How to manage product variants in Odoo
Manage your product variants both internally and on your webstore
Working with Product Variants
Manufacturers many times produce the same product in different sizes or
Using variants is a very helpful way to manage your products that influence other Odoo apps, starting with Manufacturing - create only a BoM for the product template, adding relevant information for the variants.
For eCommerce, customers can view and select the variant they wish to purchase.
If you sell socks, Socks A, Socks B and Socks C, these are called the product templates. Socks A, colour black, size M is a variant, where the colour and size are the attributes. The product variants have an impact on other features:
Inventory - the inventory displays all the variants of the products. “Socks A, Pink, S”,"Socks A, Pink, M", “Socks C, Yellow, XL”, and so on.
Price - the prices can be the same for both templates and variants, or you can charge extra for the variants, with the template’s price as a base. Socks A = 10€; Socks A, Black = 15€ (+ 5€).
Barcode - every variant can have its own barcode/SKU, the code and barcode are associated with the variants, not the templates.
Picture - the variants can have their own picture of inventory and eCommerce.
Other - updating the template’s fields, the variant’s are automatically updated as well.
In this article, we’ll help you to manage the product variants with Odoo’s Sales and Website applications.
Configuration and management
Activate the product variants in the Sales application’s Settings, under the Configuration menu. Tick the Attributes and Variants box and save.
Click the link to be automatically taken to the Attributes page or, in the same menu as above, select Attributes. Create attributes such as colour, size or other options in line with your products. To add values, go to Attribute Values from the Configuration menu, select Create and on the attribute line choose one attribute earlier created and type in the value (blue, XL, 8GB).
The variants are ready to be included in the product’s form. Select the product from Products on the Catalog menu, hit Edit and on the Variants tab click on Add an Item.
Associate different barcodes and internal references to each variant by going to the Catalog menu, then Product Variants. Select the product and edit the information on the form.
In the Products main page, you can see how many variants a product has under its name.
To change the prices on product variants, click the Variant Prices button, under Save.
Locate the attribute and edit the price by hand on the last column.
To publish product variants on your online shop, go to the Products page and on the form click on the Unpublished tab on top.
You’ll be redirected to a page on your website with the variants. The way the variants are arranged on the website can be changed.
From version 11.0 on wards you can also decide if you want to create variants or not. You can also create on the condition of selling the product.
This can be very useful if you use don't have stock for all the SKU's and this way you can have that option on the website without having the burden of a big list of products that will probably not be used at all
In the Attributes page, the Type filter determines the way we see the variants:
Radio is a simple round icon for selection
Select will show a drop-down list
Colour separates different colour attributes in small coloured squares
Afterward, save the changes.
Modify the page to your liking. Hit the Customize button and a drop-down menu with options will appear for you activate or deactivate accordingly (add ratings and payment options, for example).
Change the layout with the Edit button on the top right of the page. After everything is done, publish the page by activating the Unpublished button next to New and Edit. If you need to remove a product variant from your store, in the Product Variants page all the products and its variants can be seen, select the intended product, click on Action and Archive.
Undo this by selecting the Archived option on the Filter icon, tick the boxes needed, Click Action and Unarchive.
The Website application has listed in its Catalog only the products that are published. However, in the store’s online page all your products are shown - this isn’t something to worry about, they are only there to facilitate the publishing products. Titles in bold mean they are published.
All the variants, however, are listed on the Catalog menu, as well as Attributes and Attribute Values in Configuration. These can also be edited and created in the application.
We made a small tutorial this time. However, working with product variants is something that is ultimately very useful for many types of industries that manufacture, manage or sell goods. As many Odoo apps, once the initial configuration is done, it is fairly easy to add new information to existing forms.
