Product Versions

A version is one specific way a product is sold. A Medium black t-shirt. The 12" pressing. The FLAC download of a beat. The signed edition. Each version carries its own price, its own stock count, its own photos, and its own way of reaching the buyer.

If your product only comes one way, you can ignore this page entirely. A product with no versions is sold at its own price, exactly as you typed it.

Options, and what varies

Versions are built out of options. An option is the thing a product varies by: Size, Color, Format, Fit, Edition. You can put up to three options on one product.

At the top of the Versions section there is a Varies by row. It starts out saying "nothing yet". Click Add option and you get:

• You already use, a list of options you have defined elsewhere in your store, so the second product picks rather than retypes.
• A box to type a brand new one, like Format.

Whatever you type here joins your store-wide option library automatically, so the next product can pick it. You never have to set anything up in advance.

Click the small X on an option chip to take that option off the product. Doing so also strips it from every version below.

The versions table

Once versions exist you get a table, and the shape of the table is the shape of your product. There is one column per option, then:

• Price for that version
• Stock, how many you have
• Delivery, how buyers get that particular one, with a "+ download" tag if it also hands over files and a "default" tag on your default version
• A pencil to edit the row, and a trash icon to remove it

A blank cell showing Not set means that version was created before you added that option. Open it and pick a value.

Adding one version

1. Open the product, either while creating it or through Edit product.
2. In the Versions section, click Add version.
3. Pick a value on each option. Each option gets its own picker, showing the values you already use and a box to type a new one.
4. Fill in the rest, covered below.
5. Click Save Variant.

Option values

Each picker lists the values already in your library for that option, plus any value another version of this same product is already using. Click one to pick it, or type a new one at the bottom and press Enter.

Typing black when Black already exists reuses the existing value rather than creating a near-duplicate, so your store does not end up with four spellings of the same thing.

When the option is a color (either you named it "Colour" or "Color", or you set it to show as a swatch), the picker also gives you a color wheel. Give the color a name buyers recognise: "Forest Green" reads better than a code.

How buyers get it

Same three choices as the product itself: Ships to the buyer, Downloaded, or Fulfilled by you. This is per version, and it is the whole reason a vinyl and a download can live on one release.

Price and stock

Both required. Price can differ per version, which is how a 2XL costs a little more or a FLAC costs more than an MP3. Stock is the number you have on hand for that exact version.

Pay what you want

Tick Allow customers to pay what they want and this version's price becomes a minimum. Fans can pay more.

Buyers of this version also get the downloadable files

Only shown on a version that ships, because a download already hands files over. This is the vinyl-with-a-download-code case: the record goes in the post and the buyer gets the files too.

Shipping for this version

Also only shown on a version that ships. It is the same set of shipping fields the product has: type, cost, weight, dimensions, label size, delivery zones.

Leave a field blank and the version uses the product's setting. Fill one in when this version genuinely costs a different amount to send, because a record and a cassette rarely weigh the same.

Set as default variant

One version per product can be the default. It is what fans see first on the product page: the photos shown, the price in the catalog, the option pre-selected. If another version already holds the title you will be told, so uncheck that one first.

Variant images

Each version has its own photo gallery. Click Add Another Image for extra shots (front, back, detail). A red shirt should have red shirt photos.

Photos are optional. A version with none falls back to the product's cover image, which is exactly right for a version that has nothing to photograph, like a file format.

Generating every version at once

Three colors, four sizes and two fits is 24 versions. Adding those one at a time is 24 trips through the dialog, so there is a generator.

1. In the Versions section, click Generate versions.
2. For each option, pick its name and tick the values you sell it in. Click Add another option for a second or third.
3. Watch the count line: it reads something like Size (4) x Color (3) = 12 versions, and tells you how many already exist and how many would be created.
4. Set a price, a stock count, and a delivery method for the new versions. You can override the price or stock on any individual row in the grid.
5. Drop rows you do not actually sell by clicking the trash icon on that row. It changes to skipped and you can put it back.
6. Click Create N versions.

Every row is labelled so you know what is about to happen: already exists, new, or skipped.

The two changes that are not automatic

If the grid touches versions you already sell, a separate box appears with two tick boxes, both off:

• Also set the price and stock above on the versions that already exist. Their photos, delivery, and shipping are left alone either way.
• Delete the versions this grid does not cover. It names every one that would go. Their stock goes with them.

Tick either and you get a confirmation naming exactly what happens before anything is applied. Nothing is saved until you save the product.

There is a ceiling of 250 versions per generation. A grid bigger than that is almost always a mis-click.

Editing a version

1. Open the product in Edit product.
2. Find the row in the versions table and click the pencil.
3. Change what you need and click Save Variant.

Changes go live when you save the product. Orders already placed are unaffected.

Deleting a version

Click the trash icon on the version's row, then save the product. The version disappears from your storefront, and the stock on it goes with it.

Past orders are untouched. Every order records what the buyer was sold as at the moment of the sale, so an old order still reads "Format: FLAC" even after that version is gone or renamed. See orders.

No two versions can be the same

Two versions of one product cannot sit on the same combination of options. If you try, you are told which existing version already holds it before you lose anything you typed. Change one of the options, or edit that version instead.

What buyers see

On the product page, each option becomes a row of buttons. Colors render as swatches when you gave them a color, everything else renders as a labelled button.

Picking a value narrows what is left, so choosing Black leaves only the sizes that exist in black. Anything sold out is greyed out and cannot be picked, and the cart line shows which version was chosen, like "Format: FLAC", so two versions of one release never look like duplicates at two prices.

Stock is per version

A black Medium selling out does not affect the white Mediums. Only the black Medium goes unavailable.

The products list shows how many of a product's versions are currently out of stock, right next to the version count, which is a quick way to spot what needs restocking. For how stock behaves during checkout, see stock and checkout.

Where to go next

• Back to product basics: creating a product
• Reusing options across your whole store: product options
• Selling files: digital downloads
• Formats of a release: music
• Buy a label after the order comes in: shipping and fulfillment