Choose the feature that matches how your products are already organized in Shopify.
How your choices are stored in Shopify | Use | What shoppers do on a product page |
|---|---|---|
Variants within one product | Variant swatches | Select a variant of the current product. |
Separate product listings | Product groups | Follow a swatch to another product in the group. |
Use variant swatches for one product
For example, you have one Linen shirt product with Color values Black, Blue, and Green, and Size values Small, Medium, and Large. Use Variant swatches to display those existing options as colors, images, or buttons.
You do not need to create a product group for those variants.
Follow Set up variant swatches.
Use product groups for separate products
For example, Linen shirt - Black, Linen shirt - Blue, and Linen shirt - Green are three separate Shopify products. Add them to one product group so shoppers can switch between them using swatches.
Grouping links the products together. It does not merge them into one Shopify product.
Follow Create your first product group.
Not sure which setup you have?
In Shopify admin, open Products and select one of the products. If its color choices appear in the Variants section of that product, use Variant swatches. If each color is a separate entry in your Products list, use Product groups.
Using both features
You can use both features in the same store. For example, use Variant swatches for shirts with color variants and Product groups for bags whose colors are separate products.
After setting up either feature, follow Enable swatches in your theme to show the swatches on your storefront.
