- combined listings
- groupmate
- variants
Shopify parent-child products: How the concept works on Shopify
If you're coming from Amazon, eBay or WooCommerce, you probably already have the concept of a “parent-child product” relationship in your mind. But Shopify has its own corresponding concepts for those kind of relationships.
On Amazon, parent-child products group variations such as different colors and sizes. On WooCommerce, 'child products' can refer to products added to another product as options or components. On eBay, several variations can be sold through one multi-variation listing.
Shopify uses different concepts for these use cases:
What are parent-child products in Shopify?
Generally speaking, a parent-child relationship connects several related products under one overarching product.
However, that can describe two very different relationships.
The first is a 'variation relationship':
- Blue T-shirt
- Red T-shirt
- Green T-shirt
The products are essentially the same but differ in attributes such as color or size.
The second is a 'component relationship':
- Parent: Bicycle
- Child: Bicycle light
- Child: Bicycle basket
- Child: Bicycle lock
Here, the child products are separate items added to or included in another product.
That difference matters because Amazon-style parent-child products are more closely related to Shopify Combined Listings.
Ebay parent-child products are basically the same thing as Shopify Product Variants.
And WooCommerce-style child products are generally more comparable to Shopify bundles or product add-ons.
How Amazon parent-child products work
On Amazon, a parent listing represents the general product. The child products represent the actual variations, such as different colors and sizes.
For example, the parent may represent a T-shirt design, while the individual child ASINs represent:
- Black / Small
- Black / Medium
- White / Small
- White / Medium
The parent product acts as a virtual container that connects the child products. It isn't normally a product that customers can purchase itself.
The child products are the actual buyable products. Each child has its own SKU and inventory and represents one variation within the product family.
On the product page, customers can switch between those children using a variation selector. Images and other displayed information may change depending on which child product is selected.
How eBay variations compare to Shopify variants
eBay creates a similar customer-facing experience, but its underlying concept is different.
Instead of creating a virtual parent product and several separate child listings, eBay generally uses one multi-variation listing. That listing can contain several items that differ by attributes such as color and size.
eBay's model is very close to the native Shopify variants.
However, eBay variations are not supported in every category. When a category is not variation-enabled, the products have to be created as separate listings instead.
Shopify variants: The native product variation model
Shopify's standard solution for product variations is simply called variants.
You create one Shopify product and define up to three product options, such as:
- Color
- Size
- Material
The available combinations can result in up to 2048 [1] product variants. This number was capped at 100 until relatively recently, famously known as the "100 variant limit"
Each variant can have its own price, SKU, barcode, inventory, availability and assigned image.
Customers can easily switch between the variants on the product page.
However, all variants still belong to one Shopify product. This means they generally share:
- one product URL
- one product title
- one product description
- one meta title and description
- one overall product gallery
- one position within collection pages
A selected variant can be linked directly using a URL parameter such as:
/products/example-product?variant=123456789
But that is still the URL of the main product. It doesn't create a fully independent product page for that variant.
Native variants therefore work well when the products don't require independent URLs, galleries or product content.
Shopify Combined Listings for parent-child products
Shopify's closest native equivalent to Amazon-style parent-child products is called 'Combined Listings'.
Combined Listings connect several standalone Shopify products under one parent product. The individual child products remain separate products with their own URLs, titles, descriptions, media galleries, inventory and SKUs.
On the storefront, customers can switch between them using options such as color, size or material.
This combines the customer experience of variants with the flexibility of separate products.
Unfortunately, Shopify's Combined Listings app is only available to merchants using Shopify Plus. For stores on regular plans, a third-party app like groupmate or custom development is required.
Creating parent-child products with groupmate
With groupmate, you can select a set of standalone Shopify products and put them into a group.
The app then displays a variant-style swatch selector on each product page, allowing customers to switch from one product page to another. Just like on Amazon.
Because every variation remains a real Shopify product, each one can have its own:
- SEO-indexable URL
- title and description
- image gallery
- variants
- inventory
- metadata
The twist: with groupmate, there is no virtual 'parent product' at all. None of these products is structurally dependent on another one. groupmate simply creates the relationship between them and displays it to the customer.
backed by 10+ years of Shopify experience ❤ made in germany
Showing one primary product in Shopify collections
Using groupmate, you still can define one product in each group as the primary product.
The primary product is not a technical parent. It is simply the product you want to treat as the main representative of the group for merchandising purposes.
You can then set up your collections so that only the primary product gets listed.
However, many merchants prefer it exactly the other way around. They want every color or style to appear separately in collection pages because this makes the full range more visible and gives every variation its own entry point.
Because groupmate connects normal standalone products, both approaches are possible.
WooCommerce child products vs. Shopify bundles
In the WooCommerce ecosystem, the term “child product” refers to a totally different concept.
WooCommerce child products are a unique feature that allows you to add products to other products as options or components.
For example, a parent product could be a bicycle, while the child products are optional lights, baskets or locks.
This translates more closely to what Shopify calls 'bundles'.
Shopify's own Bundles app primarily supports fixed bundles and multipacks. More complex setups usually require a third-party bundle or product-options app.
This solves a different problem from groupmate or Combined Listings:
- Combined Listings and groupmate: several products represent variations of the same general product.
- Bundles and child-product apps: several products are sold together or selected as components.
Grouping products differently on Shopify, Amazon and eBay
Separate Shopify products can also be useful when you sell through several marketplaces.
For example, an eBay category may not allow multi-variation listings. In that case, each variation needs to be exported as a separate listing.
The same applies when:
- Etsy products are separate listings
- an inventory system stores every color as a separate product
- each Amazon child ASIN is connected to an individual Shopify product
- the marketplace requires a different grouping structure from Shopify
However, storefront grouping and marketplace grouping are separate layers.
groupmate controls how the products are presented on Shopify, while your marketplace or feed app determines how they are grouped on Amazon, eBay or Etsy.
Which Shopify parent-child product setup should you use?
- Use Shopify variants when one shared URL, description and gallery are sufficient.
- Use Shopify Combined Listings when every variation needs its own product page and your store uses Shopify Plus.
- Use groupmate when every variation should remain a separate product, you want an Amazon-style switcher and your store doesn't use Shopify Plus.
- Use a bundle or grouped-product app when the child products are components, add-ons or products sold together.
- Use a marketplace integration when Shopify and Amazon, eBay or Etsy require different product groupings.
Footnotes
- Do you remember the mobile game 2048 that was all the rage about ten years ago? I don't know how many hours I've lost to this.
