Product Options
Product options are how you build configurable products with variants. If the same item comes in multiple sizes, colors, or materials, product options are what tie those versions together.
What product options do
A product option is a choice a customer makes between different versions of the same product. Size is an option. Color is an option. Material is an option. Each option has a set of values, and each combination of values becomes its own variant with its own SKU and its own stock.
Take a t-shirt. You sell it in three sizes (Small, Medium, Large) and three colors (Black, White, Navy). Those are two options with three values each. Combined, they produce nine variants. Each variant is a real, sellable simple product with its own code, and all nine sit under one configurable parent product called "Classic Tee".
Commerce Kitty can generate those variants for you once the options and values are set up. You do not have to create each combination by hand.
Options versus attributes
This is the most common source of confusion in the catalog, so it is worth being blunt about it.
- Attributes describe one product. Brand is an attribute. A mug has one brand. Setting it does not create a new product.
- Options create variants of a product. Size is an option. A t-shirt sold in Small, Medium, and Large is three distinct sellable items.
The test is simple. If changing the value means a different physical thing gets shipped, it is an option. If changing the value just updates a description, it is an attribute.
Product option fields
Code
A unique identifier for the option. Keep it lowercase and obvious. size, color, material. The code is used in the API, in imports, and when plugins map marketplace options onto your options.
Name
The human-readable label for the option. This is what shows up on the product edit form and, depending on the channel, what customers see as the selector label. Common names are "Size", "Color", "Material", "Pack Size".
Position
Controls the order options appear in on forms and in generated variant names. Options with higher positions appear first. Use this to make sure customers see Size before Color, or whatever order fits your products.
Values
The list of choices for this option. For Size, that might be Small, Medium, and Large. Each value has its own code and label. You can add as many as you need, and you can keep adding more later as your catalog grows.
Building a configurable product
Once the options are defined, create a configurable product and pick which options it uses. Commerce Kitty walks through every combination of values and creates a variant for each one. You then set the code and price on each variant and the configurable product is ready to list.
You do not need a separate option per product. Create Size once and reuse it on every configurable product that has sizes. The same goes for Color and Material. Reusing options keeps your catalog consistent and your imports predictable.
Removing a value from an option after variants have been generated can orphan those variants. Plan your values carefully before you start generating variants at scale.