Overview
Product Model Suggestions is an automated tool that helps you group similar standalone simple products into product models without doing it manually one by one. Instead of hunting for products that share the same attributes, you define a suggestion rule once, and the system continuously proposes groupings that match it.
Creating a suggestion rule
From the Settings menu in your PIM, open Product Model Suggestions to configure a rule that identifies hierarchy suggestions.
Click Create Suggestion, then give your rule a label and code.
Choose which families and products the PIM should analyze:
- Select the product Family.
- (Optional) Add conditions (from System, Attributes, or an Attribute group) that the PIM will use to refine attribute matching and improve the suggested Product Models.
- Define the Grouping Key for your suggestions by selecting the common attributes to use. You can use the following attribute types: Text, Number, Boolean, Date, Metrics, Simple Select and Reference Entity Single Link, Multi Select and Reference Entity Multiple Link, Asset Collection and Product Link.
A Grouping Key is a combination of attributes (such as Brand, Product Name, etc.) used to detect similarities across your catalog. Products that share identical values for the selected Grouping Keys will be grouped together to preview proposed Product Models.
Grouping Key vs. Variation Axes: What’s the difference?
They do the exact opposite:
- Grouping Keys: values must be identical.
- Variation Axes: values must differ. These attributes distinguish the individual variants within a Product Model.
- Finally, choose which attributes should appear as columns when you review suggestions, so you can quickly assess whether a suggested grouping makes sense. Attributes such as ID, Image, and Label are already preconfigured for these display columns, and you can add more to support your decision.
- Save this suggestion rule to reuse it later. You can create up to 100 Suggestion Rules.
Reviewing suggestions
Once a rule and its conditions match the simple products in your catalog, a list of suggested groupings will appear. These suggestions include the products that meet the conditions you set for the rule.
The suggestion list shows the proposed grouping, including the number of existing simple products, and a projection of what the hierarchy could look like (i.e: ‘13 products → 13 variants’.) with a number of data conflicts.
If no suggestions are displayed, it means that no group of products shares the same values for the current rule. Adjust the rule to see suggestions here.
A ‘NEW’ label appears whenever the PIM suggests creating a new product model for those rules. You can:
- Open the underlying variant values, or jump straight into the product grid, pre-filtered and pre-configured with the same columns you selected during setup, to inspect the products before deciding.
For now, you can only create this hierarchy for new product models that do not already exist in your PIM. We’re working on the Add to an existing product model bulk action as well, so you’ll also be able to attach these simple products to existing product models and build your hierarchy.
- Then, click Group under a new product model to open a bulk action that lets you create a new product model and group these simple products under the new hierarchy, while resolving any variant axis or product data conflicts.
For more information about this bulk action, check out our dedicated article here.
Managing rules and permissions
Access to viewing, creating, editing, and deleting rules is controlled by dedicated permissions under a "Product Model Grouping" permission group, so administrators can restrict who is allowed to configure or act on suggestions.
To access and manage those permissions, go to Settings > Roles > Select the right Role. Under the tab ‘Permissions’, you will find a section dedicated for the ‘Product Model Grouping’.
‘Product Model Suggestions’ permissions are activated per default for users that have access to the ‘Rules’ permissions.
