Adding variants
You add variants to a product that has more than one option, such as size or color. Each combination of option values for a product can be a variant of that product.
When you add a product, you adjust the Pricing, Inventory, and Shipping settings for the product from the product details page. However, when you add variants to the product, you need to adjust those settings for each variant from the variant details page.
On this page
Considerations for adding variants
You can create up to 100 variants for a product.
Each product can have up to 3 options. The options can be different from product to product. For example, one product can use size, color, and style, and another product can use weight, finish, and material.
The variant and option limits can only be increased by using a third-party app from the Pisell App Store.
If you need to sell a product that has more than 100 variants or 3 options, then you might be able to customize your theme code to extract line item properties so that you can get custom requirements from your customers.
If you want to save specialized information for your variants, then you can add custom fields to your variant details pages by using metafields. If you have an Online Store 2.0 theme, such as Dawn, the free Pisell theme, then you can add references to your product variant metafields through the theme editor.
Stores with 50,000 or more variants are subject to a daily rate limit for uploading variants by using an app or CSV file import. You can add up to 1,000 new variants in a day before the limit is reached. If you exceed this limit, then an error is displayed and you need to wait 24 hours before you can add variants by using an app or CSV file import. Plus stores are exempt from this limit.
If you're adding a variant for the online store and you select Continue selling when out of stock, then you can continue selling products when your inventory reaches zero and below. For example, you have zero stock but are using a product listing as a pre-order and want customers to be able to buy the product. As the product is purchased, your stock levels will drop below zero. However, if you deselect this option because you don't want to sell a product that has sold out, then customers can't buy the product.
Add variants while you're creating a product
If you're in the process of creating a product, you can add its variants at the same time.
- Desktop
- iPhone
- Android
Steps:
- In the Variants section of the Add product page, click Add variant.
- Enter a name for the option, such as
Size, in Option name. Customers will see this name.
- In Option values, enter each option value followed by a comma, such as
Small,
Medium,
Large. Customers will see these option values when they are choosing a variant. When you enter a comma, the option values appear as tags.
- If your variants differ in more than one way, then click Add another option. You can have up to 3 options for each product.
As you add the product options, a list of variants appears with the heading Modify the variants to be created. Uncheck the boxes next to any combination of options that you don't sell. You can also add prices, SKUs, and barcodes for individual variants, or use the defaults based on the product details.
Note
You can show different product images for each variant with variant images.
- Click Save.
Add variants to an existing product
If you've already created a product, you can add variants to it.
- Desktop
- iPhone
- Android
Steps:
- From your Pisell admin, go to Products > All products.
- Click the name of the product.
- In the Variants section, click Add variant.
- Enter the variant information in the fields. If you enter a new option value in the Options section, then it will be created as an option value for that product.
- Click Save.
Add a variant by duplicating an existing variant
You can duplicate a variant to save time when adding similar variants, rather than entering the same details again. The duplicate variant has the same details as the original variant.
Before you can save a duplicated variant, you need to edit at least one of its option values. You can't save an exact duplicate.
Steps:
- From your Pisell admin, go to Products > All products.
- Click the name of the product that requires another variant.
- In the Variants section, click the name of the variant to duplicate, and then click Duplicate.
- Edit at least one option value to create a unique variant. You can add a new option value, or add one that is already in use for the product variants.
- Click Save.
Add several variants at once by using a bulk action
You might need to add several variants at once. While you can add them one at a time, using a bulk action to duplicate existing variants with the new option value is faster.
For example, you might sell a T-shirt with two options, such as size and color. The size option might have three option values: small, medium, or large. The color option might have two option values: blue or green. You have six possible variants with these option values.
When you use a bulk action to add new variants, you are selecting multiple similar variants and duplicating their details while changing at least one option value.
First, select the variants to duplicate:
- From your Pisell admin, go to Products > All products.
- Click the name of the product that needs additional variants.
- In the Variants section, select the variants to duplicate. The variants you select need to have the same option value for the option you are adding, and different option values for all other options, such as green T-shirts in small, medium, and large.
Tip
To quickly select a set of variants, you can click an option value beside Select. All the variants with that option value will be checked.
After you select the variants that you want to duplicate, you can use a bulk action to add new variants:
- In the Create duplicate variants dialog, enter the value for the new variants that you want to create and select the information to copy from the existing variants.
- Click Duplicate.
Note
If a variant already exists, then duplicating a variant will not create a second copy. For example, you sell white T-shirts in small, medium, and large. You manually add a black T-shirt variant for size small. If you duplicate the color variant (white) to create black T-shirts in all available sizes, then the duplication will only create black T-shirts in medium and large, as the black T-shirt in size small already exists.
The product now has new variants with the option value that you entered, and the other option values duplicated from the variants that you selected. You may need to add additional information for the new variants depending on what you selected to copy from the original.