What’s the Difference Between Products and Variants on Shopify?

Shopify treats products and variants differently. When you add a new item to your store, Shopify automatically creates one variant of that item.

Every product must have at least one variant, because variants represent the actual version of the product that customers purchase.

In other words, the product acts as the parent container while each variant is a child item with its own specific characteristics.

Products: A product is the overarching item that you sell. It contains general information such as the title, description, brand, product type and collection. Products can have multiple variants, but some products consist of only a single variant (the default variant).

Variants: A variant is a specific configuration of a product created by combining the product’s option values (e.g., size = small, color = blue). When a product comes in different sizes, colours or other attributes, each unique combination is a variant.

Note: Shopify lets you add up to three option types (such as size, colour or material) per product and supports up to 2,048 variants per product.

Each variant has its own details (such as price, inventory quantity, weight and SKU) that you manage on the variant details page rather than on the product page

Options vs. variants

Options are attributes of a product, for example, size, colour or material. They define how a product can vary, but by themselves, they don't represent something you can sell. A product can have up to three options.

Variants are the purchasable versions of the product created from option combinations. Each combination of option values becomes a variant

For example, a T‑shirt with options for size (small, medium, large) and colour (blue, green) has six variants: small‑blue, small‑green, medium‑blue, medium‑green, and so on.

Each variant can have its own price and inventory

What stays at the product level?

The product record stores information that applies to all variants

Product attributes	Purpose
Title, description & images	A product’s name, descriptive text and general images are stored at the product level. Variants can have their own images, but the main product images present the overall item.
Vendor & product type	Used to categorize products and create collections.
Collections/tags	Products are placed into collections for navigation and merchandising. Collections apply to the product as a whole.
Metafields	Custom fields attached to the product that apply to all variants. Variant metafields are separate.
General pricing rules	When all variants share the same price, the price can be set at the product level and inherited by variants (unless overridden).

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How is inventory tracked?

Because product records do not include inventory quantities, you cannot track stock at the product level.

When a product has no variants, you set its price, inventory and shipping on the product details page; but once variants are added, you must adjust those settings for each variant.

Inventory is therefore tracked at the variant level

What stays at the variant level?

Variants hold information about each specific version of the product

Variant attributes	Purpose
SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)	Each variant needs a unique SKU for inventory tracking and reporting. SKUs are internal codes that help track stock and sales, and Shopify requires every product and variant to have its own unique SKU.
Option values	The combination of option values (for example, size = Medium and colour = Blue) that defines the variant.
Price & compare-at price	Variants can have different selling prices. For example, a larger size may cost more or use a different tax rate.
Barcode & weight	Used for shipping calculations and scanning at point of sale.
Inventory quantity & location	Each variant has its own inventory quantity, managed on the Inventory page. To track inventory for a product with variants, select the specific variant, enable Track quantity, and enter stock per location.
Variant image	You can assign an image that represents the specific variant (for example, showing the blue version instead of the default product image).
Variant metafields	Custom fields that apply only to this variant (for example, a manufacturing batch number). Variant metafields can be added to the variant details page but can’t currently be displayed to customers.

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Important things to note

A product ID identifies the parent product in Shopify’s database, while each variant has its own variant ID. You can find a variant’s ID by clicking the variant in the product details page and looking at the URL – the number after /variants/ is the variant ID.

Products without variants still have a default variant ID that can be viewed by appending .json to the product URL and looking for the "variants" → "id" value

Understanding these identifiers is important when working with CSV imports or API integrations.

Best Practices When Defining Products and Variants

A clear product–variant structure keeps your store organised and your inventory clean. These best practices will help you avoid common setup mistakes.

1. Use category metafields for consistent option values

‍Category metafields let you create reusable option lists (like a master colour list) so your option names stay consistent across products. If you update an entry (say “Cyan” to “Blue”), Shopify automatically updates it everywhere that metafield is used.

2. Turn on inventory tracking and add quantities

‍Open your product in Shopify, click each variant, and in the Inventory section, enable Track quantity and enter the starting stock. Repeat for every variant. You can update quantities one by one or use the bulk editor/CSV to do it faster.

3. Use descriptive SKUs

‍Design SKUs so you can identify the product, variant options and even location at a glance. This makes stock reconciliation easier and helps when importing or updating inventory via CSV.

4. Capture custom data with metafields‍

Use variant metafields to store specialized information such as manufacturing details or internal notes. Variant metafields can be created on the variant details page, but they aren’t displayed to customers.