Master collections: one shelf, every shop

What a master collection is for

A collection is a themed shelf: products pulled together from any family for merchandising, a promotion or a landing page. A master collection is the same shelf defined once at group level. When you create it in a master shop, aiku creates a matching collection in every open shop of that master shop, with the same code, name, description and image, and keeps a link back so each shop copy knows where it came from.

Shops that open later do not receive existing master collections automatically. Ask engineering to spawn them when a new shop opens.

Creating one

Go to Masters, open the master shop, then Collections and press the create button. The form asks for:

• Code, short and unique inside the master shop
• Name
• Description, optional
• an image, optional

Save, and the shop copies appear at once. You can also create a master collection from inside a master department or sub-department, which scopes it there.

Filling it

Open the master collection. Its showcase lists what is inside it and lets you add three kinds of member:

• Products, with Add products to collection. Each shop copy receives that shop's own product for the same master product. A shop that does not sell it simply gets nothing for that line.
• Families. Attaching a family brings in every product of that family, in every shop, and keeps following the family: a product added to the family later appears in the collection too.
• Other collections, with Add collections to collection, when you want a shelf made of shelves.

Removing a member from the master removes it from every shop copy, including the products a removed family had brought along.

Families or products: pick one way

Families are convenient but follow the family, not your intention. A family that mixes products from two countries, or two price ranges, drags all of them in. When the collection must be exact, attach products, not families. A collection built for a discount should always be built from products, so nobody gets a discount by accident.

Engineering has a way to fill a master collection with every product that shares a property such as country of origin. Ask for it rather than attaching several hundred products by hand.

What the shops see

Each shop copy shows a Go to Master collection link. A shop can still add its own products on top of what the master sends, which is useful for a local extra, but anything the master removes goes from the shop copy too. Sales and product counts on the master collection roll up from the shop copies.