What are variants?
A variant is the same product offered with different specifications. A mattress in three sizes, a dining table in different finishes, a sectional in left-facing and right-facing configurations — each version is a variant.
In Wonder, related variants are grouped as a Variant Group. Customers browsing your catalog see them as one connected family rather than separate listings.
For example, a single mattress style might have three variants in its Variant Group:
Ashley Firm - Twin Mattress - White
Ashley Firm - Full Mattress - White
Ashley Firm - Queen Mattress - White
These three share the same name pattern, description, and design — but each has its own SKU, image, and (in this case) size.
Variants are products
This is the most important idea in Wonder's variant model:
Every variant is its own product.
When you build a Variant Group, you're not creating something new from scratch — you're linking existing products together so they appear as one connected family.
This means that before you can link products as variants of each other, each variant must already exist as a product in CAM. If you want to create new variants, you'll create the products first, then link them.
This is different from some other e-commerce systems (like Shopify), where a variant is a sub-record of a product. In Wonder, products and variants are the same kind of object.
Note: How variants appear and behave on your e-commerce website is platform-specific. For details, see How variants work on your Shopify Website (article coming soon).
Key concepts and terminology
Here are the terms you'll see throughout variant management.
Term | What it means |
Variant Group (also called Variant Set) | A collection of related variants that belong to the same product family — same product, different specifications. All variants in a group must share the same manufacturer. |
Variant | Each individual product within a Variant Group (for example, the King-size version of a mattress). |
Option | The type of specification that varies between variants — for example, Color, Size, Material, or Format. |
Value | The specific specification for a variant within an option. If the option is Color, the value might be White. If the option is Size, the value might be Queen. |
Origin | Where the product data came from — Managed, Managed Customized, or Custom. Determines what you can edit. |
Understanding Origin
Every product in CAM has an Origin, which tells you who created it and what you're allowed to modify.
Origin | Meaning | Editable on the Variants tab? |
Managed | Created by the manufacturer. You haven't modified it. | Read-only by default — switch to Override to edit |
Managed, Customized | Created by the manufacturer, but you've made modifications | Editable |
Custom | Created by you | Always editable |
The current Origin appears in the top-right corner of the Variants tab so you always know what state you're in.
The Sync / Override toggle — how to enable editing
For Managed products, the Variants tab starts in Sync state. The product mirrors the manufacturer's data exactly, and nothing on the Variants tab can be edited.
To make changes, switch the Content Update toggle from Sync to Override:
The product's Origin changes from Managed to Managed, Customized.
The Variant Group title, description, options, values, and the Add Variant / Manage Set Options buttons all become active.
You can now make your edits.
Important: Switching back to Sync will erase your customizations
If you toggle from Override back to Sync, all of your custom edits will be removed and the product will reset to the manufacturer's original data. This cannot be undone.
Only switch back to Sync if you want to discard your customizations and restore the manufacturer's defaults.
For Custom products, the Variants tab is always editable — the Sync/Override toggle doesn't apply, since there's no manufacturer data to sync from.
The Setup Guide
When you open the Variants tab, you'll see a Setup Guide on the right side of the page. It's a checklist of the typical steps involved in setting up or modifying a Variant Group:
Edit the Variant Group title and description
Add products as variants
Manage the Variant Set Options
The Setup Guide tracks your progress with checkmarks as you complete each step.
How to add variants to an existing product
Use this flow when you have a product that doesn't have variants yet, or when you want to add more variants to an existing Variant Group.
Step 1 — Open the product's Variants tab
Navigate to the product, then click the Variants tab in the left-hand menu.
Step 2 — Switch to Override (Managed products only)
If the product is Managed, toggle Content Update from Sync to Override.
Step 3 — Click "Add Variant"
The Add Variant button is in the Actions panel on the right side of the page.
Step 4 — Find products to link
A popup titled Link Products as Variants opens. From here you can:
Search by SKU or product name using the search box at the top
Browse the list of products from the same manufacturer
Note: Only products from the same manufacturer as your source product can be linked as variants. This is a system rule and can't be overridden.
Step 5 — Add products to your selection
For each product you want to include:
Click Add to Selection — the product moves to the Selected Products list on the right.
