Introduction to products

Connected a storefront yet? Products only show up to customers once a storefront is wired to your sales channel. If you haven't done that, see Connect your storefront first, because it's the order that saves you the most rework.

Before you add your first product, it helps to know what a "product" actually is inside Brainerce, because the same screen handles three very different selling models, and three different organizational tools (categories, brands, tags) shape how customers find them. Pick the wrong one up front and you'll be cleaning up SKUs and URLs later, so read this page first and the rest of the section will move much faster.

The three product types, and the modifier layer

Every product in Brainerce is Simple, Variable, or a Kit. You choose the type in the Product Type field when creating or editing a product, or Brainerce sets it automatically based on whether you've added variants. On top of Simple and Variable you can attach modifier groups for per-order customizations that don't create new SKUs. A kit takes no modifiers: its contents are a fixed recipe you decide, so the storefront offers no choices on it.

There is no gift-card product type, but Brainerce does have gift cards. Gift cards are real: they carry a code, a balance and a movement history, and a customer redeems one at checkout. What does not exist is a way to sell one. There is no gift-card product type, no "sell a gift card" setting, and no storefront page a shopper can buy a voucher from, so listing a product called "Gift Card" mints nothing. You issue every gift card by hand from the dashboard, on Marketing → Gift cards, and then hand the code over or let Brainerce email it. See Gift cards. Note they are still in rollout, so the sidebar entry has not appeared for stores yet.

There is no subscription product type, but Brainerce can still bill on a schedule. Simple, Variable and Kit are the only product types, and there is no billing-frequency, renewal, or recurring option anywhere on a product itself. Those fields live on a separate standing order plan that points at a product, so a subscription is something you build in Standing orders, not something you set on the product editor. Each successful charge creates a real paid order for that product. The gap is on the shopper's side: there is no subscribe button on your storefront yet, so you start every schedule from the dashboard, and only for a customer who already saved a card at a previous checkout. Full list of gaps: what Brainerce does not support.

Variants and modifiers can be combined

These patterns are not mutually exclusive: the same product can have both variants and modifier groups attached, and that combination is actually the most common shape for food, configurable electronics, and customized gifts.

Classic example, a pizza:

• Variants: Small / Medium / Large, where each size has its own price and its own dough/box stock. Choosing a size picks one variant row.
• Modifier groups: Toppings (mushrooms, olives, extra cheese), crust style (thin / regular / stuffed), sauce on the side. Applied per order, regardless of which size variant the customer picked.

The customer flow: pick a size (variant) → pick toppings (modifiers) → add to cart. The order line records both the variant chosen and every modifier selected, and the final price is variant price + sum of modifier prices.

A watch works the same way: size × finish are variants, engraving and extended warranty are modifiers. Use whichever combination matches your product. The two systems sit side by side on the same product page and don't interfere with each other.

Simple product

The default. If your product has one price and one stock count, you're done: fill in name, base price, stock, upload an image, save. No further setup needed. About 60% of catalog items in a typical store stay simple their whole life.

Product with variants

Reach for variants when each version of the product has its own inventory count you need to track separately. Brainerce auto-generates one row per attribute combination, so three sizes × two colors = six variant rows, each with its own price, SKU, and stock. The storefront shows option selectors ("Pick a size, pick a color") and each pick maps to exactly one variant.

→ Full walkthrough: Add variants to a product.

Product with modifier groups

Reach for modifiers when the customer's choice changes the price or what's in the box but not the underlying SKU you ship. Engraving doesn't create a new product. AppleCare+ doesn't deplete a separate inventory pool. Pizza toppings, gift wrap, setup services and extended warranties are all modifiers. Modifier groups are reusable across many products (define "Pizza Toppings" once, attach to every pizza).

→ Full walkthrough: Modifier groups (add-ons).

Kit: a gift box or set made of products you already sell

Reach for a kit when you want one thing on the shelf that is made up of several products already in your catalog. A gift box with a bottle of wine and two glasses is a kit: the customer buys one item at one price, and Brainerce takes the bottle and the two glasses off the shelf behind the scenes.

