Because of the demand of customers for different versions of a product, most store owners nowadays sell a single product with multiple choices. This crop top by Zara currently has 2 sizes: M, L, and 4 colors: Chocolate, Mink, White, and Mauve. The items with different versions like this are called variable products.
A lot of people know about variable products but very few can tell the difference between variable products, variations, and attributes and that variable products are actually made up of variations and product attributes.
Therefore, in this article, we will walk you through the difference between variable products, variations, and attributes and the reasons why store owners should sell variable products in their stores.
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What are variable products?
A variable product is a product type that lets you sell a single product with different variations. Moreover, each variation can have its own price, stock, image, and you can manage them differently. A shirt with multiple colors or sizes is an example of a variable product.
What are attributes?
A product attribute is the additional information added to a product to define its characteristics. From the customer perspective, these attributes influence the ultimate purchase decision. From a retail perspective, product attributes help organize aisle, departments, and shelf sets.
There are two types of product attributes: tangible and intangible.
Tangible attributes are the physical characteristics of a product. It can be size, color, weight, volume, quantity, or material composition.
For instance, when you consider buying a new car, you will pay attention to some tangible attributes such as the size, color, or the number of seats. If you are looking for a black car with 5 seats, you can search for your desired product based on these tangible attributes.
On the other hand, intangible attributes are such characteristics like price, quality, reliability of a product. Back to the example of a car, the intangible attributes, in this case, can be the price or MPG.
What are variations?
On the other hand, product variations are the options that a customer can choose from when purchasing a product.
In the example of a shirt, supposing the item has two attributes which are size and color. When a potential customer visits your product page, he/she needs to know exactly what size and color you have and whether it is in stock or not. The combination of the attributes and the attribute values forms a variation. In other words, product variations are based on the attributes.
You don’t need to add attributes to a single product. However, with variable products, adding at least one attribute is mandatory because the variations are based on them.
Let dive deeper into a practical example of this crop top from Zara. This crop top has two attributes: size and color. The first attribute has two values: S, M and the second has 4 attribute values, which are Chocolate, Mink, White, and Mauve.
Each combination of two terms (one from the Size attribute, and one from the Color attribute) is a variation. Therefore, this dress has 8 variations as below:
- Medium, Chocolate
- Medium, Mink
- Medium, White
- Medium, Mauve
- Large, Chocolate
- Large, Mink
- Large, White
- Large, Mauve
Alternative terms
However, one thing to note is that not all platforms use the same expression (variable products, attributes, variations) to describe these concepts. They use different terms that have a similar meaning. The table below clearly shows the various terms used on the 5 most popular platforms in the market right now.
| Terms | WooCommerce | Shopify | Magento | OpenCart | BigCommerce |
| Variable product | Variable product | Variable product | Configurable product | Variable product | Option set |
| Attribute | Attribute | Option | Attribute | Option | Option |
| Variation | Variation | Variants | Variation | Variation | Variant/ Variation |
Why should store owners sell variable products?
Product variation is extremely important in the eCommerce industry as it brings several benefits to store owners.
First of all, merchants can get rid of the tedious task of creating separate product listings for every attribute. This is not only time consuming but it also leads to a messy product page when too many pages generate the same product.
Secondly, this function can also put your business’s competitiveness at a higher level when compared to other stores that sell the same kinds of products. As all of the available options are displayed on one page, a variable product tends to attract more attention from customers than a single product.
In the long run, this will lead to brand loyalty among your customers as they are aware that your eCommerce store is diverse and well-stocked and they will return to your store regularly.
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Conclusion
In summary:
- Variable product is the product type that lets you sell with different variations.
- Attributes are extra information about the product.
- Variations are the combination of choices that the customer has when purchasing the product.
As variable products play an important role in the success of one eCommerce store, merchants who know how to take advantage of this feature stand a very high chance of beating their competitors.
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