If you have an e-commerce platform on Shopify, you are expected to provide a very volatile store in order to keep up with the customer demands. You are therefore expected to provide your products in different variations for consumers in order for them to settle on their respectively preferred ones.  This in other words means adding the variants that are sold by your store in different scenarios on your Shopify e-commerce store.

It doesn't matter if you’re an established merchant or just starting an online business, optimizing your visitor-to-buyer conversions can assist in boosting your yearly income. One way to do this is by giving priority to your Shopify product variants for greater visibility on your product page.

The product page is an essential element of a Shopify store. And your duty as a seller is to simplify it for customers to select and add products to the cart.

The research found that only 8% of product page traffic  converts to a sale. So, making the product page user-friendly can increase conversions, and effectively making use of product variants is a powerful way to achieve this.

What Exactly is the Meaning of Shopify Product Variants?

It is needless to point out that most products online exist in different colors, sizes, materials, and price points. These purchasing options are product variants.

Shopify product variants offer customers a wide range of buying options for a product. On Shopify, you are permitted to add up to 100 variants (for instance, with varied colors) for each product and three customized options (for instance, color, size, and material). Your customers are free to select the variant they need from the options you have available.

When you form a new variant for your product, you can make amends to the product’s price to suit each variant. Additionally, you can make other changes, like inventory and shipping options.

Options may vary depending on the product. For instance, one product may allow buyers to select sizes, colors, and materials, whereas a different product in your store may have alternatives of flavor or style. 

Every variant on Shopify has a unique stock-keeping unit (SKU), making it possible for you (and any third-party warehouse or shipping provider) to rightfully identify every unique item in your catalog.

Why is Shopify Product Variants Significant?

I’m so excited you have sought to know this! Here’s why:

1: Makes customers Instantly Know Their Options

At times, the same product may be available in a variety of designs or variants. You could, for instance, sell a pocketbook of different sizes or a garment in a wide range of colors. Generating product variants provides your customers with the flexibility of seeing all the options laid out in front of them before they make their final decision. 

2: Shopify product variants can equip you with additional clicks

If a buyer needs something specific (a white shirt for instance), they won’t visit your product page unless they are sure you have it. By adding the variant color, white, to your catalog, the buyer may bump into your product while searching. 

And if your collections pages have choices for product filtering, including the variant options (such as color, size, etc) improve its simplicity for your customers to filter out products and aim at the ones they are interested in. 

3: It improves your store's customer experience

In most cases, buyers go through many products as they search to find what they want. However, with Shopify Product variants, you have what it takes to provide a streamlined experience that demands very less effort from the buyer, especially when you add product variants on the collections page itself. 

With this, your customers can see what product options are readily available before even diving into the product page.

What  Qualifies You to Use Shopify Product Variants?

Basically, if you have a single product available in different colors, shades, sizes, styles, scents, flavors, or pretty much any other variable, set all these up as variants in Shopify. Shopify’s framework is designed for the product variant system, and you will save yourself a lot of time and effort eventually by constructing your catalog hierarchy this way. 

It doesn't matter if you have a small product catalog or are selling a single product on Shopify, never be tempted to form a listing for each color or size. Set up a single product with variants – it’s the experience your customers hope for and the experience Shopify delivers. 

Ways through which you can Add Variants on Shopify Products

product-variations

Adding new variants to your Shopify products is as simple as a smile and only takes a few minutes. Below is a list of all the approaches you can use to add the new ones conveniently.

1. Adding variants to new products

To add variants directly while you’re working on generating new products, just follow our guidelines below.

•  Begin by logging in to your Shopify admin page and perusing through the Product section.  
• After the Add product page, seek for the Variants section and press Add variant. 
•  From here, you can name the option as your wish like Color, Weight, etc., and start establishing multiple option values like Green, Red, Blue, etc., which would appear on the frontend for the customers to select from.
• Never forget to add a comma each time you want to separate the option values from one another. These values are also shown later as tags for easy sorting and filtering of orders.
•  In case, your product has more than one variant, then you can add an extra option to your product. Always never forget that the highest options per item are only three. 
• Upon concluding adding new product options, your imported variants will be automatically visible on the product information page next to Modify the variants to be formed. At this time, you can easily enable options you are unwilling to sell by unchecking corresponding checkboxes.

Shopify also makes it possible for you to add new prices, barcodes, or even product SKUs to your product information if needed. Lastly, click Save to wind up your work.

2. Adding variants to already existing products

It would save store owners time and effort to add new variants to already existing products instead of adding them as they create new ones. 

Below are the highlights of the exact steps it’d take to make it done.

• Begin by logging in and going straight to your Shopify admin page, then click Products and peruse through the All products section.
• You can then choose the product you would like to add variants to.

Next, scroll and seek for the Variant sections and press Add variant.

•  The next required step for you is to fill in all the necessary information about your variant. You can likewise enter new option values as you wish in the Options section. Always remember to click Save when you’re done.

3. Adding variants using the duplicating method

At the expense of losing a bunch of time with an aim of adding a new variant with similar details as the previous one manually, you can apply the duplicating method. As a clarification, by duplicating a variant and making use of it as a base for new ones, you don’t need to enter the exact details again, which might save you a great deal of time.

