Handling Product Variants in Your Feed

If you sell products with variants — sizes, colors, materials — you know the complexity they add to your feed. Here's how to handle variants correctly across different platforms.

Understanding Variants

A product variant is a specific version of a product that differs by one or more attributes:

Size — Small, Medium, Large, XL
Color — Red, Blue, Black, White
Material — Cotton, Polyester, Silk
Pattern — Solid, Striped, Plaid
Bundle size — 1-pack, 3-pack, 6-pack

Products with properly structured variants can see up to 30% more impressions due to better search matching.

Parent vs. Child Products

Most platforms use a parent-child structure:

Structure Example

Parent: Nike Air Max 270 Running Shoes

└── Child: Nike Air Max 270 - Black - Size 9

└── Child: Nike Air Max 270 - Black - Size 10

└── Child: Nike Air Max 270 - White - Size 9

└── Child: Nike Air Max 270 - White - Size 10

Key Fields for Variants

Google Shopping

Field	Purpose	Example
id	Unique variant ID	SKU-BLK-10
item_group_id	Groups variants together	PARENT-SKU-001
color	Color attribute	Black
size	Size attribute	10
material	Material attribute	Leather

Facebook Catalog

Facebook uses a similar structure with slight differences:

id — Unique content ID
item_group_id — Same as Google
color, size, pattern — Variant attributes

Common Variant Mistakes

🚫 Avoid These Errors

❌ Missing item_group_id
Variants won't be grouped, causing duplicate listings
❌ Duplicate IDs
Each variant needs a unique ID
❌ Same image for all variants
Show the actual color/style when possible
❌ Inconsistent attribute values
\"Large\" vs \"L\" vs \"LG\" causes problems
❌ Missing size/color in title
Include variant info for better search matching

Best Practices

✅ Unique Images Per Variant

When possible, show the actual variant in the image. A black shoe should show a black shoe, not a white one.

✅ Descriptive Titles

Include variant attributes in the title:

Nike Air Max 270 Men's Running Shoes - Black/White - Size 10

✅ Consistent Attribute Values

Standardize your values:

Sizes: S, M, L, XL (not Small, Med, Large, X-Large)
Colors: Black, White, Red (not Onyx, Snow, Crimson)

✅ Individual URLs

Each variant should have a unique link that takes the user directly to that variant on your site.

Handling Complex Variants

For products with multiple variant dimensions (color AND size AND material), you need one row per combination:

📊 Variant Explosion Example

A t-shirt with:

3 colors (Black, White, Blue)
5 sizes (S, M, L, XL, XXL)

= 15 rows in your feed (3 × 5)

Automate Variant Management

Variants made simple

NX Feed handles variant grouping automatically. Map your variant fields once, and we'll structure them correctly for every channel.

Start Managing Variants →