WooCommerce variable products and Shopify product variants serve the same purpose — offering a product in multiple configurations (colour, size, material) — but the data model differs in important ways. Understanding these differences before migration prevents surprises when complex WooCommerce products don't map cleanly to Shopify's structure.

WooCommerce variable products vs Shopify variants

Feature	WooCommerce	Shopify
Option types (axes)	Unlimited	Maximum 3 options
Values per option	Unlimited	No enforced limit per option
Total variants per product	Unlimited (performance degrades)	Maximum 100 (hard limit on standard plans)
Variant-specific images	Yes — per-variation image	Yes — images assigned to specific variants
Variant-specific SKU	Yes	Yes
Variant-specific price	Yes	Yes
Variant-specific inventory	Yes	Yes
Custom attributes (non-variant)	Yes — display-only attributes	Metafields (not shown in variant selector)

The 3-option limit

Shopify allows a maximum of 3 options per product (e.g. Colour, Size, Material). WooCommerce has no such limit. Products with 4 or more variant dimensions in WooCommerce require a solution:

Flatten to 3 options: If one attribute has limited values or is informational (not affecting price/stock), make it a product metafield or include in the title instead. For example, "Style" with a single value can be dropped.
Split into separate products: A product with Colour × Size × Material × Length can be split into one product per length, each with Colour × Size × Material variants.
Use line item properties: For non-stocked personalisation options (text engraving, custom notes), use Shopify's line item properties to capture additional selections at checkout without consuming an option slot.
Infinite Options app: ShopPad's Infinite Options app adds unlimited custom input fields to a product page, though these don't affect inventory tracking.

The 100-variant limit

Shopify limits products to 100 variants (the product of all option values: 5 colours × 10 sizes × 2 materials = 100). Products exceeding this limit require:

Shopify Combined Listings: A Shopify-built app that links related products (each being a colour, for example) and displays them as a single product with a colour swatch selector. Effectively allows 100 variants per colour × unlimited colours.
Split into separate products: One product per colour (or per top-level option), each with remaining variant combinations. Link them via a colour swatch display in the theme.
Third-party apps: Variants Plus, Variant Robot — manage larger variant sets.

WooCommerce stores with large fashion or apparel catalogues frequently encounter this limit — a product with 20 colours × 8 sizes = 160 variants exceeds Shopify's limit.

Variant images

Shopify supports assigning images to variants (typically used for colour variants — clicking "Red" shows the red product image). During migration:

k-sync preserves WooCommerce variation images and maps them to the equivalent Shopify variant
In Shopify, variant images are assigned per variant in the product editor, not per option value — each variant can have a different image
Colour swatch display (showing coloured dots instead of a dropdown) requires theme configuration or a swatch app; the underlying data structure (image per variant) is the same

Migrating display-only attributes

WooCommerce supports attributes that are "used for variations" (creating variants) and attributes that are display-only (shown in product details tab but not affecting variants). In Shopify:

Display-only attributes become product metafields — not shown in the variant selector
Metafields can be displayed on the product page using Shopify's metafield display feature (added in 2022) or via theme customisation
Examples: material composition, care instructions, country of origin — these are better as metafields than variants

Post-migration variant checklist

Products with more than 3 option types identified and restructured before migration
Products with more than 100 variants identified — splitting strategy or Combined Listings decided
Variant images mapped correctly (colour images appear when colour is selected)
Display-only WooCommerce attributes moved to Shopify metafields
All variant SKUs preserved (important for inventory management and order processing)
Variant prices checked — sale prices from WooCommerce mapped to "Compare at price" in Shopify
Inventory quantities per variant confirmed correct after migration

Shopify product variants after migrating from WooCommerce (2026)