Every item in your Acenda catalog has a Group. It tells Acenda, and your sales channels, whether an item is sold on its own, is one variation of a larger product, or is a bundle. When Group is set correctly, all the sizes and colors of a product appear together as one listing on your sales channels. When it isn't, variations can show up as separate listings or fail to list at all.
You'll find Group on the Details tab of every item, in the section titled Product Details, Variant Details or Kit Details (the title follows the item's current group).
The Group options: When you create an item, the Group list shows variant (item), product (group) and, if your account uses kits, kit. On an existing item's Details tab, the same choices appear as variant, product and kit. There's no "parent" option: the parent of a family of variations is a product (group).
Which setting do I use?
Standalone item (sold on its own, no sizes or colors): variant (item), with no parent assigned.
Parent of a family (for example, one T-shirt that comes in several sizes and colors): product (group). It holds the shared details and isn't sold by itself.
One variation (for example, the Small, Red T-shirt): variant (item), assigned to its product (group).
Bundle or kit (several items sold together as one): kit. Its stock comes from its components.
Good to know: A product (group) isn't sellable, so it has no barcode, Pricing tab or Inventory tab. Prices and stock live on each variant. You can also edit them for the whole family from the product's Variants tab.
Standalone items
A standalone item is a variant (item) that isn't assigned to any product. For example, a book with no variations, such as The Great Gatsby.
In the sidebar, under CATALOG, click Items, then click the view (eye) icon on the item's row to open it.
On the Details tab, check that Group is variant. If it isn't, click the pencil (Edit) icon next to Group, choose variant, then click the save icon (Save Changes).
Open the Parents tab. It should say This variant is not assigned to a product. If a parent is listed and the item should sell on its own, click the remove icon next to that parent.
Products with variations
A family of variations has two parts:
The product (group): the parent. It holds the shared name, brand, description and images, and ties the variations together.
The variants (items): the versions a customer actually buys. Each one has its own SKU, barcode, price and stock.
Example: A "Company Logo T-Shirt" comes in two sizes (Small, Medium) and two colors (Red, Blue). That's one product (group) and four variants: Small Red, Medium Red, Small Blue and Medium Blue.
Option A: Create the product and its variants together
In the sidebar, under CATALOG, click Items, then click + New Item.
Enter the Name (for example, Company Logo T-Shirt), set Group to product (group), and enter a SKU for the parent. The barcode fields are greyed out because a product (group) doesn't have its own barcode.
In the Variants section, click Add option. Enter an Option name (for example, size), then type each value in Option values and press Enter after each one (Small, Medium).
Click Add option again for a second option (for example, color with Red and Blue). A table appears with one row for each combination.
Enter the Price, SKU and UPC for each row.
Click Save. Acenda creates the product (group) and one variant for each row. The variants are already assigned to the product, and the option names are added to the product's Product Options.
For the full walkthrough, see Creating New Products Using the Admin Panel.
Option B: Group items that already exist
In the sidebar, under CATALOG, click Items, then click the view (eye) icon on the row of the item you want as the parent.
On the Details tab, click the pencil (Edit) icon next to Group, choose product, then click the save icon (Save Changes).
A Product Options section now appears on the Details tab. Add the attributes your variations differ by, such as size and color, using the same field names your variants use for those values.
Open each variation. On its Details tab, check that Group is variant and that its option values (for example, size and color) are filled in under Additional Attributes.
On the variation's Parents tab, click Assign parent, search for the product by name or SKU, select it, and click Assign Parent. Repeat for each variation.
Go back to the product and open its Variants tab. Every variation should be listed, with its option values shown as filters at the top.
Tip: To add a variant to a product, or take it out, use the variant's Parents tab. The product's Variants tab is for checking the family and editing each variant's price and per-warehouse quantity in one place.
Kits
A kit is a bundle of other items sold together as one, such as a gift set. Set Group to kit, then choose its components on the Kit Configuration tab. Acenda works out the kit's stock from its components, so you don't enter kit inventory by hand.
The kit option only appears if kits are turned on for your account. For setup steps, see Creating Kits and Bundles in Acenda.
Setting Group in bulk with an import
To set up many items at once, use these columns in your import file:
group: enter product, variant or kit.
group_skus.0: on each variant row, enter the SKU of its product (group). Leave it blank for standalone items.
options.0, options.1: on each product (group) row, enter the attribute names the variants differ by (for example, color and size).
Important: The product (group) must already exist in Acenda before a variant can be linked to it, so import your parents first, then your variants. If your file includes a group_skus column, each variant's parent is replaced with what's in the file, so a blank cell removes that variant's existing parent.
For file format and upload steps, see Using the Import Feature: How to Import Product Data into Acenda.
Changing an existing item's Group
You can change Group on the Details tab at any time, but it changes how the item is sent to your sales channels. A few changes are blocked to protect your data:
A variant that's a component of a kit can't change group until you remove it from the kit.
A kit can't change group until you delete its kit configuration. You'll see a warning asking you to confirm.
An item can't become a kit if it already has inventory entered for it.
Before you change a live item: Switching a selling variant to product removes its Pricing and Inventory tabs and stops it being sent as a sellable item. If you're turning a product back into a variant, move its variants to another parent first. If the item is already live on a channel, contact Acenda Support before you switch so we can check how the channel will handle the change.
Group changes are sent to your channels with the next scheduled update (for Target+, usually within an hour).
Target+ terms
Target uses its own names for these settings: Variant Parent (VAP) is a product (group), Variant Child (VC) is a variant assigned to a product, and Standalone (SA) is a variant with no parent.
Target also needs a Variation Theme on the parent: the Variation Attributes (such as size and color) that set the children apart. Every child needs a different combination of those values. See Managing Variant Groupings on Target+ for details.
Troubleshooting
Variations show as separate listings on a channel: Check that each one has Group set to variant and is assigned to the same product on its Parents tab. The listing regroups with the next scheduled update.
The parent shows up as a sellable item: Its Group is set to variant instead of product. Read Changing an existing item's Group above before you switch it.
"Duplicate theme combination": Two or more variants in the same family have the same values for the variation attributes (for example, both are size Medium and color Red). Give each variant a unique combination, or add another attribute that tells them apart. The error often suggests one.
"Parent variation type is VAP but no variation theme on parent": The parent has no Variation Theme. See How to Resolve the "Parent variation type is VAP but no variation theme on parent" Error.
No Pricing or Inventory tab on a product: This is expected. A product (group) isn't sold itself. Set price and stock on each variant, or from the product's Variants tab.
Product Options is missing: It only appears when Group is product. Save the Group change first.
A product (group) isn't listing anywhere: Check its Variants tab. A product with no variants assigned has nothing to sell.
No kit option in the Group list: Kits aren't turned on for your account. Contact Acenda Support to ask about kits.
Checking a family on a channel: Open the item's Channel Status tab. There's one tab per channel, named after your channel (for example, the Target+ tab, or whatever you've named your Target+ channel).
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Still stuck? Contact Acenda Support and tell us the SKU of the product (group) and the sales channel involved.