Offer only combinations that exist, show how each option changes the price before it is chosen, track stock for each variation, and test the cart and order email with every type of option.

Choices that do not add up

A product with options looks simple on the page: a menu for size, one for colour, an Add to cart button.

Behind it sits a grid of every combination, and in many small shops part of that grid is wrong.

A colour is offered in a size that was never made. The price changes without saying why. One size sells out and the menu keeps offering it.

The customer finds out at the worst moment: after choosing, at the cart, or days later in an email saying the item cannot be sent.

Each of these is a setup problem, and testing finds every one of them before a customer does.

How the grid goes wrong

The first is where most of the others begin. Shop software can create every combination of a product's options in one step, and once a price is set across them in bulk, every combination is for sale, real or not.

Offer only what exists

Start from the supplier's list of what is actually made, not from the options. Delete every combination that is not on it.

Where the grid is sparse, such as most colours in two sizes and one colour in five, separate products may be clearer than one product full of dead ends.

Shops handle unavailable combinations differently: some grey them out, some hide them. Either beats offering them and refusing at checkout.

Prices that move

When an option changes the price, say so in the option itself, as in "Premium plastic (+$4)". The customer sees the cost of a choice before making it.

Many product pages show a price range at the top until a choice is made, then display the real price lower down beside the button, where it is easy to miss.

Make sure that price is big enough to notice and close to the button. A surprise in the cart is the price change the customer remembers.

Stock for each variation

Track stock for each variation, not just the product. Forty in stock means little if none are in the size most people want.

Decide what a sold-out option does: disappear, show as sold out, or take back orders with a clear date. Then say which on the page.

Check the catalogue too. A product can show as in stock because one variation is, while the one a customer wants has gone.

Options in the customer's words

Supplier codes make poor option names. A menu offering BLK-L and NVY-XL makes the customer decode it, and a typo in one code can split one colour into two.

Use the words people would say, in the same order on every product, and keep each name short enough to fit a phone's menu.

A worked example

A disc golf shop beside a popular course sells discs, bags and baskets in the store and online. Each disc model comes in several plastics, a range of weights in grams and whatever colours the latest batch brought.

When the online shop was set up, every disc became one product with three menus: plastic, weight and colour. The software generated every combination, a price was set in bulk, and thousands of variations went on sale.

Orders arrived for discs that had never been made in that plastic and weight, and for colours long sold. Each one meant an email, a substitute or a refund.

The order emails showed only the disc's name, so every order had to be opened in the admin to see what was chosen.

The rebuild created only the combinations of plastic and weight the shop actually had, each with its own stock count. Colour became a note saying colours vary by batch, with a box for a preference.

Price differences went into the option names, and the order email was changed to list every option. Before going live, a test order was placed for each type of disc and checked in the inbox and the admin.

What the cart and order must show

The cart should list every option chosen, in words. So should the confirmation email and the order in the admin, because the person packing reads those, not the product page.

If each variation has its own SKU, the shop's code for one exact item, show it on the packing slip. It is the quickest check that the right thing went in the box.

Choosing a colour should change the photograph, or the page should say that the colour shown is one of several.

Test the cart like a customer

Before launch, and after any change to options, place real orders: the most common combination, the priciest option, a sold-out size, and a combination that should not exist.

Do it on a phone too, not only at a desk. On iPhones, option menus open as a spinning picker at the bottom of the screen, and long option names are cut short there.

Read the confirmation email, check the order in the admin, then cancel or refund the test orders.

The counter-case

A shop whose products come in one size and one colour has little of this to worry about. The cart test still applies; the grid does not.

Shops selling one-of-a-kind items, such as discs picked individually by weight and colour, may be better served listing each item as its own product. That moves the work into photographs and stock rather than removing it.

For everyone else: offer only real combinations, show price changes before they happen, track stock per variation and test the cart.

Setting it right

  1. Delete combinations that were never made.
  2. Put price differences in the option names.
  3. Track stock for each variation.
  4. Decide what sold-out options do.
  5. Change the photograph with the colour.
  6. List every option in cart and email.
  7. Place a test order for each type.

Step seven finds what the others missed. Settings can look right on screen; only a real order shows what the customer and the packer actually see.

Writing the measurements inside those options is covered in metric and imperial on the same product page.

Frequently asked questions

Why do impossible combinations appear in my shop?

Shop software can generate every combination of a product's options in one step, and a bulk price makes each one purchasable, whether the supplier ever made it or not.

How should price differences between options appear?

In the option names, such as Premium plastic (+$4), so customers see the cost before choosing, and beside the button once a choice is made.

Should stock be tracked per variation?

Yes. A product with forty in stock means little if the popular size has none, and a catalogue can show in stock while the wanted variation is gone.

What must the cart and order show?

Every option chosen, in words, on the cart, the confirmation email and the admin order, because the person packing reads those rather than the product page.

How should I test product options?

Place real orders for the most common combination, the priciest option, a sold-out size and an impossible combination, on a phone and a computer, then check the emails.

When are separate products better than variations?

When the grid is sparse, or each item is unique, such as discs chosen by exact weight and colour. Separate listings then make the choices clearer.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Orders arriving for products you never made?

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