Need to have multiple products pull from single inventory pool

[aubreyd]

We are about to embark on tracking our product inventory through Miva.

While most of our products fit within the straightforward Miva inventory tracking functions, we have several that are a bit different.

For these products (let's call them Parent Products) we need to be able to set up a single inventory pool which then feeds multiple Child Products. The Parent Products must be hidden on the customer side and not available for viewing, purchase, etc. These Parent items will only be used for inventory control via the Admin interface and, ideally, should be located in their own Inventory Control Items category.

The customer will only be able to view and shop from the series of Child Products.

The Parent Products will each typically have four sizes (ie S,M,L,XL).

The goal is to have the store set up so that when sales of Child Product A depletes the inventory level of the Parent Product, then all of the Child Products (A,B,C,D, etc) also show as out of stock or backordered or whatever settings we choose to use.

Then, when the Parent Product inventory is replenished, all of the associated Child Products are available for purchase.

We've tried setting up a Parent Product with the four associated size attributes but when that Parent inventory attribute to the Child Products it doesn't work.

Any thoughts, input, direction, or advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

[Brennan]

Re: Need to have multiple products pull from single inventory pool

Are these "child products" attributes of a product or are they themselves individual products?

If they are attributes you can simply map the inventory variant for each of the child products to the same part product. This will make it so all inventory is pulled from the same product/inventory.

[aubreyd]

Re: Need to have multiple products pull from single inventory pool

Brennan,

Thank you for the response.

The Parent Product (thread types) and the individual Child Products (shotgun types) are actually the same product, offered to the customer by shotgun type since that is the way they will be shopping for them.

For example, Parent Product MobilChoke 12g will fit multiple shotgun make/model combinations (Child Products in my scenario above) ie Benelli Nova, Stoeger, & Franchi. The customer doesn't necessarily know what choke type they need, but they do know what their shotgun type is.

I need to have a way for all of those Child Products to pull from the Parent Product inventory pool because they are, in reality, the same product.

[Brennan]

Re: Need to have multiple products pull from single inventory pool

Do you have a link to an example product I can look at. I'm having a hard time visualizing this.

[aubreyd]

Re: Need to have multiple products pull from single inventory pool

Yes, I can do that.

This is one of those issues that is difficult to explain. I know what needs to happen, just don't know how to get from point A to point B.



Here is the dev store link to the Parent Product where I need to house the inventory:

http://dev.kicks-ind.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=Kicks&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=HFMC12g

These are the dev store links to some of the Child Products that need to feed from the Parent Product inventory pool:

http://dev.kicks-ind.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=Kicks&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=HFBenMobilChoke12g

http://dev.kicks-ind.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=Kicks&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=HFBerBen12g

http://dev.kicks-ind.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=Kicks&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=HFStoegerP35012g

You'll notice that the attribute selection options are greyed out on those products. That's from me playing with Attribute Templates and variants, etc. I can certainly delete those if you need me to.

If you need Admin access to the dev store, let me know and I will PM it to you as well.

[Kent Multer]

Re: Need to have multiple products pull from single inventory pool

Instead of having multiple Child Products, you can just use the Parent for everything, and list it in multiple categories. Miva Merchant lets you list a product in as many categories as you want.

In a situation like this, instead of fiddling with the inventory computations, I'd recommend some kind of creative searching or display features. For instance, a lot of auto-parts sites have a set of three dropdown menus where you select, Make, Model, and Year; then it shows you just the products for that particular car. You could do something similar. Or if the number of shotgun models isn't too large, you could just have a page that lists them all, with links to the correct product for each one.

[aubreyd]

Re: Need to have multiple products pull from single inventory pool

Brennan,

Would it be okay if I, or our developer, contacted you directly via phone regarding this question?

[Brennan]

Re: Need to have multiple products pull from single inventory pool

Of Course. Im traveling today but I should be back in the office tomorrow.

Looking at your examples above, what you need setup should work with Miva inventory variants.

For each of your attributes you can "map" it to the correct product you have setup to store the inventory. On the parent product, check the "i" under the attributes tab. Then go into the inventory variants tab and click add variant. This will allow you to select which part product miva uses to pull inventory (and price if you want) when that specific attribute is selected.

[Mark Hood]

Re: Need to have multiple products pull from single inventory pool

If you can use your imagination this video from Rick may help

http://vimeo.com/15443795