Question

I need to import many products into Magento for a client.

I am not sure to set the type to Simple or Configurable. In the current state, all products are Simple. But I expect that the client will need some of the products to become “Configurable”.

I therefore plan to import all products as Configurable. My question is, what is the downside of only using Configurable products? Are there any advantages with Simple products?

Thanks.

Answer 1

If you have different colors or sizes (or other configurable options) you’ll need to create simple products for every combination (small/red, medium/red, small/black, medium/black, etc) which you can do from within the configurable product screen, associated products tab. If your product doesn’t have any options, it should just be a simple product.

For reference, here is a page detailing the purpose of each product type: http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/modules_reference/english/mage_adminhtml/catalog_product/producttype