Maybe you've read a little about Volusion's MultiChildAddToCart function -- or gotten daring and tried it.

What it does is allow you to build a dummy product, and then make several (or all) other products as child products of the dummy product.  This results in a product page where a table with quantity fields and check boxes appear next to each product name, so a customer can order several different products from one page.

Like most of the other automatic functions in Volusion, there is little to no control over the visual or functional appearance of MultiChildAddToCart grids.   They offer one hack, (inserting a tiny comment tag into each child product's name field, e.g.- <!001>, <!456>, <!999>, etc, and the software will sort the grid based on the hidden tag), but it means junking up your products database.

Worse, if you don't get it right the first time, or need to add, edit or delete some child products, after Volusion has generated all the  child product data into your PRODUCT database, you need to manually clean up the mess and start over (creating that parent and group of child products).

Of course there is a better way...

How would you like to be able to create a page with a table of products  arranged into groups, with dividers and headings about each group, areas for special instructions or comments, and the ability to allow customers to order from any or all products you sell in a single page? [READ MORE...]