At parallel, we’re often asked how to structure products on Shopify. It’s one of the most important decisions we help businesses make because it affects your search engine results, how people use your site, and how you manage your stock.
With recent updates to the platform, including the 2,048 variant limit, the best route for your business has changed. Here’s our guide to the two main options and a hybrid approach that might work better for you.
The unified approach – One product, many variants
This is the standard way to set up a store. You create one product, like a wool hat, and add options for different colours and sizes.
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It keeps your collection pages looking clean and organised.
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Customers can see one representative image and click through to see more.
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All your reviews and star ratings stay in one place, which helps build trust with your customers.
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Managing your inventory is much simpler when everything is kept under one product group.
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It’s the way most Shopify themes are designed to work.
There are some downsides to this method. It can be harder to show up in search results for specific terms like "navy blue wool hat" if that variant doesn't have its own page. You might also find the three-option limit restrictive if you have lots of different ways to customise a product.
The individual approach – Separate listings
In this model, every version of a product is listed as its own separate item on your store.
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It makes your store look larger if you only have a few products.
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Each colour or style gets its own page, which is great for capturing specific search traffic.
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Customers can see every available colour immediately on the collection page.
However, this approach can make things more difficult for you and your customers. Your reviews will be split across multiple pages, which might make a new colour look less popular than it really is. It also creates more work for your team, as you’ll need to update prices or descriptions for every single listing rather than just once.
The hybrid solution – Combined listings
For many of the businesses we work with, we recommend a hybrid approach. This uses Shopify’s combined listings app to give you the benefits of both styles. You create separate products for major categories like colour, but link them together on the product page.
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You get individual pages that help with your search rankings.
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Customers can still use swatches to switch between colours seamlessly.
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It provides a professional, high-end feel for your store.
Which route is right for you?
We’ve put together a simple guide to help you decide which path to take.
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Choose variants if you have more than 50 unique styles or your options are basic, like different sizes.
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Choose individual listings if you have fewer than 10 styles and want to fill up your collection pages.
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Choose the hybrid model if your products look very different in each colour and you want to maximise your reach in search results.
| Feature | Choose Unified (Variants) If... | Choose Individual (Split) If... |
| Catalog Size | You have 50+ unique styles. | You have <10 unique styles. |
| SEO Strategy | You want to rank for "Wool Hats." | You want to rank for "Crimson Red Fedora." |
| Visuals | The colors look very similar. | The colors/patterns are wildly different. |
| Complexity | You have simple size/color needs. | You have complex options (100+ combos). |
At parallel, we’re experts in commerce and we’re here to help you build a structure that works for your business. We suggest sticking to the unified variant approach if your products are quite similar. If your variations are visually distinct, the hybrid model is usually the best way to grow
Would you like us to look at your current product setup and suggest which of these options would work best for your business?
