Variants and pricing
Options and variants for products that come in more than one form, the five pricing modes and when each is honest, and the fields buyers use to filter you in or out.
Most products are not one thing. They come in sizes, grades, finishes, pack quantities — and how you model that decides whether a buyer can find the version they want.
Options and variants
Options are the dimensions of choice — size, colour, grade. Up to three, which is almost always enough; if you need a fourth, you usually have two products.
Variants are the actual combinations, each with its own price and identifiers.
A product with sizes S/M/L and finishes matte/gloss has two options and six variants. Each carries its own price, its own stock-keeping code, and its own minimum order quantity if they differ.
One variant is fine
A product that comes one way has a single default variant. You are not required to invent choice you do not offer.
The five pricing modes
The mode tells a buyer how to read the number. Choosing the honest one matters more than choosing a low one.
| Mode | What it says | When it is right |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed | This is the price | Standard goods sold at a list price |
| Starting from | The floor, and it goes up | Configurable products where the base is real |
| Range | It falls between these | Prices genuinely varying with specification |
| On request | Ask and we will price it | Bespoke work, or volume-dependent pricing |
| Not disclosed | We do not publish prices | Where publishing would harm your negotiating position |
On request and not disclosed are not free of cost
Both mean a buyer cannot compare you without spending credits on an enquiry. Some will; many will enquire with the supplier who published a number. Use them when they are true, not as a default.
Starting from is the one most often used dishonestly — a floor price that applies to a configuration nobody buys. Buyers recognise it, and the enquiry you get is one where the first conversation is a correction.
The fields buyers filter on
| Price | The number, in your currency |
| Compare-at price | What it was, where you are showing a reduction |
| Minimum order quantity | Below which you will not supply |
| Unit | What the price is per — the field that makes the number mean anything |
| Stock code | Your SKU, for buyers who already know it |
| Barcode | Where it applies |
| Weight | And its unit — used for freight estimates |
Minimum order quantity is a kindness. A buyer wanting fifty pieces from a supplier whose minimum is five hundred finds out now instead of after an enquiry both of you paid for.
Tax and fulfilment
Whether the price is taxable, and at what rate, so a buyer knows if they are reading a number they can compare to another supplier's inclusive one.
Fulfilment service and fees where you carry them. Freight is where apparently comparable prices stop being comparable, and stating it is often what wins the enquiry.
Modelling decisions worth getting right
Changing prices
Price edits go through the same publishing path as everything else, and — the point worth repeating — your currently approved listing stays live while a change is reviewed. Updating a price never takes you out of discovery.
See Publishing and moderation.
What a signal carries
The fields that make a product listing answerable — category, specifications, media, documents, warranty and returns — and which of them decide whether a buyer enquires or scrolls past.
Getting found
How buyers reach a signal — categories, tags, search fields and reach settings — and why a complete listing outperforms a promoted one here.