Product variants in CloudCart: sizes, colors, attributes and brands

In short: a product with variants in CloudCart is built in two places. In Products → Variants you create the parameter (Size) and its values, then in the product editor you pick Product with variants and set the price, SKU and stock of each combination. One product takes up to 3 parameters and up to 500 variants. Attributes (Properties) power the filters.

The product catalog is everything a shopper sees and searches by: products, their variants, the attributes behind the filters, brands, categories and collections. CloudCart, the Bulgarian ecommerce platform, keeps all of it under the Products menu in the admin, while the size chart and the brand-and-model catalog come as apps. This guide goes screen by screen for merchants who sell in Bulgaria, from Bulgaria or across the EU, with the admin menu names in English.

What a CloudCart product catalog is made of

The catalog in CloudCart has 7 parts, and each answers a separate question: what you sell, in which versions, how the shopper finds it and who makes it. The table shows where each part sits in the admin and how much each plan includes, as listed on the pricing page.

Part	Where in the admin	What it handles	Baby / Starter / CC Pro / CC Master
Products	Products → Products	Name, photos, price, stock, SEO	100 / 2,000 / 7,500 / unlimited
Variants	Products → Variants	Size, color, material: every combination is its own stock unit	on every plan
Attributes	Products → Properties	Product specs and category filters	on every plan
Brands	Products → Vendors	The product's brand and the brand page	on every plan
Options	Products → Options (Product Options app)	Engraving text, gift wrap, delivery date, with no stock of their own	5 / 10 / unlimited / unlimited
Smart Collections	Products → Smart Collections	Groups that fill themselves by rule	1 / 3 / 10 / 20
Brands and models	Apps → Brand-Model	Compatibility, for example a case for a specific phone model	no / no / yes / yes

Product bundles have a limit of their own and come with CC Pro and CC Master. At the product limit, Add product and Import open the plan upgrade window.

Variant, attribute or option: which one to use

A variant is a separate stock unit that the shopper picks before adding to cart. An attribute describes the product and drives a filter, without splitting stock. An option is a choice or text the shopper adds to the same unit. Getting this wrong costs the most: if size is entered as an attribute, your stock count cannot tell how many size M shirts you have left.

	Variant	Attribute	Option
Example	Size M, color black	Material: cotton	Engraving text
Own stock	Yes, for every combination	No	No
Own price, SKU, barcode	Yes	No	Only a price add-on
Shopper must choose	Yes, before the cart	No	Only if it is required
Scope	The whole store	Only the linked categories	Product, category, brand or collection

How to add a product with variants

A product with variants takes two steps: first the parameter and its values in the variants list, then the combinations inside the product. You create a parameter once for the whole store, so one "Size" serves every t-shirt, dress and jacket. If you are coming from WooCommerce, the same idea is called a "variable product" with "attributes" and "variations", and in Shopify the parameter is an "option". In CloudCart a variant is your variation, and the parameter is the attribute you vary by.

Step 1: the parameter and its values

1. Open the list. Go to Products → Variants and click + Add variant.
2. Name and type. In Variant settings, fill in Name, for example "Size" (unique in the store), choose the Option type from the 6 types below and click Next.
3. The values. In Set Variant values, type each value and press Enter: S, M, L, XL. A color swatch takes a color per value, an image swatch takes a picture. Save closes the window.

Step 2: the variants inside the product

1. Product type. In the product editor, in Product type settings, choose Product with variants instead of Simple Product.
2. Parameters. On each row pick the Variant name (Size, Color) and its Variant values, up to 3 rows. Save builds every combination.
3. Prices and stock. Manage variants opens Edit Variant options: Price, Discount, SKU, Barcode, Min. Order qty, Quantity and Weight per variant. Tools changes many selected variants at once.
4. Photos. Modify images links the black photos to every black variant, so the main photo switches when the shopper picks black.
5. Publish. Set a main category and click Save and publish.

If a combination does not exist, say red in XL, select its row in Edit Variant options and remove it with Tools → Delete before you save the product. The price on the category card is the price of the cheapest variant, and the card shows the range from the lowest to the highest price.

The 6 ways to display a variant

The parameter type decides what the shopper sees on the product page. Choose it carefully: once a product uses the parameter, the type is locked.

