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. While a shop copy follows the master, the shop cannot change its families and products, and anything you add or remove here reaches it. Sales and product counts on the master collection roll up from the shop copies.

A shop can opt out on its copy, from Edit → Master. Do not follow master items lets the shop pick its own families and products, and your changes here stop reaching that copy. Do not follow master content keeps the shop's own name and descriptions, and they stop coming back to the master as translations. When the shop turns a switch off again, the copy is made to match the master once more. See Shop collections for what the shop sees.