bol: how to group product variations

About this article

This article describes product variations on bol, how to group variations under the same product family, and how to ungroup products from an existing product family.

Table of contents

Introduction

Requirements

Group variations on bol

Troubleshooting

Disconnect a variation from the family

FAQs

Introduction

If you have products that come in several variations, such as multiple sizes of a T-shirt or a mobile phone cover in five different colors, offer these options on a single product page. To group these together, bol requires that they are grouped under the same product family. More information on product families can be found in the article Wat zijn productfamilies? (in Dutch) on bol's partner platform.

Requirements

Before grouping variations of the same product under a single family, meet the following requirements:

• Not every bol category supports product variations. bol determines per category which variation attributes are supported, such as size, color, taste, etc. Verify with bol whether the category supports variations.
• The products must have a unique EAN on bol.
• The products must be categorized by product type and have their minimum required product information filled out.
• The products must have the same brand.
• The products must have a defining attribute (e.g.: size or color) correctly filled out for the family.

Group variations on bol

After making sure that your products meet the requirements, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Mappings step on your bol channel.
2. In Content mappings, locate the Product variant ID attribute (a.k.a. bol's family key).
3. Map it to the identifier shared by all child products that should appear in the same bol product family, as follows:
   • Parent product SKU - use this for a one-level variation structure, such as size only.
   • Grandparent product SKU - use this for a two-level variation structure, such as color and size.
   • Advanced rule - use this for mixed structures. E.g.: map the grandparent product SKU if available; otherwise, map the parent product SKU.

Troubleshooting

If Product variant ID is mapped correctly, but variations are not yet visible on bol, complete these troubleshooting steps.

On ChannelEngine

1. Go to Listed products, Validation and feedback.
2. Check whether the affected products have any content errors.
3. Address the errors and make sure all child products in the product family pass content validation.

On bol

1. Go to bol's seller portal.
2. Select a product under Mijn artikelen.
3. Click Bewerk varianten, Variantenbeheer.
4. If variations are visible in bol seller portal but not on the bol frontend, ask bol why the family is not displayed.
5. If variations are not in bol seller portal despite correct export, bol may not have processed the family update. Contact bol and provide examples.

Disconnect a variation from the family

Currently it is not possible to disconnect a variation from its family via the API. If you need to ungroup a product, complete the following steps.

On bol

1. Go to bol's seller portal.
2. Select a product under Mijn artikelen.
3. Select Bewerk varianten.
4. Select Ontkoppel for each product you need to disconnect.

On ChannelEngine

1. Go to the Mappings step on you bol channel.
2. In Content mappings, update the Product variant ID mapping so the product is no longer exported with the same family key. Depending on your setup, this can mean changing the mapped value, adjusting the advanced rule, or unmapping the attribute.

If the mapping is not updated, the next content export may send the same family key again and group the products again.

FAQs

Why do I get the "Family key: No value found" error?

If bol returns an error “Family key: No value found” or “Missing family key”, check the Product variant ID mapping. On ChannelEngine, this is the attribute used as bol’s family key.

Do parent and grandparent products need to be part of the product selection?

No. Parent and grandparent products are not exported as sellable products, so they do not need to be included in the product selection. Only child products are exported to bol. If you do include parent and grandparent products, they may return with the status Not published or Failed to create on the Listed products page because bol does not list them.