Option type	What the shopper sees	Best for
Select option	A dropdown menu	10 or more values: voltage, flavor, volume
Radio button	All values in one row	2 to 5 values
Image sample	Tiles with a picture	Patterns, fabrics, prints
Color sample	Circles in the color (HEX code)	Colors
2D schema	A grid with two axes	Measurements on two axes, such as width and length
Numeric alpha	A grid where each cell is one size	Sizes like 75B or 36A, sorted by the number first

Important: with Numeric alpha, every value needs both a digit and a letter. "75" or "XL" on its own is rejected with an error message. A product can have only one parameter of this type.

Variant limits

• Up to 3 parameters per product (for example Color, Size and Material).
• Up to 500 combinations per product: 10 sizes × 10 colors × 5 materials fits, while 10 × 10 × 6 = 600 is rejected.
• Merge values joins two values (for example "Black" and "black") into one and rewrites past orders as well. A merge cannot be undone.

Each variant as its own card in the category

By default a product is one card in the category. With Show each variant as a separate product in the product listing (the parameter's Advanced settings), every variant gets its own card, and Include the variant name in the product title makes it read "Basic T-shirt - Black". Variants in listing is included in CC Master according to pricing and paid on the other plans, and it can be switched once every 24 hours.

How to create product attributes for filters

A filter attribute is created in Products → Properties with + Add property, linked to categories and given values. With Use as filter on, it appears as a filter in the category sidebar.

1. Settings. Type the name, for example "Material", and pick Checkbox for separate values (cotton, linen) or Range for a number with a slider (screen size, power). In Advanced settings, the unique URL field becomes part of the filtered category address.
2. Categories. In Choose categories, pick where the attribute applies. It appears nowhere else.
3. Values. In Set property values, type each value and press Enter. Range usually skips this step, because the slider limits come from the products.
4. Filter. In the list, switch on Use as filter and drag the most important filters (brand, size, color) to the top.
5. In the product. Once you choose the category in the editor, its attributes appear and you pick the value.

Important: a product page shows only the attributes of its main category, and the type (Checkbox or Range) is locked after creation. An attribute that is not Active shows nowhere; Active without Use as filter shows only on the product page.

Filters work together with search: Aura Search finds the product even when the shopper misspells the word or uses different words, and the filters then narrow the results.

Brands and manufacturers: a page for every brand

A brand is created in Products → Vendors with + Add vendor and chosen in the Vendors card of the product. Every product has exactly one brand, and CloudCart builds a page for each brand at /vendor/<address> with its products, logo and description. The Advanced tab holds the SEO title, SEO description and address, and since the brand page is indexed, these fields work for searches like "[brand] online". A brand with products cannot be deleted: to merge two brands, change the brand of the products with the bulk action in the product list, then delete the empty one.

The Brand-Model app (CC Pro and CC Master) handles compatibility: a phone case store links each case to phone models, and the shopper filters by brand, then by model, on their own /brand/ and /model/ pages.

How to add a size chart to a product page

A size chart is added with the Size Chart app: the chart is a regular store page, and a condition decides in which categories and for which brands the link to it appears. One chart serves hundreds of products.

1. Install the app. Apps → Size Chart. Once installed, it works.
2. Create the page. In Content → Pages, add "Women's clothing sizes" with a table: size, chest, waist, hips in centimeters, and how to measure.
3. Create a condition. Apps → Size Chart → Conditions → Create new. Fill in Title (Will be Visible in the Store) for the link text, Page, one or more Category values and, optionally, Manufacturers to narrow it to a brand.
4. Check. With the condition active, a product from the category shows the link that opens the chart.

If brands cut differently, make one page and one condition per brand. On a phone the chart should read without sideways scrolling, so keep it to 4 or 5 columns, as explained in the guide to the mobile version of an online store.

Categories, tags and Smart Collections

Categories are the tree shoppers browse, and Smart Collections are groups that fill themselves by rule. Categories (Products → Categories) go up to 6 levels. The main category is required to publish, and Show also in adds the product to up to 5 more, though discounts and automatic collections look at the main one. Tags, typed in the product's Tags card, drive collections and card labels.

Smart Collections (Products → Smart Collections) take up to 10 rule rows that apply together: brand, category, tag, price, attribute value, new or on sale. A cosmetics store can build "Vegan care under €20" from category Face care, attribute Vegan and price under 20, and a new €15 vegan cream joins on its own. Each collection has its address /selection/<address> and SEO fields.

