Add variants to your Shopify products in bulk

Shopify Product Variants are different options for a single product. For example, if you sell T-shirts and offer sizes S, M, L, and XL in the colors Red, Blue, and Green, each combination is a unique variant of that T-shirt product. The Product Variant feature in Shopify helps you manage and organize inventory efficiently, keeping track of stock levels and prices for each variant.

Update: In the Winter Update of 2024, Shopify increased the maximum number of product variants from 100 to 2,000.

This guide shows you how to add and edit product variants in Shopify using Mixtable’s spreadsheet interface.

Why use Mixtable for variant management

The Mixtable Spreadsheet Editor makes it simple to manage variants in bulk. With Mixtable, you can:

• Add variants to products individually or in bulk
• Add variants to existing products
• Create new products with variants
• Edit variant properties across multiple products at once
• Use familiar spreadsheet features like copy-paste, find & replace, and formulas

Add your products to a Mixtable spreadsheet

After installing Mixtable from the Shopify app store, you’ll load your store data into a spreadsheet where you can easily manage it.

To create a Products (with variants) worksheet:

1. In the Mixtable app, click the + button in the worksheet toolbar
2. Select Products (with variants)
3. Your new worksheet will appear and automatically load with all your existing Shopify products and their variants

Note: Each row represents either a variant (for products that have them) or a product (for products without variants).

You can edit both product and variant fields directly in the worksheet.

Edit your variants and products

Once your Products (with variants) worksheet is loaded, you can edit your data using familiar spreadsheet operations.

The worksheet works just like the Shopify CSV import template—each row can add or update a variant or its associated product. We’ve included the most commonly used columns, but you can remove any you don’t need or add custom fields using the blank columns.

To modify data, just use standard spreadsheet operations: type directly into cells, copy and paste, use find & replace, or apply Excel formulas.

Add variants to an existing product

To add a variant to an existing product:

1. Scroll to the first empty row at the bottom of the worksheet
2. In the Product Handle column, enter the handle of the product you want to add a variant to. You can type it, paste it, or click the 🔍 icon to open the Select Product dialog and choose from your existing products
3. Fill in your variant data. At minimum, you’ll need to enter values for all the product’s options (like size and color). You can also add other details like price, cost, or inventory quantities
4. Click Sync worksheet changes to Shopify and Mixtable will create the new variants

Create a product with multiple variants

To create a new product with multiple variants:

1. Scroll to the first empty row at the bottom of the worksheet
2. You’ll need to fill in multiple rows (one for each variant) with both product and variant information—this lets Mixtable create the product and all its variants in one go
3. In the first row, enter the Product Title and Product Handle for your new product. You only need to add the Product Title on the first variant’s row—it’ll automatically fill in for the other variants after you sync
4. In the other variant rows, use the same Product Handle value. This tells Mixtable that all these variants belong to the same product
5. Add the variant-specific data for each row. At minimum, enter values for all options (like size and color). You can also include price, cost, inventory, and other details
6. Click Sync worksheet changes to Shopify and Mixtable will create the product with all its variants

Create a product without variants

Creating a product without variants is the same process, but you’ll skip the option data:

1. Scroll to the first empty row at the bottom of the worksheet
2. Enter the Product Handle and Product Title for your new product. That’s all you need to create a basic product, but feel free to add description, price, cost, inventory, and other details
3. Click Sync worksheet changes to Shopify to create the product
4. After creation, you’ll see the Option Name and Option Value columns fill in with Title and Default Title. This happens because Shopify always creates at least one variant for every product (since variants store pricing and inventory data). When you don’t provide option information, Shopify automatically creates a default variant

Add a new option to existing products and variants

To add a new option to an existing product:

1. Find the first row that has a variant for your product
2. Look for the column for the new option slot you’re adding (for example, Option 2 Name if the product currently only uses Option 1)
3. Enter the name of your new option (like “Loaf size”)
4. Now find the matching value column (like Option 2 Value)
5. For each variant row, enter the appropriate value for that variant (such as “small”, “medium”, or “large”)
6. Click Sync worksheet changes to Shopify and Mixtable will add the new option to your product and update all the variants

Import a CSV to speed up bulk edits

If you’re already using Mixtable to manage Shopify variants, you can import a CSV file to quickly make bulk edits like updating prices, changing SKUs, or adjusting inventory.

Here’s how it works:

1. Click Import & Export and select Import CSV file
2. Upload your CSV file
3. Match CSV rows to your worksheet using a key field like SKU (or a combination of option values if needed)
4. Choose whether you want to only update matching rows, or update existing rows and add new ones
5. Pick which columns to update (like Price or inventory by location)
6. Review the preview, then run the import

For the full walkthrough, see Import CSV to update or add Shopify store data.

When the import finishes, click Sync worksheet changes to Shopify whenever you’re ready to push those updates to your store.

You're ready!

Mixtable is an online spreadsheet designed to sync data with Shopify. It looks, feels, and behaves like Excel (including formulas), but runs in your browser. With Mixtable you can:

• Bulk add products to collections, edit metafields, add or remove tags;
• Change product prices, including international prices, and review price history;
• Manage customers with a spreadsheet CRM for Shopify;
• Use Excel features like sort ascending or descending, find-replace, filter, and more.

Best of all, you can sync changes back to Shopify with a single click. Find out more about the Mixtable suite of products here.