Why a variant is not just a product with a longer name
Without variants, a shop selling a shirt in four sizes and three colours makes twelve separate products, names them carefully, and hopes nobody types one wrong. It works, and many shops run that way for years. But it gets harder with every new style, and renaming a style means editing twelve products.
With variants, the shirt is created once. StoreWave knows the twelve items belong together, keeps them together in your catalogue, and still counts, prices and barcodes each one on its own.
Setting one up
- Create the product and switch on variants.
- Add its options: for example, Size with S, M, L and XL, and Colour with White, Blue and Black.
- StoreWave builds every combination. Fill in the price, stock and barcode for each, or leave the SKU to follow the product’s. Remove any combination you do not stock.
Each variant gets its own name, such as “Oxford Shirt - M / Blue”, which appears on the till, the receipt and every report.
Stock and reordering by variant
Every variant has its own stock count and its own reorder level. That matters more than it sounds: medium and large sell out long before extra small, so you can set a higher warning level on the sizes that move fastest, and StoreWave warns you about those first.
Stock history, purchase orders and deliveries all work on the variant, so you reorder “Oxford Shirt - M / Blue” rather than “some Oxford shirts”.
At the till
Scanning a variant’s barcode adds that exact item. Tapping the product on the screen opens a quick picker for size and colour. The till keeps the whole catalogue, variants included, on the device, so finding an item stays fast.
A customer swapping a size is an exchange: the returned size goes back into stock and the new one comes out, in one step. There is more on returns and exchanges.
Changes to the whole product
Rename the product, change its category or its description, and every variant follows. Prices, barcodes and stock stay per variant, because those are genuinely different for each one.
Labels
When you print labels, each variant gets its own, with its own barcode and, if you choose, its size and colour printed beneath the name.