Multiple sizes of earrings are cluttering my shop.

So I'm a little disappointed with the versatility of the upload section, the going work around for having multiple sizes is to upload different models and use HTML in the description to have hyperlinks bouncing customers to the size they want. Well that's just plain not gonna work for me if my store front is gonna have the same damn model covering the entire page. When I see repeats in a store I'm thinkin get me out of this hokie place.

So...

What I want is a drop down menu with variations of the model that differ in size. (just like ebay has) That way when they are on the page that is my earring they don't have to leave the page to change the size from say 2g to 00g and I don't have 15 of the same model cluttering my shop. Besides the cluttering I have to type in all of the keywords over and over until they are all fairly find able.

But...

I could settle for another work around. Can I just hide them all (the alternate size choices) from my shop except for one that has the hyperlinks to all the diff sizes? To be clear, one earring picture/model they will see in my shop front but I have 10 other sizes that aren't visible untill you click into them from the "proxy". Does any one have a good way of doing this? If not, please shapeway's help out your jewelers, i'm sure im not the only one struggling with size variation uploading.

This might be of use to you - Product Variants Mods

I don't know why SW hides these things away, but there you are.

The idea is you have all the variants enabled to buy but not to display except one which you put the links to the others on.

Or you could go the co-creator route...

Good luck!

When I say hidden, I mean it is not easy to find - I know it is there and still I had to go to every drop down on the Make + Sell page to find it.

For information it is 'hiding' behind the anonymous little down arrow between Forums and Blog.

In case it's not obvious, I'm still not a fan of the new layout.

While we're at it, where is the direct link to the Material Status page?

Lol, yes I know that, I put it in my post - but where on the SW web page is the link to it? It's another resource that is not evident.

The problem with this, as delivered, is that it doesn't SHOW the other option, it adds it directly to the shopping cart! That's a bit pushy, isn't it?

My solution Is to just put links to the different items in my text descriptions. See here and scroll down for an example: TrackToolz Set - N Gauge 1:160

Here's an sample of the code I used. Replace the URLs and text as appropriate for your shop.

Firstly, I was just pointing out what was available not necessarily endorsing it. I have not, after all used it ...

Secondly, I take your point it is making some assumptions.

But if you go down the (entirely reasonable) route of taking the customer to the actual model page for the option they have chosen this has the downside that each Model page must be fully maintained. Which, once again, is quite reasonable until you try to use the SW pages to do so at which point setting up 7 or 8 all but identical pages (text, tags, materials, prices) and hoping you never have to change something ... who can be bothered?

I have a design for a ring that I have not published for just this reason.

While we're off topic.. <grin>

The Material Status page refers to "days of lead time".
When this page was first created, it included a column that showed you in one concise format what the lead time was for each and every material.
With recent site changes, that column was dropped, and now only indicates if something is late.

May I suggest that the "Lead Time" column be brought back? It's a bit of a pain to have to search thru every individual material page to find it.

<back to original topic>

Oh, we're not supposed to ramble off into the undergrowth?

In my mind (this is my excuse) since the original post was I felt showing an inadequacy in the web page navigation I would just add some more fuel on the fire.

I also wonder whether the Material Status page will go the way of the Parts Database - first no obvious links, functionality starts to be chopped off (e.g. Lead Times), finally 'we don not maintain that any more, it's dead'

The amount of time you spend maintaining a SW shop pales into insignificance compared to the time you would spend in a brick and mortar store maintaining the place. Fronting stock, dusting the shelves, checking in shipments, working in new product, marking down old product, rotating stock, updating signage, setting up displays, cleaning the counters, programming the register... the list goes on and on. It's part of the cost of doing business, and there is no magic solution.

Yes, SW could make it a little easier - but it still has to be done, and you have to do it. If you "can't be bothered", well, you're only hurting yourself.

Not at all.. I was truly just being tongue-in-cheek that the Material Status was not about Product Variants (the original post).

One small comment: At the top of https://www.shapeways.com/labs it does rather plainly say "Experimental".

If I may hop in from the undergrowth for a moment, how much more obvious than "Status" on the Materials menu do you want that link to be ?
(Though I suspect this was a recent change, I believe the link was originally only in the text paragraph at the top of the materials overview page)

Ah, mkroeker, the voice of reason, you are right. mea culpa. I hope you are right that it is a recent change because I really thought I had already looked at this tab the other day. That or I am senile.... or both

I think you mean EIGHT times.... it's 2*2*2, not 2+2+2

Well, you can get around some of this with categories... one for each scale... but it would be REALLY nice to have SUB-categories available, too... and even better if the filters you can use when trying to organize the shop were sticky, so you didn't have to reselect them every time you edited an item. You can get around THAT particular issue by opening an item to edit in a new tab or window, but it's still a pain to have to remember to do that.

I don't think the shop end of Shapeways was really designed with the idea in mind that it might be possible that people would eventually have 50-100 or more individual models, each in several substantially different sizes.

I agree as I posited here.

At the moment I have several distinct kinds of Model as well as ones that are just for display: it makes no sense to try and have one shop for them all.

I do not have a physical store and never will so the tasks you list are irrelevant. These virtual stores we have are on computers and to set them up manually in the way you seem happy to is really rather tedious when it could be more automated.

It does not have to be done at all. And while I may be 'hurting' myself and the adoring public clamouring for my Models, it might also be that SW is incurring an opportunity cost by not making the setting up and potential sales of Models easier.

No, I was being a bit more precise... I did mean six times...
160 / 87.1 = 1.837
1.837 * 1.837 * 1.837 = 6.199

<GRIN>

Ok so...

I've gone and made 4 model pages with 4 earring sizes, they are different volumes so the cost of each model is different out of necessity. I've got them all linked together with HTML in the description. The last problem I am facing is the fact that when some one drops into my shop they will see the sam model repeated 4 times. It looks awkward and messy like that. Can I hide all of the extra sizes from public view in my shop and allow access to them through the links in just 1 visible design? If so how? I'm just a little confused still. Thanks for the help.

Each Model must be 'Offer for sale to others' = check, with all the Materials, Prices and Category set up. The Models you don't want to see in the Shop you make sure that the 'Display to the Public' box = unchecked.

To test start, log out of SW (or start up a different browser and do not sign in to SW) - you will then be able to see what customers see, follow the links etc.