External variant groups

External variant groups link separate products together as visual variants on the storefront. For example, three product pages for a clothes rail in Black Oak, White and Walnut can show as color swatches that jump between each other. This is cross-product grouping, and it's different from a single product's own variants.

External variant groups need a plan that includes External Variants (Growth or higher).

Where to find it

Go to Settings → External Variant Groups, or open /settings/variant-groups.

Add a variant group

1. Click Add Variant Group.
2. Fill in:
   • Internal Name — your name for the group, for example "Clothes Rail Colors".
   • Display Name (Storefront) — the label shoppers see, for example "Colour".
   • Display Type — Swatch (color circles, with a color per product), Image (product thumbnails) or Text (text labels).
3. Click Create.

Groups appear as rows showing the name, display type and product count. Click a row to expand it.

Add products to a group

1. Expand the group and click Add Product.
2. Fill in:
   • Product — search by name or SKU. Products already in the group aren't offered.
   • Label — the swatch or variant label, for example "Black Oak".
   • Swatch Color — the color to show, for the Swatch display type.
   • Sort Order — the product's position in the group.
   • Swatch Image — optional. Upload an image for patterns a single color can't show, like checks, stripes or prints. It's used instead of the color or thumbnail. For the Image type, the product's thumbnail is used if you don't upload one.
3. Click Add.

Use the edit and remove icons on a product to change its details or take it out of the group.

Import groups from a CSV file

If you have many groups to set up, import them in one go:

1. Click Import CSV.
2. Click Download template to get a sample file.
3. Fill in one row per product, using the columns group, display_name, display_type, sku, label, color_hex, image_url and sort_order. A group is created if its name isn't already in use. Otherwise the product is added to the existing group.
4. Choose your file and click Check file to validate it without importing anything.
5. Click Import.

If there are errors, nothing is imported. Each error names its line number, counting the header as line 1, so the first row of data is line 2.

Find a group

Use the Search groups, products or SKUs... box to filter the list. A group also matches when one of its products matches, and the row shows which products matched.

How groups reach your channels

• BigCommerce — the group is sent as a metafield when its member products sync. There's nothing extra to do.
• Shopify — click the sync icon (Publish as a Shopify combined listing) on the group. Fulify shows the result for each Shopify store, including how many products are in the live combined listing and any products that were left out, with the reason.

Related

• Variant options
• Variants and options
• Sync products