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.


Note: The instructions below are currently only for WooCommerce and Shopify products.



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 Option Values 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.


Wix Limitations

Due to certain functional limitations of Wix, there are some important things to note when adding Option Names and Option Values to Wix Product Variants in the Lulu Direct Dashboard. 


Removing Variant Options

In the example below, the product has two Option Names, and two Option Values which provide a potential customer different book options. 


Example:


Option Name 1: Alternate Covers
Options Values 1:

       Blue Cover

       Maroon Cover


Option Name 2: Binding Types

Option Value 2:

       Hardcover

       Paperback



The Option Value is what is responsible for adding multiple variant types to your product.


Example: 


After adding two new Option Values (Hardcover & Paperback) to my product, the system automatically adds a Hardcover & Paperback variant to each Variant Type.  



Note: After more than 1 Option Value has been added and saved to a product, and the additional variants have been added, the Option Values can no longer be deleted individually. Attempting to remove one of the Option Values will cause an error on the product that will require you to recreate all of them from the beginning. It is important to make sure that Option Values are added correctly the first time to avoid errors.



In the example below, attempting to remove the Hardcover Option Value would cause an error. 



Updating Variant Option Values

Once a Variant's Option Values have been saved, the names cannot be edited and must be deleted and re-added. Attempting to re-name an existing Option Value then save it will leave the old Option Value intact, and instead create a new variant. 


Note: Instead of updating the titles of existing Option Values, it is recommended to delete an existing Option Value first, then add a new one and save it.


Example:




Option Value & Option Name Spelling

Option Name and Option Value titles are case sensitive, and if the same titles are used on multiple products, they must be spelled the same. Two titles with the same name, but different spelling will not work, and Wix will automatically update them to be identical.


Example: 


If you give a Variant Option Name a title of "Alternate Covers" on one product, on another product you cannot spell it as "ALTERNATE COVERS". It must also be spelled "Alternate Covers"


If you give a product the Option Value "Hardcover", and if you use the same title on another product, it cannot be spelled "Hard Cover", or "HARDCOVER", it must also be written as "Hardcover".