The Definitive Guide to Attributes and Options in OpenCart 2.x

The product pages in your Ecommerce website must have absolute clarity. If each element is instantly processed by viewers, they will use your store effortlessly. This goes for the images, product name and description, as well as the attributes and options.

This blog post will explain what are Attributes and Options, how they are used and how they work in OpenCart.

By the end of this article, you will be able to edit the attributes and options of your products without much effort. This will help your customers in their shopping and checkout process.

Attributes

What are attributes?

In OpenCart, attributes are used to add certain features and characteristics to the product description. In order to separate the description from the technical specifications, they are shown in two different tabs under the product image in the front end of your store. This is a common practice for many stores from various industries.

For instance, you see tech stores having a separate tab for the product description, and another for the technical specifications.

These are attributes.

Let’s see how to access them from the OpenCart admin panel.

Go to Catalog > Attributes.

You will see two menus - Attributes and Attribute Groups.

Click Attributes.

This will be the next field. You will see the predefined attributes that come with the default OpenCart installation. You can either edit them and change them to the ones you want, or delete them and add new ones.

To add a new attribute, click on the Add New button.

Creating a new attribute is quite easy. You only have 3 fields to edit.

Your attribute must have a name. This is the name that will appear in the Specifications tab underneath your product image in OpenCart.

For example, it can be DDR4 RAM. When you begin editing the attribute in your product settings, you will be able to add a description for it. For example, 8 GB 3200 MHz.

Next, you need to set the Attribute Group. This is selected from a dropdown menu with all of the groups you have created and edited. This is done from the menu you saw in the admin panel earlier - Attribute Groups.

Last, you need to set the Sort Order. This will arrange the attributes in a way that is more organized for you.

Attribute Groups

Attributes are organized in groups. These groups represent the type of attributes you are going to use for your product specifications. If we keep the previous example with DDR4 RAM, the name of the Attribute Group has to be Memory.

The groups in the screenshot below are the predefined ones that come with the default OpenCart installation. You can either delete them and create your new ones, or just edit them in any way you want.

Let’s see how.

To create a new group, click on Add New (the plus icon at the top right part of the screen).

To edit an existing group, click on Edit (the pencil icon on the right).

This is how you create or edit an Attribute Group.

You only have two fields to fill - the name of your attribute group and its sort order number. Think of the name like a category for all your attributes. Like we mentioned in the example above, if you have an attribute like DDR4 RAM, the Attribute Group should be called Memory.

Applying Attributes to Product Settings in OpenCart

If you are ready with setting up your attributes and attribute groups, you are ready to take them to your products.

Go to Catalog > Products and select the product you want to edit. Find the Attribute tab and click it.

This is where you begin adding attributes to your products.

At the left, you have a small field where you choose the attribute you want to add to your product. On the right, you have a big field where you can add a description for the attribute and show details that customers will want to know.

This is how a new attribute looks like in the product page in the default OpenCart store.

Options

What are options?

In OpenCart, you can set different options for products that can be offered in different versions.

For example - t-shirts can be sold in red, white, blue or other colors.

Options allow you to set those colors from the admin panel and assign them to your products accordingly, so customers can choose which one they want when ordering.

Let’s see how to find the Options and edit them.

In the Admin Panel, go to Catalog > Options.

Well, that was easy, wasn’t it?

Now, to create a new option, click on Add New. If you want to edit the predefined options in the default OpenCart installation, click on Edit.

This is how the Add Option menu looks like.

You have a little more to edit here.

First, choose the exact name of the option you want to display on your product page. For example, if you are selling t-shirts, you will have different options for sizes and colors.

That is why you can have different types of options. For example, Checkbox is one of them. It lets you add options as a checkbox and let customers click the one they need. If we are following the t-shirt example, these options can be the sizes - S, M, L, XL, etc.

The other type of options can be for the colors - Red, White, or Blue. Their option type is Select.

To edit the existing options, you go through the same process as with adding new ones.

Important Note: Adding images to your options is not mandatory and only up to you. This also goes for the Sort Order number.

Applying Options to Product Settings in OpenCart

Now that all of your options are all setup, you can start assigning them to your product settings.

Like with the attributes, access the product settings from Catalog > Products. Choose your product and click Edit to access the settings.

Click on the Option tab.

To start adding the options, begin typing the option name in the empty field on the left hand side. The options will start appearing in a dropdown menu so you can choose them easier.

These are the Option Types - Checkbox, Select, etc.

When you add them, you can start adding the Option Values. They are also selected from a dropdown menu.

When you choose your Option Values, go on and edit the rest of the values - Quantity, Subtract Stock, Price, Points, Weight.

Quantity - this is the number of products from the option that are in stock.

Subtract Stock - whether to remove a product from the stock level when a customer orders it.

Price - the price that the option adds to the total.

Points - reward points that are added to the customer for the next purchase. This is optional.

Weight - the weight that the option adds to the total of the product.

Important note: Aside from Price, all other fields can be left empty if you choose.

Summary

Basically, this is how the Options and Attributes work in OpenCart. We hope this guide has been clear enough. If there is one important takeaway here, it’s that you should be as clear as possible with the names and descriptions of your options and attributes. They are seen by customers and can determine whether the product will be ordered or not. Each user has to understand the options and attributes instantly, so take your time when figuring out what their names and descriptions should be. Good luck!

Join 11,000+ subscribers receiving actionable E-commerce advice

* Unsubscribe any time

Trending blogs

comments powered by Disqus