Variant options are the attributes that make one variant different from another, like Size or Color. When you define options on a product, Organizely creates a variant for every combination of values and builds each variant's name from the values you picked, so you never type variant titles by hand.
This is a newer way of organizing variants, and it is being switched on for one organization at a time. If your products don't offer an editable Options section yet, your organization hasn't been switched over: contact support and we can look at it for you. Stores that connect Shopify to Organizely for the first time get it from the start. Until your organization is switched over, your existing products keep working exactly as they do today.
The Shopify sync settings described near the end of this doc live under Integrations, which your role needs the Integrations permission to open. An admin manages those permissions under Team > Roles & Permissions.
How options work
An option has a name (for example, Size) and a list of values (for example, Small, Medium, Large). Add a second option, such as Color with Red and Blue, and Organizely generates a variant for every combination: Size (S, M, L) by Color (Red, Blue) gives you six variants. Names are joined with a slash, so a variant reads as "Small / Red".
Two limits apply:
A product can have at most 3 options. Shopify supports three, so Organizely matches that.
A product can have at most 100 variants in total.
Defining options when you create a product
Go to Catalog > Products and start a new product. In the Product Variants section, answer Yes to "Does this product have multiple variants?". An Options section appears with a short explanation and a button labelled Add your first option.
Click Add your first option .
Fill in Option name (for example, Size).
Fill in Option values . This is a tag-style field: type a value and press Enter, or paste a comma-separated or line-separated list and Organizely splits it for you. Duplicate values are rejected with a message telling you the value is already used for that option.
Click Add another option if you need a second or third one.
As soon as you have at least one option with values, Organizely shows an editable grid of the variants it will generate. You can fill in price, SKU and barcode per variant right there, untick any combination you don't want created, use Apply price to all to set one price across the whole grid, and use Generate SKUs to build SKUs from a pattern in one pass.
Above 50 combinations the builder points you at Bulk Edit as a faster way to manage a large catalog. Above 100 combinations the grid is replaced with a message telling you the exact number of variants your options would create, and asking you to reduce your options or use Bulk Edit instead. See "Variant options in Bulk Edit" below.
The options editor on a product page
Open a product from Catalog > Products. Products that already use options show an Options card on the detail page. From there you can:
Add, rename, reorder and delete options and their values. Each option is a row you can expand. Collapsed, it shows its values as chips; expanded, each value is an editable field with arrows to move it up or down and an "x" to remove it. Add a value with the Add a value (press Enter) field. Arrows on the row header move a whole option up or down. Each row has its own Done and Cancel so you can back out of a single edit. Deleting a value that variants are still using is refused, with a list of the variants using it.
Assign a value to every variant. When an option needs values assigned, an assignment grid appears listing the variants that don't have one yet, each with a Select value dropdown. For a newly added option you also get a Set all to… picker plus Apply , which fills the whole column at once. Every variant needs a value for every option before you can save.
Create the variants you're missing. A Create new variants section lists the option combinations that don't have a variant yet. They are all unchecked by default, and a counter shows how many of the available combinations you have selected. You can mark a new variant as Organizely only to keep it off your connected sales channels, which is useful for internal tracking or raw materials.
Everything in the card saves together. Click Save options, and Organizely opens a Review changes before saving step that previews any variant renames and removals your edits will cause, plus the new variants you're about to create. Confirm with Save changes. On success you see an Options updated confirmation. If something goes wrong, the confirm button changes to Try again and the reason stays on screen.
Two things to know:
Options are capped at 3. Once you have three, the add button is replaced with a note telling you to remove one first.
The 100-variant limit is enforced before you can save. If the combinations you checked would push the product past 100 variants, Organizely tells you the resulting count and asks you to uncheck some.
If the product was changed somewhere else (by a teammate, or by a sync from Shopify) while you had the page open, your save is refused and the page reloads with the current data. Your changes are not applied silently on top of someone else's. Review the reloaded product and re-apply your edits.
Converting an existing product to options
Products whose variants are just free-text titles can be converted without recreating anything. Open the product and look at the Options card: it tells you the product has no options yet and offers an Add options button. That opens a three-step wizard.
Define options. Name your options and list their values. The wizard reminds you how many existing variants you are organizing and that nothing is deleted.
Assign variants. Give each existing variant a value for every option. Use the Set all to… picker plus Apply to fill a whole column at once.
