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How the catalogue works

A product is the record for the item — the thing you'd point at on a shelf and call by one name. A variant is a specific version of it: a particular size, colour, or other combination. A product that only comes in one form still has exactly one variant.

The variant is the unit of sale​

Stock levels, order lines, sales prices, average cost and channel references all point at a variant, never at the product. A product on its own isn't stocked, priced or ordered — it only groups the variants that are.

Status is independent on each​

A product and its variants each carry their own catalogue status — Draft, Active, Archived or Discontinued — set separately. Changing a product's status doesn't change its variants' statuses, and the other way round.

What lives on the product versus the variant​

A product carries the details that describe the item as a whole:

  • Name and description
  • Brand
  • Taxonomy category
  • Cover image

A variant carries the details specific to that particular version:

  • SKU
  • Its own catalogue status
  • Tax category and accounting category
  • Weight
  • Country of origin and HS code
  • Rotation strategy
  • Its own image — if a variant has no image of its own, it shows the product's image instead