You know how crucial it is to remain competitive while also maintaining a healthy sales report for e-commerce. It is a cut-throat business that sees more business owners fail within the first year than those that are succeeding. One way e-commerce store owners are achieving this result is through product variations.
So let’s get to see what product variations are really about. We will be discussing what is in e-commerce, the common types of product variations out there, their benefits, and how you can implement it for your Shopify store.
What Are Product Variations In E-commerce? – Explained
In the dynamic world of e-commerce, product variations are a crucial element that can significantly enhance the shopping experience. But what exactly are product variations? Simply put, product variations refer to the different options available for a single product. These options can include differences in color, size, material, style, and functionality.
We all know about a product in a store. In most cases, it is a tangible item that you go into a store to buy. In e–commerce, you would have to wait for the product to arrive at your place, but you get the idea. A sneaker can be a product, a mug can be a product, a hat can be one, and so on. The key difference is being specific about the product, which is what a product variant is.
Product variations are the same thing as a product, just more specific. Think of a specific sneaker in this example. The sneaker product will have a brand, let’s say Puma. That Puma sneaker can now be multiple different models and color variations. Each of those variations would have their own sizes that are available. Each of these variations add to the product variations of the original Puma sneaker product. Just this time, we get more and more specific about exactly what that product variation is.
In e-commerce, it is much the same except you have to add multiple products to your online store. Then, your online store offers a product with many variations to help increase the diversity of your product range. Each of the variations have their own SKU or stock keeping unit as they are just different enough from each other that they are a completely unique product altogether.
5 Common Types Of Product Variations
In the previous example, we saw a glimpse of some product variations that are possible. So here is a
1. Color Variations
The easiest to understand are the color variations. Each product is of the same type, let’s call this smartphone X. However, they come in different colors, for example, black, blue, gray, gold, green, etc. Each of the products are still of the same smartphone X, but they are just different colors. This is how you can differentiate between the same product based on their color. Customers might prefer one color over another, so you give your customers a variety in their choosing.
2. Size Variations
Size variations are important in apparel and fashion stores. In clothing, sizes can range from XXS all the way up to XXXL. A store brings in size variations because the store will limit customers if they only sell one size of t-shirt. With more size variations, more customers are able to shop at the store to find clothing that will fit them. Just like color, size variations make each product variant unique enough on its own.
3. Material Variations
Now let’s talk about material variations. From our previous example of a T-shirt, let’s assume that was all for cotton T-shirts. Now if you add denim t-shirts to the mix, you bring in a new product variant based on the material used for the product. Leather is another example of expanding the material variations. To the customers that find one material more comfortable than the other, your store has the customer covered with the material variations.
4. Style Variations
Material, color, and size are very noticeable product variations. Style is another one of these, in a much more subtle way. Using the t-shirt example, let’s say you have a cotton, small, red, t-shirt. All three combined are one specific product variant. Now let’s say the style of the t-shirt is a v-neck instead of the usual circle shape. That is the style variation. The subtle aesthetic difference makes it just different enough from the original. With style variations, you can cater to more niche customer segments. You can also call style variations a model variation as it is the same product but just different enough in model to be a completely different product variant.
5. Functional Variations
For functional variations, let’s use a completely different example to help explain this product variation type. Let’s take you as a customer wanting to buy a laptop. You selected Brand Y and even the specific model you want to buy. But then, you are hit with all these different numbers, such as 8GB RAM with 256GB SSD, or 16GB RAM with 512GB SSD. These are different functional variations. The 8GB RAM laptop will work completely differently from the 16GB RAM laptop, even when the laptop is made by the same Brand Y. The functional differences are what make the product a variant of each other.
5 Benefits Of Product Variations In E-commerce
Some benefits are apparent, but product variations have more benefits for your online e-commerce store. Here are some of them:
- Enhanced Customer Experience
- Increased Sales Opportunities
- Simplified Inventory Management
- Easier Inventory Expansion
- Increased Flexibility in Marketing
Benefit#1 Enhanced Customer Experience
The more product variation you have, the better your customer experience in your store will be. Think of it as having options that customers can choose from. Some might be more popular than others so customers will naturally buy the most in-demand products. Then you will know to stock that particular variant more often than not. Now you have customers always getting the high-selling variants available for purchase, improving the overall customer experience.
Benefit#2 Increased Sales Opportunities
With product variants, you have increased sales opportunities. For example, you can take the least expensive variants of a product and turn that into a separate bundle that costs a lower price than buying the individual ones. With bundle variants, you have more chances of increased sales and also make inventory management easier. Additionally, you have other cross-selling and upselling sales strategies you can use with product variations.
Benefit#3 Simplified Inventory Management
On e-commerce platforms, most product variants are placed into one single product category. So when you want to make variants, they are made from that single product instead. This significantly reduces keeping track of all your product variant stocks and allows you to manage it all in a centralized management system. It also helps reduce the time and effort needed to manage the products separately and improves your business efficiency.