Review & convert. Organizely shows each variant's current name next to its new name so you can see exactly what changes, and warns you that a rename can't be undone. If no titles are affected, it says so.
When the conversion finishes you get a confirmation naming the number of variants that now use options. Your existing variants are kept rather than recreated: only the names, rebuilt from the values you assigned, can change.
If the product was updated elsewhere while the wizard was open, Organizely reloads it and keeps the options you defined. Review the last step and convert again.
Conversion is not offered for products whose options are managed by Shopify (see below).
Per-variant option pickers and automatic variant names
Once a product has options, adding or editing a single variant no longer asks you for a title. Instead, the variant form shows one dropdown per option, labelled with the option name.
Each dropdown is searchable. Type to filter existing values.
You can also type a value that doesn't exist yet. Organizely shows a note saying it will add that value as a new value for this option on this product, with an "x" to undo it. The new value is only actually created when you save the variant.
The variant title becomes a read-only Variant name (from options) field, built automatically from the values you selected.
If a variant with the same combination of values already exists, Organizely blocks the save and tells you which combination is taken.
This behaviour depends on the product, not on your organization: any product that has options shows the pickers.
Options managed by Shopify
Some Shopify products have options that Shopify itself owns, such as options connected to a Shopify metafield or to Shopify's product taxonomy (a taxonomy Color, for example). Organizely shows those options, but you can't edit them here.
Options owned by Shopify carry a Managed by Shopify badge. Organizely explains that changes you make in Shopify appear here automatically and that editing them in Organizely isn't supported.
Options backed by a Shopify value catalog carry a Shopify catalog badge. For those, you pick values from Shopify's catalog with Add from catalog… instead of typing free text. Whether you can also introduce a brand-new value depends on whether Organizely is allowed to add entries to that particular Shopify catalog. When it is, the row says new values are added to Shopify's catalog when you save, and offers a New value button. When it isn't, the row says new values are managed in Shopify, and you can only pick values that already exist there.
On the variant form, values of Shopify-managed options appear as read-only chips and typing a brand-new value is not allowed.
If a product has a mix (one Shopify-managed option and one of your own), you can still edit values, but you can't add or reorder options on that product. Organizely says so on the card.
If Organizely can't read a Shopify value catalog
Reading Shopify's value catalogs requires a Shopify permission that your store may not have granted yet. When it is missing, Organizely tells you on the option row and points you at the fix: open the Organizely app in your Shopify admin and approve the updated permissions. If your store runs Organizely as a custom app, add the read_metaobjects scope in the app's configuration instead.
If the catalog is simply still being fetched, a Check again button lets you retry.
You may also see an app-wide amber banner saying Organizely has new Shopify permissions waiting for approval and that some features stay limited until they're granted. It links to Review in Shopify (for app-store installs) or See instructions (for custom apps), and you can dismiss it for the session.
Keeping option structure in sync with Shopify
Go to Integrations > Manage, open your Shopify integration, and choose Settings. Both the inbound and the outbound sync sections contain an Option structure switch. Both are on by default.
Inbound. Captures option names, their values, and which value each variant carries, from Shopify into Organizely.
Outbound. Pushes option names, their values, and which value each variant carries from Organizely to Shopify.
Each switch requires variant sync to be on in the same section.
Turning Option structure off freezes what Organizely already holds rather than clearing it, and turning the outbound switch off never deletes anything in Shopify: your Shopify options are left untouched. Turning variant sync off at the integration level freezes option structure too, no matter what any per-product or per-variant override says.
Variant options in Bulk Edit
Bulk Edit is the fastest way to create or update option-modeled products in volume, and it is the recommended path for products with more than about 50 variants. Organizely links to it from the options builder whenever your options would generate a large grid. Its column reference includes six option columns:
option1Name, option1Value
option2Name, option2Value
option3Name, option3Value
For example: option1Name = Size and option1Value = Small, option2Name = Color and option2Value = Red, option3Name = Material and option3Value = Cotton.
Rules to follow:
Put option columns on each variant row. The product's options are assembled from its variant rows.
Use the same option names in the same order for every variant of a product. Rows that disagree are rejected with an error naming the product.
Leave the option columns blank on product rows, and blank for products that have no variants.
The option columns are read from your file whether or not the Options section has appeared in your product forms yet.
Need help?
If options don't appear on your products, if a conversion doesn't look right, or if a Shopify-managed option isn't behaving as described here, email support@organizely.io and we'll take a look.