Product variations & combinations

Updated Oct 17, 2026 Products & Catalog

Variations let you sell one product in several versions — a T-shirt in Small, Medium and Large, or a mug in three colours. TitanCart builds variations on top of attributes, and it gives you two ways to do it depending on whether the versions should share a single listing or be managed as separate products. This article shows how to set up both. Everything here is available in TitanCart Pro and TitanCart Lite.

Note: Variations are built from variation-purpose attributes — they are not the same as Options. An Option (gift wrapping, engraving) adds a charge to the same product; a variation is a genuinely different version of the product. If all you need is a paid add-on, see Options vs. Attributes instead.

1. The two variation modes

When you create a variation attribute you pick one of two purposes, and that choice decides how the versions behave:

Variations (shared product) — one product page where the shopper picks choices (Color, Size). There is one product code and one stock figure for all of them. A choice can change the price (a bigger size costs more, for example) — see section 3 — but it cannot have its own stock count. Best when the versions are interchangeable and you track stock as a single pool.
Variations (separate products) — each combination (for example Red / Large) becomes its own product with a unique product code, price and stock. TitanCart links them together with a Product Group so the storefront still shows one page with selectors. Best when each version needs its own stock count, its own photos, or its own description.

Tip: Decide up front. Ask yourself: do these versions need their own stock count? If yes, use separate products. If they are the same item in a few interchangeable flavours — even at slightly different prices — use a shared product.

2. Step 1 — create a variation attribute

Both modes start the same way, by defining a reusable attribute. Go to Products → Attributes, click New Attribute and set, on the General tab:

Purpose — Variations (shared product) or Variations (separate products), depending on the mode you picked above.
Display Type — how the choices appear on the product page: Color Swatches, Product Images, Text labels, or Dropdown.
Available as a Product Filter — tick it if shoppers should also be able to narrow category pages by this attribute. The attribute then appears as a source under Products → Product Filters.
Product Cards → Show on product cards — shows the attribute on product cards in category and search results. For a Color Swatches attribute that means a row of colour dots under the card; for other display types a small text chip.
Group — optional. Attribute groups (Specifications, Dimensions…) only affect the read-only specs list on the product page, not the selectors.

Click Create, reopen the attribute and add the Choices — the values shoppers pick from (Red, Blue, Green; S, M, L). For Color Swatches each choice takes a hex colour for its dot. Choices can be kept in the order you give them or sorted A–Z automatically. The Categories tab scopes the attribute to selected categories so it only appears where it makes sense (default: all categories).

Attributes are reusable: define Color once and apply it to every product that comes in colours.

Tip: Use Color Swatches for colours (with a hex per choice), Text labels for sizes, Product Images when each choice should swap the product photo, and Dropdown for long lists.

3. Shared variations (one product)

For a Variations (shared product) attribute, everything happens on the product’s Attributes tab — no Product Group needed:

Open the product and go to the Attributes tab.
Find your variation attribute and tick the choices this product comes in (for example Red, Blue, Black).
If the attribute uses the Product Images display type, pick one of the product’s images for each ticked choice — choosing that choice on the storefront then swaps the main photo. Add the images on the Images tab first.
Optionally enter a price change beside a ticked choice: how much it adds to (or, with a minus, takes off) the product’s price. Leave it blank for no change.
Save.

There is one product, one product code and one stock figure. On the storefront the shopper picks the choices on the product page, the displayed price updates as they pick, and the chosen choices are recorded on the cart line and the order.

Site-wide price changes

If the same choice always costs the same extra across the store (XL is always +$3), open the attribute under Products → Attributes, tick Site-wide price changes on its General tab, and enter the amount in the Price change column on the Choices tab. Every product that uses the attribute then inherits those amounts. On an individual product’s Attributes tab the site-wide amount shows as the placeholder; leave the box blank to use it, or type a number (even 0) to override it for that product only.

