A product page that sells one thing is easy. The trouble starts with the second colour, the third size and the question "would you like it gift-wrapped?". Model those badly and you end up with forty near-identical products, stock counts that lie and buyers who cannot find the version they want. Model them well and one product page sells every version cleanly. This guide explains variants, options, SKUs, stock and add-ons, when to use each, and how to set them up in a Vonza store. The product page is online store; for physical goods specifically, see sell physical products.
Variants, options and SKUs: the words
An option is a question the buyer answers: Size, Colour, Material, Format. An option has values: Small, Medium, Large.
A variant is one combination of values: Medium in Blue in Cotton. Variants are what you actually sell and ship, so each one carries its own price, stock, photo and a code.
That code is the SKU, the stock-keeping unit: your internal name for exactly one variant, such as TEE-M-BLU. A SKU is for you and your packing table, not the buyer. Keep it short, consistent and unique.
An add-on (Vonza calls them extras) is a yes-or-no or pick-from-a-list extra on top of whatever variant the buyer chose: gift wrap, engraving, a rush fee, an extra set of blades. It has its own price and stock, and it does not multiply your variants.
When to use variants
Use variants when the buyer must choose one version and only one, and when the versions differ in price, stock or appearance:
- Clothing sizes and colours
- Prints in three sizes
- A planner in dated and undated editions
- A preset pack for two different editing apps
- Coffee in three bag weights
The test is: would you ever hold stock of these separately, or charge differently for them? If yes, they are variants. If every version is the same thing with a different label, it is probably one product.
When to use add-ons
Use add-ons when the buyer is adding something to the chosen variant rather than choosing between versions:
- Gift wrap and a handwritten card
- Engraving or personalisation
- An extended warranty or priority support
- A printed copy with a digital product
- A commercial licence with a template or a font
Add-ons keep the variant grid small. A tee in 5 sizes and 4 colours is 20 variants. Add "gift wrap" as a fourth option and it becomes 40 variants with doubled stock counts to manage. Add it as an add-on and it stays at 20, with gift wrap tracked once.
Step 1: Add options to a product
In Vonza, open the product and go to the Variants rail. Add up to 3 options, such as Size, Colour or Material, and type the values for each. Every combination becomes a variant with its own price, stock, SKU and photo. The server allows up to 50 values per option and 2,048 variants per product, which is far more than you want; two or three well-named options with a handful of values each is the sweet spot.
Name options the way buyers think. "Size" beats "Dimension". Values in the order a buyer expects, small to large, keep the dropdown readable.
Step 2: Set prices, SKUs and photos per variant
With the grid built, go through each variant:
- Price. Variants can share the product's price or carry their own, so a large print can cost more than a small one. A compare-at price shows struck through next to the price, and a scheduled sale can run for the product with a start and an end date.
- SKU. Give each variant a code you will recognise on a packing slip. A pattern such as
PRODUCT-SIZE-COLOURscales well. - Photo. Attach the photo of that exact variant. When a buyer picks Blue, the page shows the blue one. This single detail does more for conversion than most copy changes.
If you imported products from Shopify, the Option name and value columns, Variant SKU, Variant Price and Variant Compare At Price came across already; see move your store from Shopify.
Step 3: Track stock per variant
Turn on Track stock and the product stops selling at zero and counts down with every order. With variants, each option combination keeps its own stock, so selling out of Medium Blue leaves Large Blue on sale.
Set a low stock alert and you get an email when a variant falls to that number; the store-wide default lives in Store settings and can be set per product. On the product page, buyers see an "Only N left" chip as stock runs low and "Out of stock" at zero.
If you can restock quickly, choose to keep selling when out of stock; the product shows as available to order rather than sold out. If not, let buyers leave their email and be told when the variant is back; the Customers section shows who is waiting, and the request re-arms when you restock. The detail is in back-in-stock emails and low-stock alerts.
Bundles follow the same rules: when a bundle of your products sells, each item's own stock is decremented.
Step 4: Add extras
Still on the Variants rail, add extras. Each group of extras has a name and a rule: pick one, or pick several, with an optional minimum and maximum, and a tick if the group is required. A product takes up to 10 groups with up to 30 options each, and every option has its own price and, if you want, its own stock.
Some patterns that work:
- Gift wrap as a single optional extra with a small price.
- Engraving as a required group when the product is always personalised, with "none" as a free option.
- Finish as a pick-one group when the finish does not change the stock you hold, such as matte or gloss on a print made to order.
- Bundle extras for a digital product: a printed copy, a commercial licence, a 30-minute walkthrough.
Extras appear under the options on the product page and on the order, so your packing slip shows exactly what was added.
Step 5: Price the extras honestly
Extras are where stores quietly annoy buyers. Two rules:
Show the extra's price next to it, which the store does, and make sure the order total updates as it is ticked. Never make a required extra carry a price that should have been in the headline; buyers notice, and the recent-sales popup and reviews will tell the next buyer.
If a charge applies to the whole order rather than one product, such as handling, rush delivery or a donation, use the additional fee on the Pricing rail instead of an extra. It adds a line at checkout that is either always added or chosen by the buyer, and it is ticked by default or not as you decide.
Step 6: Keep the page readable
A variant grid is only useful if a buyer can get through it. Keep options to the two or three that matter. Put the photo swap to work so each colour shows itself. Use highlights with pictures for the differences between versions that a dropdown cannot explain, such as what a "pro" edition of a template includes. And write the description for the product, not the variant; the variant details belong in the option labels.
If versions differ so much that they need their own description, they are separate products. Group them in a collection instead, so a collection link opens the store filtered to the family.
Variants and extras for digital products
Everything above works for downloads too. A template sold for two apps is two variants, each with its own file set. A preset pack in a mobile and a desktop edition is two variants at two prices. A font with a personal and a commercial licence is a product with a licence option, or one product with a commercial-licence extra. Digital variants have no stock to track unless you choose to limit copies, so stock tracking stays off. See sell digital products for how delivery works.
Where to start
Open a product in your Vonza dashboard, go to the Variants rail and model the real choices your buyers make: two or three options with their values, a photo on each variant, and the extras as extras. New to Vonza? The store is part of every Vonza plan with a 14-day free trial; the plans are on pricing. Shipping those variants? The next step is shipping rates, zones and local pickup.
