What is a product group?
A product group in Zentail is a set of products that are the same except for one or more pivot attributes. For example, a set of T-Shirts that have the same design but are available in different sizes and colors. For the group of T-Shirts, we say this group pivots on Size and Color.
Product groups in Zentail can be sent to sales channels as variation listing. Each channel has a different name for this concept, see the table below:
Sales Channel | Variation Listing Name |
Amazon | |
Walmart | |
Target | |
eBay | |
Shopify | |
BigCommerce |
How to create product groups
Please refer to this article for more on this: How to Create and Manage Product Groups
Glossary of Grouping Terms in Zentail
There are some terms that are helpful to know when talking about groups in Zentail.
Term | Definition | Notes |
Group | A collection of SKUs in Zentail | SKUs need to be grouped in Zentail in order to send to a channel as a variation listing |
Pivot Attributes | A collection of one or more attributes that define the main way each SKU in a group is unique, for example size and/or color. We say a group "varies" by their pivot attributes | Some channels have limited attributes that are valid to vary by, and this could change per product type. All SKUs in a group must have a unique value for each combination of pivot attributes, otherwise you will get a "duplicate variant error" |
Master SKU | This is a SKU in Zentail that defines the collection of SKUs. All SKUs in a group have the same Master SKU | The Master SKU is one of the SKUs in the group, and is a sellable SKU. You must use the Master SKU column when adding or removing a SKU from a group via import |
Group Label | This is another way of seeing the group relationship in Zentail | The group label is not what you use to add SKUs to a group or remove SKUs from a group. It is generally autogenerated from the Master SKU in the format "GROUP_<Master SKU>" It can be sent to channels. You can change this value in import, QuickEdit or Bulk Actions via the Group Label field. |
How grouping information is sent to channels
Channel | Channel grouping attribute | Attribute in Zentail | Override | Note |
Amazon | Parent SKU | Group Label | Amazon Parent SKU Override | Default sent as "Group_<Master SKU>+P+" |
Walmart | Variant Group ID | Product ID of Master SKU | N/A | Currently uneditable, might change with omnispec |
Target | VAP | Group Label | N/A |
|
eBay | Listing SKU | Group ID | N/A | This is a long alpha-numeric string not available to see on the UI |
Shopify | Product SKU | Master SKU | N/A | Sent as "Master SKU--listing" |
BigCommerce | Product SKU | Master SKU | N/A | Sent as "Master SKU--listing" |
How to manage specific variant overrides, title, bullet points
The ability to have unique values for bullet points, description, etc depends on the channel. Also the ability to override the different values varies by the channel as well. See the tables below for more information.
Title, Variant Title
Channel | Zentail Attribute | Channel Attribute | Override Attribute | Notes |
Amazon | Title | item_name.value (on parent SKU) | N/A | This is the parent title, it will always use the title or override on the Master SKU |
Amazon | Variant Title | item_name.value | Amazon Title Override | This is the child title |
Walmart | Variant Title | Product Name | Walmart Title Override | There is no parent title, only children titles |
Target | Title | Parent Title | Target Plus Parent Title Override | This is the VAP title |
Target | Title | Product Name | Target Plus Product Name Override | This is the VAP title |
Target | Variant Title | Product Title | Target Plus Product Title Override | This is the VC/child title |
eBay | Title | Title | eBay Title Override | There is no child titles, only a parent title |
Shopify | Title | Title | Shopify Title Override | This is the parent title, the variant titles will always have the pivot attributes added to the end* |
BigCommerce | Title | Title | BigCommerce Title Override | This is the parent title, the variant titles will always have the pivot attributes added to the end* |
*see section on our Listing Splits feature for more information
Description
Channel | Zentail Attribute | Channel Attribute | Override Attribute | Notes |
Amazon | Description | Description | Amazon Description Override | This will override the variant descriptions, parent description uses the Master SKU description override |
Walmart | Description | Description | Walmart Description Override | Only variant descriptions |
Target | Description | Description | Target Description Override | Can only override variant descriptions |
eBay | Description | Description | eBay Description Override | Cannot have unique descriptions per variant |
Shopify | Description | Description | Shopify Description Override | Cannot have unique descriptions per variant* |
BigCommerce | Description | Description | BigCommerce Description Override | Cannot have unique descriptions per variant* |
*see section on our Listing Splits feature for more information
Bullet Points
Channel | Zentail Attribute | Channel Attribute | Override Attribute | Notes |
Amazon | Bullet Point1, Bullet Point2, etc | Bullet Points | Bullet Override 1 / Amazon Bullet Points Value Override | Cannot override group bullet points separately, only variant bullet points, unclear if Bullet Override 1 is available in QE/import? Unclear how to properly set Bullet Points Value Override for new stuff, maybe old stuff works for new stuff |
Walmart | Bullet Point1, Bullet Point2, etc to Bullet Point5 | Key Features | Bullet Override 1 / unsure | Only variant bullet points, unclear if Bullet Override 1 is available in QE/import? Unclear how to properly set Key Features Override for new stuff, maybe old stuff works for new stuff |
Target | Bullet Point1, Bullet Point2, etc | Bullet Feature 1, Bullet Feature 2, etc to Bullet Feature 15 | Target Plus Bullet Feature 1 Override, etc to 15 | Cannot be unique per child, if you want to add more than 5 bullet points use overrides |
eBay | Bullet Point1, Bullet Point2, etc | Description | N/A | Bullet points are added to the description and cannot be unique per variant |
Shopify | Bullet Point1, Bullet Point2, etc | Description | N/A | Bullet points are added to the description and cannot be unique per variant* |
BigCommerce | Bullet Point1, Bullet Point2, etc | Description | N/A | Bullet points are added to the description and cannot be unique per variant* |
How to manage swatch images
some things important to know
You cannot set Target swatch attributes, Target automatically sets them and you need to open a case with Target to change them
Zentail automatically creates a swatch image from the primary image for each variant
Adding and removing shared attributes
When you have a product group there are two levels of attributes, the shared listing quality attributes which are the set of attributes that are the same for all the SKUs in the group, and the variant listing quality attributes which are unique per SKU in the group.
When you add a pivot attribute to a group, Zentail will automatically detect similar listing quality attributes to that pivot attribute and remove those from the shared listing quality attributes. For instance if a set of tables is varying by size then Zentail will allow the display length to be set uniquely on each variant. However sometimes there are additional attributes you want to set uniquely on each variant that are not automatically added to the variant listing quality attributes.
In order to remove an attribute from the "Share Attributes" set you can use the "Remove Shared Attribute" column in an import, QuickEdit or Bulk Actions. You will need to use the backend field value. The easiest way to get this is in the advanced filter option in QuickEdit or import click the "Insert Field Name" button, search for your attribute, select it and then the field value will be added to the formula. See the example for "Active Ingredients"
Generally the pattern is the attribute is all lower case and has "_" instead of spaces.
When doing this in Bulk Actions make sure to wrap the attribute in quotes, e.g. "active_ingredients" with the quotes.
If you want to remove multiple attributes from the shared set at a time, use multiple columns of "Remove Shared Attribute", do not comma separate the attributes in the same column.
Listing splits - what they are and how to set them
https://help.zentail.com/en/articles/4274509-how-to-manage-different-variations-using-listing-splits