How to add product variations to Etsy listings

As an Etsy shop owner, you might have dozens of product variations each with its own variations. To help manage your shop, Etsy uses product variations. Using this feature, you can list your product’s variations under a single listing instead of making a new listing per variant. This article covers how to add product variations to Etsy listings. Additionally, it includes details on linking photos to the variations you create.

This article covers:

• What is an Etsy product variation?
• How to add product variations to Etsy listings
• How to link photos to variants

What are Etsy shipping profiles?

Etsy lets you easily create variants in your listing through the variants section. This lets shop owners consolidate their variants into a single listing instead of one variant per listing. This process can be used for any product and added to existing listings.

What is an Etsy product variation?

Product variants are different options in which you are selling your product. Say you are selling bouncy balls. For this example, your variants could be size, color, or opacity. If you choose the color variant, the only difference between the bouncy balls is their color. 

Do note that this example is only looking at one parent_sku. Different parent_skus can have different variants and properties.

To assist users, Etsy provides several preset variant options that users can choose. If none of the preset options fit the user’s product, they can create their custom variations.

It is important to note that listings can only have two product variants. This limitation means you must determine your product’s main distinctive attributes.

How to add product variations to Etsy listings

To add variants to Etsy listings, you must first log into Etsy. After logging in, navigate to the shop manager page, then click the listings tab. Clicking this brings you to where you can find, create, edit, and delete your Etsy listings.

While on the listings page, find the listing you want to add variants to and open it. While in the listing, scroll down to the variations section. Once here, click the add variations button.

Clicking this opens the add variants popup box. The first portion asks you to choose your first variant name. Your variant name describes the difference between your products. For example, it could be the color, opacity, or size.

Once your variant name is selected, Etsy asks for the variant options. These are the actual differences between your products. For our example, we chose primary color as the variant name. With this in mind, we chose blue, green, yellow, and red as our variant options. Setting these options means we sell four colors of the same bouncy ball.

Additionally, in this menu, you can decide if your products have different prices, quantities, and skus for each variant. To add these differences, click the corresponding checkbox. You will be able to edit these after the popup box closes.

Once you’ve filled in your product’s information, click save and continue. Doing this takes you back to your listing, and your variants will now be listed.

With your variants created, you will now see the options to add different SKUs, prices, and quantities. Just type in the correct information to the corresponding variants.

If you want to bulk-update your price or quantity, select the variants you want to edit, then click the “update price” or “update quantity” button. Doing so opens a new dialogue box where you enter the new values. Once the updated numbers are entered, click save and continue.

How to link photos to variants

Now that you have your variants created, you can link images to them. First, you need to attach images to your Etsy listing. Once that is done, scroll back down to the variants section. In the variants section, click the link photos button. Clicking this opens the link photos popup. In this popup, you can see your variation types and their different options.

Clicking this opens the link photos popup. In this popup, you can see your variation types and their different options.

Click the dropdown for your variant option, click the image you want to link, then click save. Once complete, your images are linked to your variants.