Product collections — turning related products into product variations

Many stores have used Related products for variants of the same item, for example the same jacket in four colours. Product variations fit this better: each colour becomes a variant of the others, and they all show each other. You can turn Related products into Product variations on one product or on many at once.

What happens

• The product and its related products are put into one Product variations collection.

• If the product has no Product variations collection, a new one is created.

• If the product is already in one, the related products are added to it.

• A related product that is already in another Product variations collection is skipped. It stays in Related products.

A product can only be in one Product variations collection. That is why such products are skipped instead of moved.

On one product

1. Open the product and go to the Collections tab.

2. Open the Related products folder, and click the collection.

3. Click Convert to product variations.

4. Read what happens in the window. If the product has no Product variations collection, enter the name the customer sees, optionally an internal name, and choose a display type.

5. Choose if the moved products are removed from Related products. This is selected from the start.

6. Click Convert.

The new collection opens, and you get a message that says how many products are variants now, and how many were skipped.

The button does not show if the Related products collection is empty and the product has no Product variations yet. Then there is nothing to convert.

On many products at once

The Bulk Editor has the action Convert related products to product variations.

1. Go to Products › Bulk edit › Products.

2. Use the Has related products filter, and tick the products you want to convert. On the Products › Product collections page, the Product variations folder has the link Convert related products in bulk, which opens the Bulk Editor with the filter set.

3. Click Run Bulk Actions, and choose Convert related products to product variations.

4. Fill in:

5. Run the action.

The name and display type are only used when a new collection is created. A product that is already in Product variations gets the related products added to its collection as it is.

Products that list each other as related end up in the same collection. If you convert both Jacket Red and Jacket Blue, and they have each other as related, you get one collection with both.

A product with no related products and no Product variations is skipped with the message "The product has no related products.". You see the result for each product in the log for the action.

💡 Needs the new Bulk Editor
The action only exists in the Bulk Editor under Products. If the Bulk Editor is not turned on for the store, you see a page where you can turn it on.

Afterwards

• Add the Product collections block to the product page in the design builder, set to Product variations, if it is not there already. Otherwise the collection does not show in the online store. Read Showing product collections on the product page.

• If you kept the moved products in Related products, they now show in both places. Remove them from Related products if you do not want that.

• You can move the skipped products yourself: first take them out of the other Product variations collection, then add them again.

⚠️ Cannot be undone with one click
The conversion creates or changes a Product variations collection, and it can remove products from Related products. There is no undo button. To go back, remove the products from Product variations and add them to Related products again.

See also

• Global product collections and Product variations

• Product collections — creating and managing on a product

• Bulk actions