4. Separate-product variations with a Product Group

When each version needs its own stock, photos or description, use a Variations (separate products) attribute together with a Product Group. The Product Group tab appears on a product after it has been saved once. The flow:

On the parent product’s Attributes tab, choose this product’s own value for each variation attribute — for example, this is the Red / Small one. Save the product.
Open the Product Group tab and choose Create new products.
Tick the other choices you want to generate (Blue, Green). With more than one variation attribute — say Color and Size — tick choices on each, and TitanCart previews every combination.
Pick how prices are set. Add to this product’s price lets you enter how much each choice adds to (or takes off) the parent’s price; the combination’s price is the parent price plus its choices. Set each variation’s price lets you type the full price beside each selected choice instead; blank means the parent’s price.
Under Copy from this product to every new variation, tick Description & short description and/or Images (main + gallery) if the versions share copy and photos. Leave them unticked when each version gets its own.
Click create. TitanCart generates one new product per combination — Color × Size produces Red / Small, Red / Medium, Blue / Small, and so on. Each is cloned from the parent as a starting point (status, stock quantity, weight, shipping and inventory settings, categories, and the price as set above), gets a fresh unique product code, and is named after the parent plus its combination, like Cotton Tee – Blue / Large. The parent itself is renamed to include its own combination label.
Adjust the members in the table on the same tab: Price, Quantity and Product code are click-to-edit right there, and each row shows its status. Open a member’s own editor only when you need to change its photos or text.

From the same tab you can also Use existing products to pull products you already have into the group — TitanCart reads each one’s saved attribute values to work out its combination and only asks you for an axis the product has no value for. Remove from group unlinks a member without deleting the product.

Display as a single product

By default every member of a group is its own product in category pages and search, so a tee in five sizes shows five cards. Tick Display as a single product on the Product Group tab to collapse the group to one card on the storefront (the first member by position, so its price is what the card shows). Optionally give the card a clean Storefront name — “Cotton Tee” instead of “Cotton Tee – Red / Small”. Shoppers pick the exact version on the product page. In the admin every member stays listed and editable.

Note: What Create new products does — and doesn’t. It clones the parent as a convenient starting point, so unless you used the price options the new versions begin identical — that is why the member table lets you edit price and quantity in place. Stock is copied, not split. Removing a product from the group only unlinks it; the product itself is not deleted.

Note: The Product Group workflow is controlled by the Product Variations switch under Extensions → Installed Extensions, in the Built-in Extensions card. It is enabled by default. If the Product Group tab is missing, confirm that switch is Enabled and that the product has been saved at least once.

5. What the customer sees

On the storefront a Product Group is shown as a single product page with variation selectors — colour swatches, image tiles, text labels or a dropdown, matching each attribute’s Display Type. Choosing a combination takes the shopper to that member’s own product page, so its price, stock status, photos and product code are always the member’s own. If the product has a Size axis and a sizing-chart tab, a Size Guide link appears beside the size selector. A shared-variation product shows the same kind of selectors but stays on one page the whole time, with the price updating as choices are picked.

Product cards in category and search results show Choose Options instead of an add-to-cart button for both kinds of variation product, because a choice has to be made first. The cart will not accept a variation product without its choices, so a card can never add the wrong version. Once in the cart, the line shows the chosen attributes (Color: Red, Size: Large) for both models.

Coming from WooCommerce

The WooCommerce Migration tool imports a WooCommerce variable product as a Product Group: each WooCommerce variation becomes its own TitanCart product with its own product code, price and stock, the variation attributes become Variations (separate products) attributes, and the members are linked in a group whose code is the parent’s SKU. Review the group on the parent’s Product Group tab afterwards and tick Display as a single product if you want one card per style, as WooCommerce showed it.

Troubleshooting

Create new products is empty / lists nothing. It only offers attributes where this product already has a saved variation value. Set the attribute’s value on the Attributes tab and save the product first, then reopen the Product Group tab.
I see “This product has no saved value for…”. Same cause — go to the Attributes tab, choose this product’s own variation value (for example Red), save, then try again. When adding existing products, TitanCart asks for the missing axis right in the dialog.
“All selected combinations already exist.” Every combination you ticked is already a member (the parent counts for its own values). Tick a choice that is not in the group yet.
My new variations all have the same price and stock. Expected when you created them without the price options — the generator clones the parent. Click a member’s Price or Quantity in the table on the Product Group tab to change it in place.
Category pages show five cards for one tee. Tick Display as a single product on the Product Group tab.
The price does not change when a shared-variation choice is picked. Enter the amount beside the choice on the product’s Attributes tab, or turn on Site-wide price changes on the attribute and fill in its Price change column. A product amount of 0 deliberately switches the site-wide amount off for that product.
The Product Group tab is missing. It appears only after the product has been saved once, and only while Product Variations is Enabled under Extensions → Installed Extensions → Built-in Extensions.
I want a paid add-on, not a separate version. That is an Option, not a variation — see Options vs. Attributes.