How to Set Up Product Variants in Shopify [Physical & Digital]

What you need:

• A Shopify store
• (if using digital products) the Downloadable Digital Assets app

How to set up product variants in Shopify

Step 1 – Create a product

You can either create a new product or go to a current product that you are wanting to add variants to.

1. Go to your Shopify dashboard
2. Go to “Products”
3. Click the “Add product” button

Here you can adjust and edit your settings of the product, such as name, price etc.

Step 2 – Go to the “Options” box (new stores see “Variants” box)

Once you are on the product page, scroll down until you see the “Options” box. New stores from 2023 will see a “Variants” box. This is how you will create the variants.

2023 stores:

2022 stores and before:

Check the box. This will open up more options below it.

Step 3 – Enter the values

Now you need to enter an Option name. This is basically a description of the variants. For example, you can say “Size” and have variants such as Small, Medium, and Large.

Press “Done”. Now the variants have been created. This will turn the single product into two separate products known as variants.

Example:

How to sell digital products with your variants

When selling digital products on Shopify, Shopify does not have an in-built system to sell digital products. You need to install an app from the app store called Downloadable Digital Assets to enable digital product delivery with file protection.

Step 1 – Go to Downloadable Digital Assets app

I am assuming that you have already installed the app to your Shopify store.

1. Go to your Shopify dashboard
2. Click “Apps” in the left panel
3. Click on the Downloadable Digital Assets app

Step 2 – Upload your files

Now you need to upload the files to the app.

1. Go to the “Assets” page
2. Click the “Upload new assets” button. Here is where you will upload your files or add URL assets.

Step 3 – Attach the files to the relevant variants

Now all you need to do is attach the files to the variants. All your new variants will automatically be synced to the app.

Click on one of the variants, and then use the search box to find the uploaded file to attach.

Now that is all you need to do. Once the file is attached to the variant, then you are armed and ready to deliver. If a customer purchases that variant, the file will be delivered by email to your customer.

You can now place a test order if you want to test the workflow yourself. You can also customise your email templates if you want to add your branding to the delivery email.

Full video tutorial – How to set up product variants & attach digital products