Glossary
Variant
A variant is one buyable version of a Shopify product, such as the blue medium. Stock, price and barcode all live on the variant.
Everything you count, price or scan hangs off the variant, not the product above it.
What lives on it
- The SKU
- The barcode, in the barcode field
- The price and the compare-at price
- The stock level, per location
- Weight, and whether it needs shipping
A product with no options still has one variant underneath it. Shopify creates it for you and hides it in the admin, which is why a simple product still has a SKU field.
The limit that bites
A product can hold 100 variants and three options. Sizes times colours times lengths gets there faster than anyone expects: 10 colours by 6 sizes by 2 leg lengths is 120, and the product cannot be saved.
The fix is usually to split it into two products rather than to argue with the limit.
Where it goes wrong
Stock gets set on the product in a spreadsheet import, with one quantity for all the sizes. Shopify has nowhere to put that, so it either lands on the first variant or on none of them.
The other one is deleting a variant to tidy up. Its sales history, its inventory item and every report that referenced it go with it. Set it to zero and archive the product instead.
Related terms
Product option
Also called: Option
A product option is one axis a customer chooses along, such as size or colour. Shopify allows three, and their combinations make the variants.
Inventory item
An inventory item is the countable half of a variant. Stock levels attach to it, one per location, not to the variant itself.
SKU
Also called: Stock Keeping Unit
A SKU is your own code for one exact thing you sell, down to the size and colour. You invent it, and only your shop uses it.