Product Listing Advice Required: attributes or no?

[dutchy]

Hi,

What would you do as an experienced zc retailer regards setting up and listing products.

Option A)
Have 10000 Products listed

Option B)
Have 1000 products each with 10 attributes

I am asking from a server / website speed point of view, as I believe attributes = more server resources required.

Thanks

[Kim]

Sorta' depends - How 'bout and example of the product's attributes?

[dutchy]

Thanks for replying, it's for a clothing and uniforms site.

For example I have set up a LAMP Test site and have a set up like:

Uniforms (top level category)
Blue Polo Shirts (sub category)
|_Blue Polo Shirt Small
|_Blue Polo Shirt Medium
|_Blue Polo Shirt Large
|_Blue Polo Shirt XL
|_Blue Polo Shirt 2XL
|_Blue Polo Shirt 3XL
|_Blue Polo Shirt 4XL

Green Polo Shirts (subcategory)
|_Green Polo Shirt Small
|_Green Polo Shirt Medium
|_Green Polo Shirt Large
|_Green Polo Shirt XL
|_Green Polo Shirt 2XL
|_Green Polo Shirt 3XL
|_Green Polo Shirt 4XL

Red Polo Shirts (subcategory)
|_Red Polo Shirt Small
|_Red Polo Shirt Medium
|_Red Polo Shirt Large
|_Red Polo Shirt XL
|_Red Polo Shirt 2XL
|_Red Polo Shirt 3XL
|_Red Polo Shirt 4XL

Now, as I offer a garment branding service service, this means that if a customer wants the polo shirt embroidered or screen-printed we would have to ask them to add that in the 'customer comment' text field. (open to customer error too) We would then need to edit the price of the garment via Edit Orders to reflect this price increase (not great for the customer, open to staff errors)

Alternatively

Uniforms (Top Level Category)
|_ Blue Polo Shirts (product with Attributes of Size (s, m, l, xl, 2xl, 3xl, 4xl) Front logo, back logo, both front and back logo, no logo)
|_ Green Polo Shirts (product with Attributes of Size (s, m, l, xl, 2xl, 3xl, 4xl) Front logo, back logo, both front and back logo, no logo)
|_ Red Polo Shirts (product with Attributes of Size (s, m, l, xl, 2xl, 3xl, 4xl) Front logo, back logo, both front and back logo, no logo)

I know I could break this down further by having polo shirt wioth attributes of colour, size, branding etc.

Using both methods of listing each or using attributes have pros and cons to me, i.e. each item has it's own model number etc, easier to keep a track of stock quantities, easier to manage via Easy Populate. But more possibility of a customer and admin errors, either forgetting to add the comment or me not changing the price/forgetting.

But from a technical / website speed point of view I am clueless. If you can imagine categories of shirts, short sleeve shirts, jumpers, t-shirts, trousers, work pants, shoes, coats, bomber jackets, fleeces: it's a lot

Hope this helped in explaining my dilemma.