Benefit#4 Easier Inventory Expansion
Having more product variations allows you to expand seamlessly on your product range. This type of inventory expansion gives your business a much easier opportunity to expand on your inventory. Larger inventory means more hassle, but it also means you are catering to a larger customer base which means you are on the right track to improve your business.
Benefit#5 Increased Flexibility in Marketing
Having flexibility in e-commerce marketing gives you a competitive advantage. Product variations allow you to create targeted ad campaigns. For example, you can market a discount on certain product variants, or combine variants for a bundle pack. You can even add a mix-and-match bundle for customers to create a personalized bundle for themselves. The possibility of marketing is endless thanks to strategic marketing with product variations.
Adding And Creating Product Variants In Shopify
If you have an online store via Shopify, here is how you handle on the platform:
- Log In to Your Shopify Admin: Log in to your Shopify store with your store details and gain access to the admin panel.
- Navigate To Products: Head over to the ‘Products’ tab on the left side and then select the product you want to add variants to and click on the ‘Add Product’ button.
- Add Variants: Scroll down to the Variants section and click on the ‘Add Variants’ option.
- Set Up Variant Options: Add the type of variant in the ‘Option Name’ field like color and then add values like red, blue, green, etc. in the ‘Option Values’ separated by commas. For further variants, add another option in the respective field.
- Set Prices and Inventory: Enter the price, SKU, and inventory level for each variant to help with inventory management. Save your changes as you go along and you can edit the changes later.
All there is for you to do is preview and test the product page. For testing, make sure that adding the variants to the cart is working as intended and all the product pages are functioning accordingly. If you need to make changes to multiple variants at once, use the ‘Bulk Edit’ button to modify prices, SKUs, or inventory levels for several variants.
Shopify Max Product Variant Limit Problem
The problem with product variations on Shopify is the maximum number of variants you can have. For each product, you can have 3 product options with which you can make up to 100 different variants. That seems like enough variants for your product, but there is a slight limiting problem.
Let’s explain this through an example. Imagine having 6 sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL), 6 colors (green, red, blue, yellow, orange, white), and 3 materials (cotton, synthetic, linen). So logically, 1 XL green cotton shirt makes up one product variant. If you do the combinations of all the different variants, it comes to a total of 108 product variants. This exceeds the Shopify max variant limit.
And now let’s say you have an additional product option, like style. What happens then? It is not possible on Shopify because of the 3-product option limit. So the more product variations you have per product option, the more you run into the problem of exceeding Shopify’s max variant limit. In cases like this, you need a workaround to access as many variants as needed for your Shopify store.
A Bulk Order Third-Party Shopify App: Overcoming The Problem
Shopify store owners have access to the Shopify app store. This is where store owners have access to third-party apps in their store to make making product variants easier. Here is an example of a store using a third-party bulk order app to exceed Shopify’s product variant limit:
MultiVariants Bulk Order App Exceeding Shopify Maximum Product Variant Limit With MOQ Feature
This is a Shopify store using a bulk order app. Here, you can see all the different product variations of this product are all shown in a custom layout display option through the app. So instead of having customers switch between multiple product pages, they can shop all the variants they want on one product page.
On top, you can see the product options, which are the size and color for this particular product. This is just a small snippet of the product page as the rest of the color and size options are hidden behind the scroll bar. The app lets the store owner exceed the max variant limit without any issue, perfect for products that have different variant combinations.
On the custom display itself, customers in the store get to choose the quantity they want for each available variant. With the quantity increase/decrease buttons, the customers can choose how many variants they want to add to their cart. The display also shows the stock level for each individual variant and also has a custom out-of-stock badge to display over the product to let customers know that the variant is out of stock.
However, you will notice at the bottom a message telling the customers ‘The total quantity selected must be at least 12’. This is the minimum order quantity or MOQ feature of the app. It ensures that customers are chosen at least a minimum quantity. This is great for wholesale businesses or Shopify stores that allow bulk ordering. On Shopify native options, you cannot set up a restriction like this. But this app allows your store to have easy access to MOQ features that you might deem necessary for your store.
Once the restriction is satisfied, the customers can finally add the product to the cart. To make the shopping experience as seamless as possible, the app allows all the different product variants to be added to the cart with one click. Customers don’t have to add the products to their cart individually, and they get the best shopping experience when combined with the MOQ feature.
So with just one app, a Shopify store owner gets to exceed Shopify’s max variant limit, have a custom display option for their product variants, select their variants and add to cart with one click, showcase out-of-order products and current stock levels, and have an MOQ feature. All these help to encourage greater sales for your business while also ensuring customers are satisfied with their shopping experience.
Bottom Line
Product variations are key to succeeding in e-commerce. Giving customers choices greatly increases your sales while also ensuring you have returning customers wanting to try out the variants. While it may not be easy to implement product variations, with the right tool, you can easily give your online customers a worthy customer experience.
