Google product feed - Variant Options in Google Feed

[dlundell]

I have a question about the product page element 'Variant Options in Google Feed', described in help as:

"Shoes and Clothing Products are required to submit color and size for each variant. Check this box if this item has color, size, pattern, and/or material variants setup using either basic or advanced ordering options, then use the drop-down menu items to assign which column (color, size, material, and pattern) belongs with which variant field (1, 2, 3, or 4)."

and on the product page as:

"Shoes and clothing products are required to have color and size submitted for each variant. If this item has color, size, pattern, and/or material variants, using either basic or advanced ordering options, check the box below and then select the ordering option menu position for each variant option to be included in the Google feed."

Can someone clarify what this means (how to use the Color/Size/Pattern/Material Option Menu pull-downs)? I'm assuming it generates multiple feed entries for, say:

Small
Medium
Large

or:

Red
Green
Blue

I have plenty of products with menu entries like that, but also lots with advanced menu options that combine color and size, for inventory management purposes, for example:

Black, Small
Black, Medium
Black, Large
Red, Small
Red, Medium
Red, Large

How do I treat the Variant Options for these?

Thanks,

Don

[Jim]

With Advanced Order options you can have up to 4 different attributes for a product, for example t-shirts could have size, color, sleve length, fabric. When you create the options you will have data displayed with one row for each possible combination of the options, the row will have 4 columns, one for each of the option classes. so you would have something like
small red long sleve 100% cotton
small blue long sleve 100%cotton
small blue short sleve 100%cotton
small blue short sleve 50%cotton/poly blend

In the Variant options in the Google feed section of the product there are 4 pull downs which correspond to the 4 option classes listed in the advance options sections. Each pulldown corresponds to one of Googles required fields Color, Size, Pattern, Material . Since the options in the example above are in the order Size, Color Pattern and Material you would need to select the appropriate location for the field from the corresponding pulldown. i.e. Since the first option is Size second is Color, 3rd is pattern, 4th is material , in the pulldown for Color Option Menu you would choose 2nd. In the Size Option Menu pulldown you would choose 1st, for the Pattern Option Menu you would chose 3rd and for the Material Option Menu you would choose 4th.

[dlundell]

With Advanced Order options you can have up to 4 different attributes for a product, for example t-shirts could have size, color, sleeve length, fabric.

ok, got it.

We've got some work to do, as we'd historically added products before this option was available, and those
products also live in Stone Edge (our order manager) - so changing them in Shopsite creates an entirely new set of sub-SKUs from Stone Edge's viewpoint.

Thanks for the info,

Don

[dlundell]

One more related question... it appears that Google is now requiring both color and size attributes.

Does this mean that for products with no color options, where we've always done our menu as something like:

Small
Medium
Large

would now have to be like the following to satisfy Google's product feed requirements:

Black

Small
Medium
Large

So the advanced menu would show up as:

Black Small
Black Medium
Black Large

and the Variants would be Color Option Menu = 1st and Size Option Menu = 2nd

(even though the color really doesn't need to be in the menu, other than for Google)

Correct?

Thanks,

Don

[Jim]

Google makes the rules so you will have to check with them as to what you can do if there is no color for a product.
In ShopSite setting up the product the way you explained should work fine.