Edit variants: prices, stock and photos

Once a product has variants, you set each one's SKU, price, stock and photo under Review generated variants on the product's Variants tab. This article covers working through them one at a time or many at once. To create the variants in the first place, see Sell a product in sizes and colours.

Every change here stays on your screen until you select Save at the top of the page. The page shows Unsaved changes until you do, and asks before you leave without saving.

Cards or table

Review generated variants shows how many variants the product has, a search box, two views and an Actions menu. Choose the view with Card or Table. The console remembers your choice in this browser.

Card shows one card per variant with SKU, Price, Stock quantity and Weight (kg), and every other setting under More settings. Use it to change a variant's compare-at price, cost or inventory switches.
Table shows one row per variant with the columns Image, Variant, SKU, Price, Stock quantity, Weight (kg) and Actions. Use it to scan and change many prices or stock counts quickly. The table has no compare-at price, cost or inventory switches. Actions holds each saved variant's Stock history button.

The variants of the Terracotta linen shirt dress as a table: five rows, Terracotta / XS, S, M, L and XL, each with an image button, SKU, price 49, stock, weight 0.42 and a Stock history button — The table view. Each row's fields can be edited in place.

Under each variant's name you see its SKU and its name in your other languages. Above the list, Variant readiness says All variants look ready, or how many variants need SKU or price. A variant needs a SKU and a price above zero, and the product cannot be saved until every variant has both.

Search the variants

Type in Search variants… to narrow the list. The search matches a variant's name, its SKU and its option values in any of your languages, so Terracotta, TER-XL and تيراكوتا all find the same variants.

When nothing matches, the list shows No matching variants and Try another SKU, option value, or translated label. Select Clear search to see every variant again.

A search for navy that matches nothing: No matching variants, a hint to try another SKU, option value or translated label, and a Clear search button — No variant matches navy. Clear search brings the full list back.

Edit one variant, and its more settings

On the Variants tab, find the variant under Review generated variants.
Change SKU, Price, Stock quantity or Weight (kg).
For the rest, select More settings on the card. The button then reads Fewer settings.
Select Save at the top of the page.

The card for Terracotta / XS opened with Fewer settings: SKU, price 49, stock 2 and weight 0.42, then compare-at price 58, cost per item 20, Track inventory on, Allow backorder off and a Stock history link — One variant opened to all its settings.

Field	What it does	Rules
SKU	Your code for this variant, used in orders, packing slips and exports.	Required. Unique across your whole store, deleted products included. Up to 100 characters.
Price	What the customer pays for this variant.	Required, above zero.
Stock quantity	How many you have. Customers cannot buy more than this while Track inventory is on and Allow backorder is off.	Zero or more.
Weight (kg)	The variant's weight in kilograms, for your own records. Customers do not see it.	Optional.
Compare-at price	The original price, shown crossed out beside the price.	Optional. Must be higher than the price.
Cost per item	What the variant costs you. Customers never see it. It is used for margin and profit figures.	Optional, zero or more.
Track inventory	Takes sold units off the stock count when an order is confirmed.	On by default.
Allow backorder	Lets customers order when the stock is zero.	Only works while Track inventory is on.

A new number typed in Stock quantity is saved as a stock change: the variant's stock history gets a line reading Changed on the product page, with the stock before and after and the date. The stock history does not name who saved it; the product’s History tab does, as a Stock updated entry (on Starter and up — see product history). Only the variants whose number you changed are touched, so orders that arrive while the page is open keep their units. If an order did take stock from that variant before you saved, your number is not saved: the field shows the stock as it is now, the rest of the save goes through, and a red message says Saved, except the stock of … with the variant's name and its stock. Check the count and type it again.

To record a delivery, a breakage or a recount with its own reason, use Stock history instead. It opens the stock window on the stock as last saved. See Adjust stock and see its history. The Stock history link appears only for variants that have been saved, with the hint Every change made here is kept in the stock history.

If saving fails, the message says why and names the code — for example Another variant already uses the SKU LY-TLSD-TER-M. Choose another SKU., or A deleted product still uses the SKU LY-HRSS-SND. Choose another SKU. when the code belonged to a product you deleted. A SKU over 100 characters, or a compare-at price that is not higher than the price, is refused with a message in English from the server, for example one that ends “Compare-at price must be greater than sale price.” The message does not say which variant, so check each variant’s SKU and compare-at price, correct the one that breaks the rule, and save again. Could not save changes. on its own means the save failed for a reason the store did not give: select Save again in a moment.

The variant actions menu

Select Actions above the list for two tools that work on the whole list:

Action	What it does
Apply base prices	Copies the price, compare-at price and cost from the Pricing tab to every variant. Stock, weight, the SKUs and the inventory switches stay as they are, except that a variant with no SKU gets one made for it. The console says Applied to all variants.
Paste variant updates	Opens a box where you paste SKU, price and stock for many variants at once. See Paste SKU, price and stock from a spreadsheet.

The Actions menu open above the variants table, with Apply base prices and Paste variant updates — Two whole-list tools under Actions.

