Its easy to setup the attribute types, then the attributes, then assign the attributes to attribute groups but now how do you make those show up?
This is a quick post to help me (yes me!) remember that the product attributes should be assigned to the procurement categories hierarchy (Figure 2), not the retail product category hierarchy or the one used for sales. I always set everything up and go to enter the data and always get a punch in the face when they don't show up (Figure 1).
So add the products and product attributes to the appropriate spot in the procurement categories and you're all good!
Figure 1
Figure 2