We developed our Linked Products feature to account for two main scenarios: people who list the same item multiple times but under different SKUs (on Amazon for example, where you cannot use the same SKU more than once) - see separate guide on Linked Products: SKU Mapping - and those who sell multiple items as one bundle, kit or multi-pack.
Here's how Bundles work...
Let's say you have a product which is made up from multiple other products (usually referred to as a "bundle" or a "kit") or you sell different quantities of the same product as "multi-packs" - the Linked Products feature allows you to select the main bundle product and link it to the stock levels of the component products, so that when the bundle sells, the stock of the component products is reduced, and when one of the component products sells, the stock of the bundle is reduced. Clever right? :)
Things to check before you get started...
Each of the component products needs to exist separately from the main bundle, so please make sure you have imported all the products from your channels. If your component products don't already exist individually on your sales channels, you can always create a new single product or create a new variation product in ChannelGrabber.
Once linked, the main bundle will pull its stock level from all component products, so will only show the lowest available stock levels from the component products. This means you need to make sure that the stock levels of the component products is kept accurate, and then the bundle will automatically update too.
On a similar note, if you create any of your bundles using products that are fulfilled via FBA, then you need to make sure that the component items are all held in FBA and have stock available. Having the bundle SKU held in FBA will not work in this case.
Please avoid linking bundles to other bundles! Always link a bundle to a separate individual item/variation SKU that is not a bundle itself.
Let's get Linked!
1. Navigate to your main Products page:
2. Use the Search bar to find the SKU or product name of the main bundle (the item you want to link to other products):
3. Find your main bundle/multi-pack product and click the Link icon to the left of the SKU (this will remain greyed out until you have linked at least one component product):
4. A pop-up will appear to let you search for the SKU or product name of the first component product you want to link:
5. It will then show any results that match your search term, along with the current available stock level of that product. Select how many of the component product you want to add to the bundle, then click the Add link on the right:
6. If you have more component products to add, repeat this process with each of them and a list of the added items will appear at the bottom of the pop-up section, then click the Save button when you are done:
In this example, I have created a bundle which is made up from 1x Oak Table and 6x Black Leather Chairs
7. When you return to the main Products page after saving your bundle, you will see that the Link icon has now highlighted on your bundle item to show that this product is linked to the stock levels of the component products.
In this example, I have 20 Black Leather Chairs in stock, but there are 6 in each bundle, so that means I can only sell 3 of the bundle before I don't have enough chairs left to sell any more bundles.
If you hover over the Link icon a small drop-down will display which component items are linked to the main bundle:
Clicking on the Link icon again will allow you to edit the linked products as needed, or even Unlink Products if you made a mistake or need to change the links completely:
And there you have it: all done! :)
Processing Orders for Linked Products
Once a product is linked, when that item is ordered, ChannelGrabber will automatically display the breakdown of the component products underneath the main bundle product on the order itself and on the invoice table.
Example Order:
Example Invoice Table:
This means that both you/your staff and your customers will clearly understand which items are included in the order, so this should help avoid any mistakes or misunderstandings :)
Note:
Do remember that the bundle will inherit its stock levels from the component products, so if a component product has an "Undispatched" quantity, then the Linked product will show this as well.
We hope this guide is useful and that you love this new feature as much as we do! If you have any suggestions for improvements or additions we could make, please do feel free to fire them to us via the Intercom chat system or via email on help@channelgrabber.com and they can then be considered for our next round of developments.
Happy linking! :)