What Are Components?

A 'Component' is an option, or set of options, for a product that can affect one of the following:

·      The price the customer pays online

·      The stock levels of products within your store when the order is retrieved

·      Both

This is different from just having an attribute and choices within a product (see Creating Choices) as these have no affect on price or stock.

To create a component, select the product that you would like to create a component within and do one of the following:

·      Right-click and select 'New Component'

·      Press [Ctrl + O]

·      Go to 'Edit | New Component'

You will first need to enter a name for the component. Once you have created the component, you can start to edit the properties.

You can add as many components as you need within a product.

Four Main Uses For Components

·      Selling products with other products. See Supplying Additional Items With A Product.

·      Creating an optional extra ('up-sell'/'add-on') for a product. See Supplying Additional Items With A Product.

·      Assigning prices to product options. See Making Customer Selection Affect Price and Stock Level

·      Making choices made by customers affect the stock levels in your store. See Making Customer Selection Affect Price and Stock Level.

Some real-world examples of uses for components are:

·      Supplying batteries with a toy - customers can buy the toy with the batteries, and you can monitor the stock levels of the toys and the batteries separately. For instructions on how to set up components like this, see Supplying Additional Items With A Product.

·      An optional hands-free kit with a mobile phone - you can have a checkbox that customers will click in order to select the hands-free kit. This will add to the cost of the phone, and your stock levels of your hands-free kits will be decreased when you retrieve the order. For instructions on how to set up components like this, see Supplying Additional Items With A Product.

·      A choice between a six or twelve month subscription for a magazine - customers make their selection from a list of choices, and the choice they make will add a different cost to the shopping cart. For instructions on how to set up components like this, see Making Customer Selection Affect Price and Stock Level.

·      A computer bundle where customers select the different items to build their ideal PC - customers buy a 'base-unit' for their PC and then select the monitor they want, the hard-disk they want and the amount of memory they want. This will affect the price the customer pays, and you can even monitor the stock levels of monitors, hard-disks and memory you have. For instructions on how to set up components like this, see Making Customer Selection Affect Price and Stock Level.