The steps here are pretty obvious:

• Peruse through the Products section via your Shopify admin page, and dive into all products. Follow this by clicking on the product you’d like to add new variants.
• In the pop-up product information page, check into the Variants section. Choose the variant you would like to make a new duplicate, then click Duplicate.
• Never forget that Shopify won’t allow you to save the duplicated variant with no verifiable differences from the original one. So at the very least, kindly edit one of its details.
• Finally, click Save to finish the process.

How to Effectively Add Multiple Variants in Shopify

To add variants faster and with much ease, especially when your store has a large number of products,  there might be a need for you to add multiple variants with the assistance of bulk action.

Follow our clearly stated instructions below to make it efficient for you.

• To begin with, log in and peruse through to the Products section and  All products from your left menu on the Shopify admin page. You can then select the product that you would like to create additional variants.
•  From here on, seek the Variants section on the product information page. Right after getting it, click on the variants you want to duplicate with the similar option value you select.
• It is the right time for you to now use a bulk action. Immediately the Create duplicate variants window appears on the screen, enter new variants values that you would like to create and choose pieces of information from already existing variants.
• Lastly, click Duplicate to complete the whole process. Save when you are done.
• Congratulations! Your product now has new variations with the option value you entered and the other option values from the one you had selected before. Based on what you chose to copy from the original, you may need to make amends or add additional information to the new variants.

How to Find Your Product Variant ID

At times, there may be a need to find the variant ID for a certain SKU (for instance, if you want to make customizations to your theme code that relate to specific products). 

So, in order to find a product variant ID: 

1. Have a live view of the product on your Shopify storefront.

2. Choose the variant you wish to add the ID 

3. Take a keen look at the URL – it will appear in this format: 

https://www.storename.com/products/product-name?variant=XXXXXXXX

4. It is the numbers (X’s above) at the end of the URL that represents the variant ID.

Top 4 Common Mistakes to Avoid when Adding Shopify Product Variants

Designing your product catalog in Shopify can be somewhat complicated, and it’s for sure not something you want to do more than once. For that reason, it’s very vital that you create your product hierarchy correctly, the first time.

Below are some common errors to avoid when using Shopify product variants:

1: Never create multiple listings for variants

You don’t want to make things more complicated by creating separate listings for single products as the different listings could reach hundreds. This is a massive extra effort and can get puzzling for both you and your customers. 

Besides, you don’t want your store visitors to search your whole site for the size or style of a specific product they are seeking for. Once they’ve come across the product, all the existing options should be vividly laid out in front of them.

2: Be watchful of limits on Shopify product variants

If your store has more than 50,000 variants, you’ll, unfortunately, be limited to only a specific number of variants uploaded each day through third-party apps. You are only allowed to submit 1,000 new versions each day. As such, you need a Shopify Plus membership to bypass this requirement.

In a similar manner, Shopify restricts individual products to three options, with 100 variants each. In case your products have more than three options or 100 variants, you still have the option of finding a third-party app to assist you.

3: You Should consistently name your Shopify product variants.

If by any chance you sell candles that are available in a wide range of scents or flavors, be sure to choose “scent” or “flavor” as the product variant, and adhere to that nomenclature for all of your products. 

This will add stability to your site, and also make it simpler for your customers to readily filter products in your catalog. 

4: You should always link your images to their Shopify product variants

It is your mandate to always make sure you are linking your images to your variants. If for example,  your customer transforms the color of a given product to red, you want to make sure the subsequent image also changes to blue. 

And if your customer is staring at a picture of a green shirt but the image shown is a black shirt, they may ignorantly purchase the incorrect variant. Linking your images to variants in Shopify greatly reduces the chance of such incidents occurring.

The Top 3 Best Apps to Customize Your Shopify Product Variants

Finally, let's end our article by having a look at the top three carefully chosen apps to help you effectively customize your Shopify product variants. Meanwhile, it should be noted that on Shopify, any product qualified for a variant addition, must have three distinct options. In case your products require more than three options, there are a number of third-party Shopify apps that can efficiently add custom options or extra fields to your product. If you have to handle Shopify’s limitation on product options or variants, the apps below might be worth a look:

1: Variant Image Wizard + Swatch by ProductWiz Inc.

Apart from offering advanced product options and customizable fields, this app is powerful if you are seeking for a solution to sanitize your product page. However, only use it to highlight the relevant images that are associated with the variant your customer has chosen, to avoid confusion and the possible chance of an incorrect product being bought. 

2: Variant Option Product Options by Best

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This app makes it possible for you to establish several custom product fields like text, numbers, calendars, and drop-down menus. Additionally, it prides itself on having flexible option templates that assist in decreasing the time of adding repeated options.  Sounds like the best part right? 

Better still, this app is now available for free.

3: Product Options Variant Option by YMQ

YMQ provides more than 20 varied option types, and also permits you to add inventory, product weights, and SKUs for your custom options. Luckily enough, you can add an unlimited number of options to every product, and alter the price of each of your new options painstakingly. 

Wrap up

Now that we have provided you with the guide on how to add Shopify product variants to your store, it is the right time for you to start doing so. As we are all aware that competition in e-commerce is on the rise, and only the best business can sustain the rapidly changing environment, you need to think outside the box by implementing the correct addition of product variants to your store. This way, you are sure to make your business stand out among the massive competitors out there.

 To ensure long-term safety for your business, our team of professional Shopify app developers is always available to give you a listening ear. Therefore, in case you need any clarity about how we can help you, don't hesitate to reach out as we are always ready to chat!