A product with options is one product you sell in several versions, such as a plate in two sizes and two thicknesses. Each version is a variant. Each variant is an item of its own, so it has its own price, cost, stock, SKU, barcodes and shipping weight and size. The product holds what they share: the name, description, category and photos.
Owners and Managers set up options. Staff can see them.
Add options to an item
- Add the item as usual, or open one you already have.
- Choose Add options.
- Name the first option, such as Size, and type its choices, such as 12 × 9 and 16 × 12. Type each choice in the empty box. Another empty box appears as you type, and Enter moves to it.
- For another option, such as Thickness, choose Add another option. A product can have up to 3 options.
- The list below shows the items this makes, one for each combination. Choose Add options.
The item you started from becomes the first combination, and keeps its stock, history and sales. Each other combination is made as a copy of it, the same way Duplicate copies an item, with its shipping weight, size and packing. A copy doesn't get the SKU or barcodes, since those belong to one exact item.
Each variant is named after the product and its choices, such as "Plate, 16 × 12, 6 mm". That name shows at the point of sale, on sales and on purchase orders.
The product's page
The product's page has four tabs.
- Details: the name, description and category. Every variant takes them, so change them here, not on a variant.
- Options: the variants, each with its choices, stock and price.
- Type each price, then choose Save prices.
- To give every variant one price, type it in Same price for all and choose Fill in. Change any that differ, then Save prices.
- Open a variant to set its cost, SKU, barcodes, shipping and photos, or to count its stock.
- Photos: the product's own photos, up to 6, which all its variants share. The first is the cover, shown beside the product's name and in the Items list. They work like an item's photos: add several at once, drag to reorder, Make cover, Replace and Remove, each with Undo. A variant can also have photos of its own, such as one in another colour, on its own Photos tab.
- Website: how search engines show the product on your online store, once for all its variants. See Products and categories in search engines.
Archive on the product's page archives the product and all its variants. Restore brings them all back.
Change the options
On the product's Options tab, under Options:
- Rename an option or a choice by typing over it. Every variant with that choice is renamed.
- Add a choice in the empty box at the end of an option's choices.
- Remove a choice with its ×. You can only remove a choice that no variant has.
- Add another option if the product gets a new one. Every variant is given the new option's first choice.
Then choose Save options.
A new choice makes new combinations, which are listed under Not made yet. Choose Make it beside one you sell. A combination you don't make just has no item, such as a size that isn't made in the thin version.
Remove an option
On the product's Options tab, choose Remove under the option, such as Remove Thickness. Choose which of its choices to keep, such as 6 mm, then Remove Thickness.
- The variants with that choice stay in the product, named without the option ("Plate, 16 × 12").
- The others become items on their own, keeping their name, stock and history. Archive any you no longer need.
A product always keeps at least one option. To end a product with options, take out its variants.
Take a variant out
Take out beside a variant makes it an item on its own again. It keeps its name, stock and history. When the last variant is taken out, the product goes with it.
In the Items list
A product with options shows as one row, with how many variants it has, their stock in total and their prices. Its variants are listed under it by their choices. Searching or scanning a barcode finds the variant itself, so a sale is always of one exact variant.
On your online store
A product with options goes on your online store as one product, with all its variants. Put it on or take it off on the product's Website tab. The switch on any variant's page does the same for the whole product.
Shoppers see it once in the shop, with its lowest price ("From $39.99") when the variants' prices differ. Its page has a row of buttons for each option. See Products with options on your store.
Group items you already have
If you already keep the versions as separate items, such as "Grip red" and "Grip blue", group them instead of starting again:
- In Inventory › Items, tick the items. Searching for their shared name helps.
- Choose Group as one product.
- Check the product's name. It starts as the words the items' names share. Add a description and category if you like.
- Name the options and their choices, such as Colour: Red, Blue.
- Give each item its choice of each option. No two items can have the same choices. Each shows the name it will have, such as "Grip, Blue".
- Choose Group as one product.
Each item keeps its stock, history, sales, price, cost, SKU, barcodes and photos. It takes the product's name with its choices, and the product's description and category.
Items that were on your online store become the one product there. Their old addresses lead to the product's page with their choice already picked, so links and search results keep working.
You can only group items that are on their own (not archived, not already in a product with options), and all products or all services, not both.