Product types are groups of products that share the same attributes. For example, books are typically distinguished by such attributes as ISBN, author, publisher, cover type, language; apparel can be characterized by brand, season, material, etc. With the help of product types and attributes, you can specify additional information on product details pages.
Using Product Types and Attributes
Besides displaying the additional information about products in your storefront, product types and attributes can be helpful in keeping some service information about products in your Control Panel and enhancing the search in your online shop with product filters.
Select the type the attribute belongs to. Choose “Do not show” for this attribute.
Now the value that you add for this attribute will be visible in your Control Panel only. Public attributes with empty values will not be displayed in the storefront either.
Creating Product Types and Attributes
Product types
By default, all products in your catalog belong to the General type. To segment products internally, you can add as many other product types as you need and add different attributes to these types.
Example:
Type: Book Attributes: ISBN, publisher, language, age limit, cover
Type: Apparel Attributes: gender, season, material, length
To create a new product type, select “+ Add New Product Type”.
Use the search bar to find matching types in the drop-down.
Select one of the suggested product types and select “Add”.
Now you can edit the attribute fields to provide your customers with extra details about the products of this type.
Product Attributes
By default, each product type has two popular attributes:
UPC (unique product identifier which is called EAN in Europe, JAN in Japan, and ISBN for books)
Brand: You can edit their names (for example rename “Brand” to “Author” for books) and choose if you want to show them in the product details.
Use the empty attribute fields for specifying additional details about the products of this type and select “+ Add New” for extra fields.
To change the order in which the attributes will be displayed in the product details, drag and drop the fields.
When you have set up the list of attributes you are going to display, remember to save your work. Now you can assign types to the products and fill in attribute values.
Assigning Types and Attributes
Select a product to edit its details. Switch to the Attributes tab.
Select “Change type” and select the required product type.
Fill in the attribute values and select “Save”.