Yes it can, internally it will create a new SKU for each potential variation of your product. So each variation is its own product, which can track inventory.

So, after talking to Marcus, it appears to be there. It just isn't all that easy to find and the terminology mixes things up a LOT. But, it is a LOT more flexible with a lot more options than before.

When you create a shared choice, there are two ways of creating them (actually three, but we don't deal with text inputs in this case). You can create a Product Choice or a Product Modifier. In BV2004, there was only 1 type that allowed you to specify a choice along with also being able to modify the price and shipping (or the weight, I can't remember right now). This is split apart into 2 selections in BVC5. The first one is a Product Choice (3 types). A product choice will only allow you to specify an option (like a color) and that is ALL. A product modifier will allow you to specify the choice as well as modify the price, etc. Unfortunatley, if you use a product modifier shared choice, you canNOT track individual SKUs.

So, you can setup a plain Product Choice shared choice and then assign it to a product. (One new thing is being able to deactive a particular choice within a shared choice list on a specific product, which is a nice new option.) However, when you click the inventory you will see very little that can be done. All of the choices will be split out on the inventory window, but they won't have your SKUs on them. All you will be able to do is input inventory and set an out of stock level. (You have to enable them to even track inventory first.)

Where you get to the rest of the stuff those of us familiar with BVC2004 are looking for is under the Product Variations link. Not only can you change the price, weight, and SKU at this point, but you also have options we didn't have before to change the product name, images, long description, and short description. So, you can still accomplish a product modifier as a shared choice while also being able to track individual inventory, you just can't specify the modification within the shared choice - it has to be done within the product once you have assigned the regular Product Choice, Shared Choice.

However, the inventory doesn't appear to do anything at all. Sure, it debits when an order is placed. Any inventory that is in pending orders will show up in the reserved column (this is a nice new addition). But, it doesn't matter how much you debit inventory or what the inventory levels are, it will never display a message on the website that a product is out of stock. Yes, I've set it to "Show as Out of Stock (Allow Orders)". So, I'm not really sure what the Out Of Stock entry in inventory is supposed to do - trigger an out of stock e-mail or show the product as out of stock on the website, because even when I have zero or negative inventory, the site still won't show a product as out of stock.

I'm finding a few other things as well. While the functionality is more flexible, it creates a big problem if you want to do qty discounts. In BVC2004, this was done as a price ADJUSTMENT. In BVC5, it is done as a FLAT price. We have products in BVC2004 which have both variations as well as qty discounts. Option 1 is the standard price, option 2 is $0.30 less. The first qty break happens at 12 where the price goes to $1.99. If you select option 1 and add 12 units to your shopping cart, it will correctly calculate $1.99 each. If you select option 2 and add 12 units to your cart, it will correctly calculate $1.69 ($0.30 discount due to the product selection). BVC2004 didn't make any changes to the volume discount table, but it was still understandable since the selection explicitly denoted that there was a $0.30 discount. This is all hidden from the customer in BVC5. When I set the same thing up, in BVC5, it is smart and dumb at the same time. I have to input this as $2.29 for option 1 and $1.99 for option 2. When the customer flips between the choices, the price on the site dynamically changes between $2.29 and $1.99. Now when I select 12 units of option 1, the shopping cart correctly calculates $1.99 as their discount price. When I select 12 units of option 2, the shopping cart correctly applies a $0.30 discount due to the choice and correctly calculates a discounted price of $1.69. However, the customer winds up being completely confused. In our case, this was a discount, so the customer probably doesn't think about it and is happy that they have received a cheaper price. But, when an option goes the other way (and we have one where the choice will ADD $14.00 to an item that in the default choice is $3.99) the customer winds up being pissed off and thinks you are trying to rip them off. The shopping cart is correctly calculating the qty discounts based on the price differential between the product main price and the individual option price, but the volume discount table displayed on the site never changes, so the customer has no clue what is going on or why something is happening. Yes, I would call this a MAJOR bug.

Connorl,

1) Create a Single Product that represents your item

2) Edit the product and under "Product Variations" add a new Drop Down List Choice (make sure you choose "Choice" and not "modifier")

3) You add your four colors to the drop down list choice and then use the "Save Changes" button. This will present you with a list of all four variations with checkboxes. If you want all four to be available leave them checked.

4) Go to "Edit Product Variations" on the same product to assign SKU, Description, Price, Images, etc. to each variation.