This article will cover how to create families and variant families in Akeneo. The instructions will help you create ready-made templates for your products and save you a lot of time by using the same structure for multiple products. We'll walk you through how to set up family-related settings and define variant families so you can manage things like color and size options.

Benefit:

• You can create and maintain products with a unified structure.
• You save time when basic settings are made at once at the family level.
• An easy way to manage variants (e.g. different colors and sizes).

1. Create the necessary attributes and attribute groups

1. First, make sure you have created the necessary attributes and attribute groups.
2. You need at least the mandatory attributes used in the family (e.g. product code, product name, EAN code).
3. Once you have this basic information in order, move on to creating a family.

2. Create a family (Settings > Families)

1. Log in to Akeneo and go to Settings > Families .
2. Create a new family by pressing the Create Family button in the upper right corner of the page.
3. Give the family a code . The code is the family identifier and is recommended to be written in lowercase, for example, "caps".
4. Press Save to take you to the Family Properties tab.

Remember: Use consistent naming conventions for codes (lowercase, descriptive name, underscores, etc.).

3. Define family properties (Properties tab)

1. Select an attribute to use as the title , usually product name , so that the product name is clearly visible in listings.
2. Select the attribute to use as the main image , usually product_image . This will ensure that the product image appears in listings.
3. Title translations :
   • Fill in the Finnish language field with the family's real name (e.g. "Lippalakit" with a capital letter).
   • If a name is missing from any data, Akeneo displays the attribute code in square brackets as the name, which helps identify the gaps.

4. Add attributes to the family (Attributes tab)

1. Go to the Attributes tab , where you can manage which attributes belong to the family.
2. The Add group button allows you to import attributes at once (e.g. AI Commerce Default group).
3. Select the attributes you want to use in this family. You can use multiple attributes as variants, but the most common number is one or two.
4. Define mandatory across channels, such as AICC (online store) and ERP (enterprise resource planning system).
   • For example, in ERP, only the product code, product name, availability status, and possible EAN are usually mandatory.
   • In an online store, it may be a good idea to mark several fields as mandatory (e.g. price, brand, delivery time estimates, product description).
5. Save the changes.

5. Define variants (Variants tab)

1. If you are not using product models/variants , this step is not needed.
2. However, if you are using variants , go to the Variants tab .
3. Create a new variant family and give it a code (e.g. size_color or another short, clear identifier).
4. Choose which attributes define the variants (e.g. color and size). Note that the variant dimension must be a simple choice type attribute (not multiple choice, text, or numbers).
5. Specify the level of the variant dimension (+99% of cases there is only one level).
6. Create a variant family by pressing Create . If you do not see suitable attributes available, make sure you have saved simple attributes for the family before creating the variant.

6. Finalizing the variant family

1. After you create a variant family, you will see two tabs: Variant Attributes and Item Translations .
2. On the Variant Attributes tab, you can move (e.g. by dragging) attributes to the variant level, such as price, if it varies between variants.
3. Unique attributes (product code, EAN) are automatically variant attributes.
4. Press Save when finished.

Next step

Now that you have successfully created both a family and a variant family in Akeneo, you can move on to creating product models , where you will utilize the families and variant families you just created. If you do not have a need for variants, you can already start using the family to create your basic products.