A kit is a real product with its own page, its own web address, its own photos and its own SEO, so customers can find it in search and in your categories.

Two things behave differently on a kit, and both catch people out:

• You can't type a stock number for a kit. How many kits you can sell comes from the contents. Ten bottles and six glasses means three gift boxes, because the glasses run out first.
• You choose how the kit is priced, and two of the three ways move on their own. Fixed price is the default and stays exactly what you typed. The other two make the kit cost what its contents cost, either in full or less a percentage you pick, recalculated every time the kit is shown. See Kits for the full comparison.

A kit can't contain another kit, can't have variants, and can't take modifier groups.

→ Full walkthrough: Kits (sell several products as one).

How to choose between a kit, variants, and modifiers

Three questions, in order:

1. Is this item made up of other products you already sell? → Kit. (A gift box of a bottle and two glasses.)
2. Does each option have its own inventory count? → Variant. (S, M, L all need their own stock numbers.)
3. Otherwise, does the buyer's choice change the price but not what you pick off the shelf? → Modifier. (Engraving doesn't deplete a "with engraving" warehouse bin.)

If you're unsure between the last two, default to a simple product and add variants or modifiers later when the need is concrete; both can be added without recreating the product. A simple product can be turned into a kit later too, but a kit and a product with variants can never be converted into each other, and turning a kit back into a simple product only works once you've emptied its contents.

Organizing your catalog: categories, brands, tags

Once you have products in the system, three labeling tools control how they're grouped, navigated, and filtered on your storefront. They look similar in the editor but each has a distinct job, and using them the right way makes your storefront searchable and your reports useful.

Categories: where the product lives

A category answers "where in my shop is this product?". They're hierarchical: Electronics → Phone Accessories → Chargers. A customer browsing your storefront menu navigates the category tree, and each category gets its own landing page with its own SEO-friendly URL.

Rule of thumb: if removing the label would leave the product without a home in your menu, it's a category. Most products belong to one category; putting them in many makes navigation feel noisy. Reserve multi-category assignments for products that genuinely span two parts of your catalog (e.g. a baby gift set in both "Gifts" and "Baby").

Brands: who made it

A brand is the manufacturer or label printed on the product: Anker, Apple, Nike. Customers filter by brand often ("show me everything Anker makes"), and brand pages are valuable SEO real estate.

Rule of thumb: assign one brand per product. The field is a multi-select and will accept several, but more than one brand on a product makes brand filters and brand reports ambiguous. If your store sells only your own products, leave the brand blank or set a single house brand for everything.

Tags: anything cross-cutting

Tags are the free-form layer. Anything that doesn't fit cleanly as a category or brand goes here: bestseller, new-arrival, gluten-free, summer-sale, gift-under-50. A product can have as many tags as you want. Tags power custom collections ("everything tagged summer-sale") and storefront filter chips.

Rule of thumb: if you'd want to build a collection of products around the label later, even one that cuts across categories, make it a tag.

A worked example

A "Vintage Leather Wallet" by Bellroy on sale this month would look like this:

• Category: Accessories → Wallets
• Brand: Bellroy
• Tags: leather, summer-sale, gift-for-him, under-100

The category puts it in the right menu. The brand powers the Bellroy filter. The tags let you build a "Summer Sale" landing page and a "Gifts for Him under $100" collection without touching the product again.

What's next?

Now that you know which pattern fits and how to organize your catalog, you're ready to add your first item.

• Start here: Add a product is the step-by-step walkthrough.
• For multi-version products: Add variants to a product.
• For gift boxes and sets: Kits (sell several products as one) turn several products you already sell into one item on the shelf.
• For checkout customizations: Modifier groups (add-ons).
• For cart cross-sells: Bundle offers offer a discount when two products are bought together.
• For bulk catalog setup: Bulk import products from CSV.