How to upload the whole catalog at once

A large catalog goes in through the Import button in the product list: CSV, a one-off XML import, a scheduled XML sync that keeps supplier prices and stock current, or the API. You map the file columns to store fields, the import runs in the background, and variants with their values can be created by CSV too. Per import, CSV takes 100 / 2,000 / 7,500 / 10,000 products and XML 100 / 2,000 / 7,500 / 25,000 on Baby / Starter / CC Pro / CC Master. Google Sheets handles bulk edits of prices and texts for products already in the store.

Moving from another platform, the built-in importers bring products from Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento, and any other platform, OpenCart included, comes over through CSV or XML. The full route for WooCommerce is in migrating from WooCommerce without losing SEO.

Photos and reviews: Image Health and Product Reviews

Product photos and reviews are handled by two apps. Image Health (Apps → Image Health) scores the photos of the whole catalog from 0 to 100, checks them against Google and Meta requirements and suggests fixes you approve: alt text, white margins, a better main photo, JPEG. By default a product should have 3 photos (you can set 1 to 10), and 50 check credits a month are included. With Check new and changed images automatically on, a product is checked again about 10 minutes after you upload, replace or link a photo to a variant.

Product Reviews (Apps → Product Reviews) adds star ratings, buyer reviews and optional Q&A to the product page. You set who can review, moderation and a window after purchase from 1 to 365 days. The star rating is on every plan according to pricing.

Managing the catalog with an AI assistant

An AI assistant such as Claude Code, ChatGPT Codex or Gemini CLI manages the catalog through the CloudCart Admin GraphQL API, which does in code what you do in the admin: products, variants, attributes and brands. You grant access with a PAT token created in the admin Settings, and the limits stay the same: 3 parameters and 500 variants per product.

The gain is largest on repetitive work. Sizes S to XL on 20 t-shirts are 100 rows in Manage variants, or one sentence plus a review of the changes. Typical requests:

• "Add the Material attribute to the Dresses category and fill in the value from each dress description."
• "Find the products whose variants have no barcode and list them in a table."
• "Merge the values Black, black and Noir into one." Ask first how many products this touches, because a merge cannot be undone.
• "List the products with no brand, no filter attributes or fewer than 3 photos."

Product descriptions are written by Aura Studio in the product editor, from the product data and photo, and you accept or edit the text.

What a well-organized catalog gets you

A well-organized catalog sells more because the shopper finds the product, picks the right size and keeps it. A clothing store with 40 t-shirt models in 5 sizes and 4 colors has 800 variants, each with its own stock, so a sold-out size shows as sold out and the rest keep selling. Filters narrow 300 products to 12, and the size chart link answers the most common question before buying clothes or shoes. More in online store SEO: a 30-point checklist.

For ads, Google Merchant Center groups the variants of one product under a shared identifier (item_group_id, Google Merchant Center Help) and asks for a GTIN, the barcode, on products that have one (GTIN, Google Merchant Center Help). Google also documents how a product page with variants is marked up as a ProductGroup whose variants differ by color, size or material (Product variants, Google Search Central).

6 best practices for product variants

1. Parameters first. Create Size, Color and Material once, with the right type, before the first product. The type cannot be changed later.
2. One name per value. "Black", with no "black" or "Noir" next to it, or the filter shows three blacks.
3. SKUs by a rule. Model-color-size, such as TSH01-BLK-M, tells you the variant in the stockroom and in reports.
4. A barcode on every variant. Google Shopping, marketplaces and your stockroom all need it.
5. A photo for every color. Link photos to variants so the shopper sees the color they pick.
6. Key filters on top. Size and color for clothing, brand and memory for electronics.

Mistakes to avoid

• Size as an attribute. An attribute does not split stock, so you cannot tell how many size M units you have.
• Colors as separate products. "Black T-shirt" and "White T-shirt" as two products split the reviews and the SEO. For separate cards, use the variant listing setting.
• Merging without checking. Merge values rewrites past orders and cannot be undone.
• More than 500 combinations. The save is rejected. Split the product or drop a parameter.
• A size chart with no condition. The page exists, but no product shows the link.

Frequently asked questions