Apply base prices replaces the prices of every variant, including ones you set by hand, so use it when every size should cost the same. If you used it by mistake, leave the page without saving and choose Leave page to throw the change away. The Pricing tab has the same tool as Apply prices to all variants.

Select variants and edit them together

Tick the box on each variant you want to change, on its card or at the start of its table row. A bar appears above the list with the number selected, for example 3 selected.
Fill in only what you want to change: Price, Cost per item or Stock quantity. Empty boxes leave each variant as it is.
To switch inventory tracking or backorders, choose Yes or No in Track inventory: No change or Allow backorder: No change.
Select Apply bulk edit.
Select Save at the top of the page.

Three variants ticked and the bulk bar above them showing 3 selected, a price of 45 typed, empty cost and stock boxes, Track inventory: No change and Allow backorder: No change, with Apply bulk edit and Cancel — Only the price is filled, so only the price of the three ticked variants changes.

The changes go to the ticked variants only, even though the confirmation reads Applied to all variants. A stock number set this way is saved as a stock change on each variant, like one typed on its card. The variants stay ticked, so you can apply another change. Select Cancel to untick them all and empty the bar.

Paste SKU, price and stock from a spreadsheet

Select Actions, then Paste variant updates.
Paste one line for each variant: the SKU, the price and the stock, separated by commas or tabs. Rows copied from a spreadsheet are separated by tabs, so they paste as they are.
Select Apply pasted updates. The box closes and the variants show the new values.
Check the variants, then select Save.

The paste box with three lines, LY-TLSD-TER-S, 49, 6 and two more, and the Apply pasted updates button below, above a list that starts with Terracotta / XS and Terracotta / XL — These lines are in S, M, L order, but the list starts with XS. Applied as shown, they would swap SKUs, so match the list order.

How the lines are read:

The first line updates the first variant in the list, the second line the second, and so on. Lines are matched by their position, not by the SKU in them.
The SKU on a line replaces the variant's SKU. The price and stock replace its price and stock, and a changed stock is saved as a stock change.
Leave a value empty to keep it, for example ,52, changes only the price. Use plain numbers, with no currency and no thousands separators: write 1250, not 1,250, because a comma always starts the next value.
Extra lines beyond the number of variants are ignored.

Warning

Put the lines in the same order as the variants in the list as it shows now, with search cleared — the list is not always in size order. A line in the wrong place gives that variant another variant's SKU, price and stock. Before you save, check each card: if a SKU is now used twice, saving fails.

Choose the photo a variant shows

Give a variant its own photo so customers see the right colour when they choose it. The photo must already be in the product's gallery on the Media tab. See Add product photos and choose the main one.

Select the image square on the variant's card, or the image button in its table row.
In Choose image, select a photo from the product's gallery. The main photo is marked Primary.
Select Save at the top of the page.

The Choose image window with a No image tile and two photos of the terracotta dress, the first marked Primary — The product's own photos. No image removes the variant's photo.

To take a photo off a variant, open Choose image and select No image. A variant can show one photo.

On the storefront, when a customer chooses a variant that has a photo, the gallery moves to that photo. A variant with no photo leaves the gallery where it is.

If the product has no photos yet, the window shows No images yet and Upload product images first, then choose one here. Select Upload image to go to the Media tab. A new product must be saved once before you can add photos.

When a save deletes variants

A save deletes every saved variant that is no longer in the list — after you remove a value or an option, regenerate without a combination, or clear the variants. Deleting a variant also deletes its SKU, stock and stock history, so when any of them still has stock, a stock history or past orders, Save asks first.

Make your changes, for example remove XS and XL from the Terracotta dress's sizes.
Select Save. Delete variants with stock or history? names the variants: Saving deletes Terracotta / XS and Terracotta / XL for good, with their SKUs, stock and stock history. Past orders keep their own record of what was bought.
Select Delete and save to delete them and save everything else, or Cancel to save nothing. After Cancel, your changes stay on screen, so you can put a value back or leave the page without saving.

The Delete variants with stock or history? prompt naming Terracotta / XS and Terracotta / XL, with Cancel and Delete and save — The save waits for your answer. Cancel sends nothing.

A variant with no stock and no history is deleted without a question. Past orders are not changed: each order keeps the name, SKU and price of what was bought.

Clear all variants

Clear variants when a product should go back to being a single item with one price and one stock count.

On the Variants tab, at the bottom of Product options, select Clear variants. The button is greyed while there are no variants.
In Clear all variants?, select Clear variants to confirm, or Cancel.
Select Save at the top of the page.

The Clear all variants? prompt explaining that every generated variant is removed and the product goes back to a single default variant after saving, with Cancel and Clear variants — Nothing is deleted until you save.

Clearing empties the review list, the search, the selection and the paste box at once. When you save, the options go, and the product keeps one variant — the one its Pricing tab shows — with the Pricing tab's price, SKU and stock. The other variants are deleted; if any of them has stock or history, Save asks first, as above. From then on, change the product's price and stock on its Pricing tab.