To select every product on the current search results page at once, click Select All.
To remove a product from your selection, click Unselect in the right-hand list. To clear your entire selection, click Unselect All.
Step 6 — Confirm and link
When your selection is complete, click Link Selected Products as Variants at the bottom of the popup.
The popup closes and you return to the Variants tab. Your selected products now appear in the Variant Group grid.
Helpful behavior: If any of the products you selected already had options configured, those options will be automatically added to the new Variant Group.
Step 7 — Save your changes
Click Save Changes at the top right of the page to commit your work.
How to manage Set Options
Set Options are the attributes that define how your variants differ from each other (Color, Size, Material, Format, and so on). Before customers can filter your variants, you need to set up these options.
Step 1 — Click "Manage Set Options"
From the Variants tab, click the Manage Set Options button in the Actions panel.
Step 2 — Review existing options
The Manage Set Options popup opens and displays any options already set up for the Variant Group.
General attributes (Color, Size, Material) appear with their names locked (these can't be renamed).
Custom attributes appear in editable fields. If you rename a custom attribute, the original name will display next to it for reference, labeled Origin Value.
Step 3 — Add, remove, or reorder options
You can:
Add a new option — Click Add Option and either select from a list of general attributes or type a custom name.
Remove an option — Click Remove Option next to the option you no longer need.
Reorder options — Drag and drop options into the order you want them to appear.
Rules for options:
Up to 5 options per Variant Group.
No duplicates within a group.
Custom attribute names can't match an existing general attribute name (for example, you can't create a custom attribute called Color, since Color is already a general attribute).
Step 4 — (Optional) Import options from another Variant Set
If you've already configured options on another Custom Variant Set and want to reuse them:
Enter the SKU or product name of that Variant Set in the Import Set Options from another Custom Variants Set field at the top of the popup.
Select the matching product from the dropdown.
Click Apply.
Step 5 — Click "Apply & Close"
Your options are now applied to the Variant Group.
Step 6 — Save your changes
Back on the Variants tab, click Save Changes to commit.
How to edit variant values
Once your variants are linked and your options are set up, you can edit the values of each option for each variant — for example, setting one mattress variant to Queen and another to King.
Value editing happens directly in the Variant Group grid on the Variants tab:
For general attributes, values are often filled in automatically based on the product data (a Queen mattress will already show Queen under the Size column). You can edit these values as needed.
For custom attributes, values start blank and must be filled in before you can save.
Edit each variant's values inline in the grid, then click Save Changes at the top right.
How to edit the Variant Group's title and description
The Variant Group Title and Variant Group Description apply to the whole group, not to individual variants. They're the name and description that represent the Variant Group across your catalog.
Editing rules:
Managed products in Override state: title and description are editable.
Custom products: title and description are always editable.
Managed products in Sync state: title and description show the manufacturer's defaults and can't be edited.
Edit the fields directly at the top of the Variants tab, then click Save Changes.
How to set up variants for Custom Products
The fastest way to do this is the CSV workflow, which creates products and links them as variants in a single operation. For one-off setups, you can also create each product manually and then link them using the Add Variant flow described above.
See Creating Custom Products with Variants (article coming soon) for both workflows in detail.
Important notes
A few constraints to be aware of as you work with variants:
Variants must share a manufacturer. Only products with the same manufacturer can be linked as variants of each other.
Maximum of 5 options per Variant Group. If you need more attributes, you'll need to restructure your products.
Variant Group Title and Description are required. You won't be able to save changes if these are empty.
Option values are required. Every variant must have a value for every option before you can save.
Bulk CSV Variant Group update is not supported. This article covers managing variants on individual products. Bulk variant editing operations are not supported at the moment.
What happens after you save
Once you save your variant changes in CAM, they flow automatically to:
Your Catalog Kiosk app — variants update on the next sync.
Your e-commerce website — variants update on the next Connector sync (Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce).
How those variants display on your website depends on which platform you're using. For details, see How variants work on your website (article coming soon).
Need help?
If you run into questions while setting up variants, contact Wondersign Support, and we'll help you work through it.