Any way/code/plugin to set master Unit inventory for a product and its variants instead of being forced to set individual variant inventories?

Site URL: https://wolverine-bulldog-2z5j.squarespace.com

Thought I'd reach out to @paul2009 on this one: Any chance there is a way to set a master Unit Inventory for a Product and all its Variants (instead of being forced to set individual Variant inventories)?

For example, right now on the site I’m building, I have a product (site pw: unique) I’m setting up, which is a room aboard a boat expedition in Alaska. So, that room is the resource of mine you buy. However, that room can be 3 different price points: the price of 1 adult taking up the whole room, the price of 2 adults taking up the room, the price of a 1 adult plus 1 child taking up the room. 

I’ve set these three price points as “Variants” to the product (because doing so allows me to avoid 3x the amount of Products and some other messes).

The problem is that the minute I add Variants to my Product, Squarespace removes the master Product unit number, and makes me select unit Inventory for *each* Variant. In my case, that’s a problem, because I can’t sell 10 of each of the variants, I can only sell 10 of the master Product.

This scenario seems to be suited for Squarespace's Scheduling, in that you can set a set number of Resources that applies to multiple products, however I went all the way down a pretty intricate Scheduling setup to arrive at a pretty backwards UX for my clients' clients in many other facets of the process.

Commerce, on the other hand, creates a perfect UX for my clients' clients, except for this one issue of the master product inventory. This is why I am going through the effort of checking in.

I reached out to Will Myers on this one, since I've enjoyed his plugins, and he mentioned he's heard this issue before as well from clients, and recommended maybe tagging you. 

If there is no solution, unfortunately I feel I may have to just break my Commerce strategy apart and not use this Variant method.

SITE: https://wolverine-bulldog-2z5j.squarespace.com/
PW: unique

Thank you in advance,
Marisa

Wow, this is awesome, thank you so much! I definitely don't have the RPA or full-stack dev experience you mention, so Trunk Inventory sounds like a great fix. I'm going to look into this today or tomorrow. I'll report back once I get it underway. Thank you! -Marisa

On 4/12/2022 at 4:54 AM, FouremsCreative said:

Wow, this is awesome, thank you so much! I definitely don't have the RPA or full-stack dev experience you mention, so Trunk Inventory sounds like a great fix. I'm going to look into this today or tomorrow. I'll report back once I get it underway. Thank you! -Marisa

Hi @FouremsCreative I have a similar problem and wonder if you found Trunk to be the right solution? I have a florist who uses 'add ons' to her products, priced as variants (add a glass vase $15 eg.) , but frustrated that she can't limit stock numbers of the master product... would love to know how you went?

2 hours ago, kellicox90 said:

I have a florist who uses 'add ons' to her products, priced as variants (add a glass vase $15 eg.) , but frustrated that she can't limit stock numbers of the master product

Trunk is great at what it does - but very expensive.

An alternative approach to variants is to add the upsells as full products, and offer them below the master product. Each product can have a separate ‘add me!’ button that allows a customer to add a vase and/or chocolates and each item, including the master product, will be individual products with their own inventory. The built in ‘Related Products’ feature is a no-code way to do this. Let me know if you need more help with this. A working link to the site will help 🙂.

On 8/22/2022 at 6:48 PM, paul2009 said:

Trunk is great at what it does - but very expensive.

An alternative approach to variants is to add the upsells as full products, and offer them below the master product. Each product can have a separate ‘add me!’ button that allows a customer to add a vase and/or chocolates and each item, including the master product, will be individual products with their own inventory. The built in ‘Related Products’ feature is a no-code way to do this. Let me know if you need more help with this. A working link to the site will help 🙂.

@paul2009this other option sounds great! I'd love to see an example of a well designed page that includes this if you have one? The site is pennyblossomflorist.com