Variation Relationships for Clothing & Accessories
Variations allow customers to choose the desired color and/or size of a product from a single detail page. This provides a cleaner customer buying experience.
Without variation relationships, every unique size and color combination for a product would be listed separately, resulting in a poor customer experience.
Video Tutorial
Creating Variations with a Flat File
- Learn how to properly set up your variation theme and product relationships.
Overview
The Parent product is the product that customers locate through search and browse. The Child product displays when a variation is selected by the buyer. The relationship of parent to child is the variation theme: size, color, or size- color.
There are three components to a Parent-Child relationship
Buyable products, related to a Parent product and varied by size, color, or both.
Relationship:
Parent
Non-buyable products, displayed in search results.
Child
Buyable products, related to a Parent product and varied by size, color, or both.
Variation theme
Defines how the products are related to each other: size, color, or both.
All Clothing & Accessories categories support variation relationships. Use variations in the Baby category to minimize the number of similar items listed separately.
Examples
Parent: Otterbox iPhone cover
Child: Otterbox iPhone cover in Gunmetal Grey.
Parent: Bicycle helmet
Child: Small, red bicycle helmet
Parent: Men's dress shirt
Child: Men's large, blue dress shirt
When to use variation relationships
Use Single Variations (Size or Color)
- The product is one-size-fits-all, but with a variety of colors.
- The product is available in different sizes but only one color.
Use Double Variations (Size-Color)
- An identical product comes in a variety of sizes and colors.
- You are selling the same products that another seller lists in different sizes and colors.
No Variations
- The product varies by pattern, material, design, or style.
- The product has no different sizes or colors.
Create variations
When creating variations for your inventory file upload, you must provide information in these required fields:
| sku | The item SKU. |
| parentage | Defines whether the product is a Parent product or a Child (variation) of the main product. |
| parent-sku | If the product is a Child, list the SKU of the Parent. |
| relationship-type | If the product is a Child (a different size, color, or both) of a Parent, enter the value "variation." For Child items only. |
| variation-theme | The parameter by which the Parent product may vary: size, color, or size-color. The value for this field should be the same for both the parent and child SKU. |
Required
- Fully describe each Child product so it will be included in browse and search results.
- Include size and color to the Child product title.
- Use SKUs to build relationships.
- List the Child offers under the Parent SKU in your inventory upload files or XML.
Prohibited
- Do not include price and quantity values for Parent products.
- Do not include size or color in the Parent title.
- Do not enter a variation theme other than size, color, or size-color.
- Do not link any products to the Parent product that are not a variation of size or color.
XML Help
