Adding variants to your product allows a merchant to sell multiple versions of a book on one product listing page. Merchants can sell the same book with different format options such as different binding types, different colors, or different content.


The instructions below are currently only for WooCommerce products. WIX product variation will will release in the future.


Before variants can be added, the following must be done first:

  1. Create and publish individual Lulu book projects for each format or style of the book you plan to sell.
  2. Connect your store to Lulu Direct.
  3. Add a product to your store in the Lulu Direct Store Dashboard with instructions in the articles below.


How Do I Connect a Product to Lulu Direct?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Adding Variants to New Products

Note: The following steps only pertain to products added to Lulu Direct via the Create a New Product option, not the Connect an Existing Product option. For products added through the Connect an Existing Product Option, please see the next section.


Modifying the Active Product

First, open the store in the Lulu Direct Dashboard, and locate the active product to which you would like to add variants.



Click the variant to open the product's details, and click the + Add Product Variant button.


Identifying Variants

After clicking the + Add Product Variant button, a new section will appear allowing you to provide an Option Name, and Option Values.



Option Name: This is a title given to describe the overall category of book variations, i.e., "Alternate Bindings", "Alternate Colors", etc.


Option Value: This is a value that describes the book variation itself, i.e., "Blue Version", "Hardcover Version", "Expanded Edition", etc.


Note: You can only add up to 3 Options total for each book project to which you are adding variants.


Enter your Option Name and Option Values, then click the Save Options button.


Mapping Variants

After saving your Option Name and Option value, a new variant field will be added to your product.


Click the variant drop-down menu, select your first variant option name, select it, and click the Save button.



After saving your first variant option and saving it, new fields will appear to show all other variant options. Select each variant in the drop-down menus in accordance with their variant titles, then map each variant to its corresponding Lulu book project. Next, give each variant a price.



Note: The Save button will not activate until all variants have been mapped, and prices have been set.


Once everything is saved, allow 20-30 minutes for each variant to process, before they will be live.


Adding Variants to Existing Products


Note: The following steps only pertain to products added through the Connect an Existing Product option.



When a product is added via the Connect an Existing Product option, variants that already exist for the product on the external store side will automatically be detected.


Because the variants already exist in the external store, the merchant will not need to add Options Names or OptionValues on the Lulu Direct side. They will already be created when you add the product

Mapping Existing Products

Map each of the variants to their corresponding Lulu Book Projects, and assign prices to the variants.



When the variants are mapped and priced, click the Save button.


Note: The Save button will not activate until all variants have been mapped, and prices have been set.


Once everything is saved, allow 20-30 minutes for each variant to process, before they will be live.


Additional Step for Wix Products

After a product and variants have been added to your store on the Lulu Direct Dashboard, please do the following:

1. Open the WIX store.

2. Open the Product.

3. Manage the variants.

4. Toggle the Track Inventory option off.


 


Note: We recommend setting up rates based on quantity groups, as it can be time consuming to set up rates for each quantity. For example, set up rates for 1 copy, 2 copies, 3-5 copies, 6-10 copies, 11-20 copies, and so on. That means for 3-5 copies, set the Weight Range for 3 to 5lbs.