Skip to main content

How to manage product variants

StoreLinkr automatically groups related products (like different sizes or colors of the same model) into Product Variants. This allows you to manage a single entry for a product family while maintaining individual SKU data for each variation.

How Variants are Generated​

StoreLinkr uses several "Grouping Strategies" to identify which products belong together. Depending on your source system and settings, one of the following strategies is used:

Grouping Strategies​

  1. Brand + Model (Default): The most common strategy. Products with the exact same Brand and Model name are grouped together.
  2. Custom Fields (4 & 5): Some integrations use specific custom fields to store grouping identifiers. StoreLinkr can be configured to use these fields (often fields 4 and 5) for variations.
  3. Group ID: If your source system (like a supplier feed) provides a explicit group_id or parent_id, StoreLinkr uses this to perfectly match variations.
  4. Product Relations: Uses explicit parent-child relationships defined in the source data to build the variant structure.
info

Minimum Requirement: A variant is only created if there are at least 2 matching products. If only one product exists for a group, it remains a standalone product.

The Product Title Builder​

StoreLinkr features a dynamic Product Title Builder that constructs SEO-friendly names for your variants. It avoids redundancy by intelligently combining elements:

  • Logic: It can combine Brand, Model, EAN, SKU, and the original Title.
  • Smart Cleaning: If your original title already contains the Brand or Model (e.g., "Nike Air Max"), and the builder is set to include the Brand, it will strip the redundant Brand from the title string to prevent names like "Nike Nike Air Max".
  • Redundancy Removal: It ensures that if a brand, model, or EAN is already present in the source title, it isn't repeated when building the final variant name.

Managing Variant Options​

Variants are defined by their "Options" (e.g., Size, Color, Material).

  1. Global Management: Navigate to Catalog > Variants and click Manage Options.
  2. Enable/Disable: You can globally enable or disable specific attributes. For example, if you don't want "Material" to be a variation option in your store, you can disable it here.
  3. Facets: StoreLinkr automatically builds "Facets" (attributes) for the variant based on the shared data of all products in the group.

Unique Variant Options​

For a variant to be exported correctly to your sales channels, every product within that variant group must have a unique combination of options.

For example, if you have a "T-Shirt" variant, you cannot have two products that are both "Size: Large" and "Color: Blue". Each product must be distinguishable by its options.

The "Not Unique" Status​

If StoreLinkr detects that two or more products within a variant group share the same option values, the variant will be marked as Not Unique.

  • Impact: Variants with a "Not Unique" status will not be exported to your sales channels.
  • Identification: In the variant overview, these are marked with a red "Not Unique" label. In the variant details, a red alert box will list the problematic products.

Resolving "Not Unique" Status​

There are two primary ways to resolve uniqueness issues:

1. Enable More Global Options​

If your products have additional distinguishing features (e.g., "Material" or "Fit") that are currently disabled, you can enable them globally:

  • Go to Catalog > Variants.
  • Click Manage Options.
  • Enable the relevant attributes.
  • StoreLinkr will automatically rebuild the variants with these new options.

2. Use the Attribute Variations Tool​

Sometimes, the source data is missing an attribute for one or more products, leading to empty values that cause duplicates. You can "enrich" these products manually:

  • Open the Variant Details for the problematic variant.
  • Click the Attribute Variations button.
  • Here you can see a grid of all products and their active options.
  • Toggle Options: You can toggle specific options on or off for this specific variant if they are not relevant.
  • Set Custom Values: If a product has an empty value for an option, click Set Attribute to manually enter a value (e.g., "One Size" or "Default").
  • Saving these custom values will make the product unique and allow the variant to be exported.

Suggested Options​

When viewing a variant with uniqueness issues, StoreLinkr may display a Suggested Options box. This appears if the system detects that enabling a specific global option could potentially resolve the uniqueness conflict based on the available data.

Variant Settings​

In the Variant Settings modal, you can:

  • Enable/Disable Variants: Completely turn off variant grouping for your site. Note that disabling this will unlink all current variants and treat every item as a standalone product.
  • Rebuild Variants: Manually trigger a task to re-evaluate all products and re-group them based on your current strategy.
  • Cleanup: Remove old or empty variants that no longer have matching products.

Pricing in Variants​

StoreLinkr automatically calculates the Price Range for a variant:

  • Minimum Price: The lowest price among all products in the group.
  • Maximum Price: The highest price among all products in the group. These values are synced to your sales channels to show customers a "From €X.XX" price where applicable.

Export Requirements​

For a variant to be exported, it must meet the following criteria:

  1. Unique Options: Every product in the group must have a unique combination of enabled options.
  2. Allowed for Export: The variant (and its products) must meet your active quality rules and filters.
  3. Active Products: At least one product in the group must be available and not archived.