or any other attribute in the Columns flyout menu. Just make sure you have enabled the Add to Column Options option when creating product attribute and it will appear in the grid.
Best Tools for Effective Product Management
If you think that once you create products in Magento 2 the hardest part is behind, prepare yourself.
Assigning products to categories, editing product information, and removing products from categories take much more time, especially if you have an extensive catalogue. The default functionality may not always be sufficient and effective enough.
But no worries!
With the following extensions, you will be able to manage products in Magento 2x times faster.
Magento 2 Extended Product Grid & Mass Actions
Usually, to edit product information you have to go through a long process:
1. Catalog > 2. Products > 3. Find Product > 4. Go to Product Page > 5. Edit Product > 6. Go Back to Product Grid > 7. Find Another Product > 8. Repeat.
What if we told you that the product editing process could be reduced to only 4 steps, no matter how many products you have to edit?
Magento 2 Extended Product Grid & Mass Actions extension enables you to edit products directly from the grid. You can filter products by category, change product attributes in bulk and edit individual or multiple products. Besides, you can customize the grid as per your needs by dragging and dropping columns and saving grid templates.
Magento 2 Dynamic Category
Creating categories in Magento 2 is not that complicated. However, it gets rather time-consuming when you need to constantly add and remove products from categories.
When the product is no longer on sale you have to remove it from the Sale category. The products cannot be in the New category for a long time, so you add and remove products manually when that "Is New From/To Date" expires. Product rating changes and you, correspondingly have to manually manage the Most-rated category.
Magento 2 Dynamic Category solves that problem. As the name implies, this extension adds products to categories automatically without you having to do that manually. You only need to configure the dynamic category rules and the entire process will be automated.
Hopefully, now you have a clearer understanding of Magento 2 product types and their management basics. With so many flexible resources at hand, you can surely find the best fit for your catalogue. When skillfully combined, built-in options and additional solutions can bring remarkable results.
