Variations

Listings can offer multiple products. These are called variations. A set of variations is defined by options which vary per-product. For instance, imagine a listing offering multiple Color options such as Red, Blue, Yellow, Black. That would be 1 listing, with 1 option, for a total of 4 variations.

Listings, rows, and parent_skus

Rows in Shop Uploader templates are products. Listings list products for sale. Listings can offer a single product or multiple products (variations).

So, each row can be either an entire listing or a variation. If there are multiple rows (products) attached together, then that set of rows will become a listing and each row is a variation within that listing.

To attach rows together we use the parent_sku. If multiple rows have the same parent_sku, they will be attached together and uploaded as variations within a single listing.

If there is no parent_sku, the row is a listing offering a single product.

Here is an example where each row is a separate listing:

Each row is its own listing because there is no parent_sku.

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Here is an example where each row is a variation within one listing:

Each row is a variation within the same listing because they share a parent_sku.

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Shop Uploader can support all your listings in one template. Without a parent_sku, each row will be it’s own listing. With a parent_sku, all rows with the same parent_sku will be uploaded together.

Here is an example of single-product listings and variations together:

This table shows 4 listings, 2 single-product listings, 2 listings with variations.

Variation options

A variation without options is no variation at all. The examples above are a simplified and missing options. Let’s look at the following example:

How could the customer make a selection between these variations? There’s no apparent difference between them. There are no options to choose from.

Shop Uploader templates have 4 columns for options:

Etsy supports two options, so we provide option1 and option2. Each of these columns is a pair of name and value. The option_name describes what is changing — Size, Color, etc.. The option_value describes the variation’s value for that option — Small, Red, etc..

A listing’s variation options might look something like this:

Considerations

Etsy requires that all possible combinations of variations are supplied. Notice how in the above example, there is no option combination for (Large, Black). There’s no need to worry about that. Shop Uploader will always fill out your missing option combinations with DUMMY products. These will be disabled by default, not displayed to your customers, and obviously labeled with a DUMMY SKU.

Custom vs built-in options

Up to this point, we have only been working with custom options. Anything that you type into the option1_name or option2_name is a custom option. You can also make variation options with Etsy’s built-in options. These are called category-specific attributes.

Any of the _underscore_columns can be used to create your variation options. This is perfect for listings that will have variations that are exactly the same as one of the available category-specific attributes. In-fact, it’s better to use _underscore_columns if it’s a perfect fit for your product.

Remember: It’s better to have a clear listing that doesn’t confuse your customers. They already get confused easily enough. Don’t use an _underscore_column as your variation option unless it’s the exact words you would want to describe your variation options.

To create variation options using an _underscore_column it looks like this:

Those blank option_value columns are on purpose.

It’s best practice to leave the option_values blank when using _underscore_columns to create variations. Instead, you will just fill out the _underscore_columns themselves. This way we don’t have to duplicate the data and there’s no chance of mismatching and typos.

A full example would look like this:

Bringing it all together

If you’ve followed along thus far, you know the difference between listings, variations, products, and rows. You also know how to combine rows into listings with parent_sku to create variations. Basically, you know how to create variations.

I’ll leave you with one final example bringing all the concepts together:

Look at all those beautiful variations 🤩

Linking images to variations

Did you know you can also link images to variations?

Etsy’s variation limits

Etsy listings support 70 unique values for each option.

That means 70 unique option1_value, 70 unique option2_value.

In the above example, we used: