What is SKU variant?
A SKU variant is a specific size, colour, material, or other variation of a base product — each with its own SKU (Stock Keeping Unit code), price, and independent stock count.
A SKU variant (or product variant) is a specific version of a base product — distinguished by a size, colour, material, fit, or other attribute — that has its own SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) code, its own price, and its own independent stock count. A single "black hoodie" product might have variants for size S, M, L, XL — each tracked separately because customers buy them separately and each can run out independently.
The terminology distinguishes the product (the catalog-level grouping, e.g. "Linen Kaftan") from the variants (the actual stock-keeping units customers buy, e.g. "Linen Kaftan / Cream / M", "Linen Kaftan / Cream / L"). When a customer buys size M and you have 2 in stock, the M variant drops to 1 — the L variant is unaffected.
Variants matter for ecommerce because:
- Stock accuracy — you can't oversell what you don't have. Without variants, every "Linen Kaftan" looks identical at the product level even though physical inventory is per-size.
- Price flexibility — XL might cost more than M; gold-plated might cost more than silver-plated. Variants let you price by attribute.
- Customer search — buyers filter by size, colour, material, capacity (e.g. iPhone 128GB vs 256GB) — variants enable this.
- Reorder signals — variant-level stock-out alerts let you reorder only what's low.
In WoBooks, every product can have unlimited variants across multiple attribute axes (size × colour × material), each with its own SKU, price, image, and stock. The customer-side AI (Brain) reads variant-level stock when quoting availability to a customer on WhatsApp — so a question like "black hoodie M available?" gets an accurate yes/no based on the actual M variant's live stock count.
Common questions
What's the difference between a SKU and a variant?
The SKU is the unique code (e.g. HOODIE-BLK-M); the variant is the size/colour combination that the SKU identifies. In everyday use the terms are often interchangeable — a "variant" is a SKU at the variant level (vs the parent product), and a "SKU" is what you call the variant from a stock-tracking perspective.
How many variants per product are typical?
Clothing: 4–24 (sizes × colours). Furniture: 1–6 (sizes / materials). Electronics: 3–12 (capacity / colour). The right number is "enough so customers can buy what they want; not so many that inventory and photos become a burden." Many sellers start with 6–12 per popular product and add more as they grow.