[Sativo]

Thanks for the comments... let's me try to explain the benefits a bit more:

The main reasons for keeping each product separate in your inventory record is that it's a more accurate reflection of the real world. From a system design perspective, you always want to mimic the real world as close as possible.

You guys do bring up some good points, and I've seen those addressed in other (non-cart) system where they create a matrix or a phantom product that acts as a container for all the other variant products. They use it as a way to help administrators locate each variant. Some systems allow you to link/unlink fields so that you can make global edits across all variants in your matrix (or options group).

My design doesn't offer this type of functionality, though probably could at some point.

Let me give you a couple scenarios where this module might be useful:

1. If you're managing your inventory records with a back-office ERP or inventory management system, most of them will have an record/entry for each product SKU as a separate item. So by doing this, your import/export data will more closely match these systems, making it easier to manage.

2. Say you have a shirt with two colors. If one color sells better than the other, you may want to promote the color that isn't selling very well to move your inventory. This would be easier to do if you could use functionality like Special Promotions (and other merchandising and promotional functionality) to apply promotions to that product.

3. Let's say you use multiple images to present your products (different angles of the same product, etc.). Currently, you could do this with the parent product, but you can only have 1 image for a variant. With this module, you can have all the functionality that the parent product enjoys... even multiple images.

BTW.. Jeremy, regarding the paradigm... I probably wasn't as clear on that point. Most all entry level carts like X-Cart get into this paradigm (as well as some mid-market carts like Elasticpath -- although their approach is a little nicer in that their variants product objects are just nested versions of the parent product chained together, so the do offer all the functionality at the variant level). But most enterprise level carts keep a separate record for each product... so I'm sure Amazon, Gap, etc... are in that boat.

Thanks.