What is Variant?

Each variant can sell at a different pace. A candle shop might sell the lavender scent three times faster than the oak moss scent, even though both are the same product. If you only look at total product sales, you will reorder the slow variant too soon and run out of the fast one too often.

Forecasting and reordering should happen at the variant level, not the product level. Track stock, sales history, and reorder points per variant so each size or color gets the right quantity, not an average that fits none of them.

Example

A t-shirt comes in small, medium and large. Medium sells 20 units a month, small sells 8, and large sells 5, so 33 a month in total. If you order 100 shirts split evenly, you get about 33 of each, which overstocks large and runs small and medium out early. Split by demand instead: about 24 small, 61 medium and 15 large.

Common mistakes

• Reordering based on total product sales instead of per-variant sales.
• Treating all variants of a product as equally popular.
• Forgetting that new variants have no sales history, so early forecasts need manual judgment.

Variant and SteadyShelf

SteadyShelf forecasts demand and sets order-by dates separately for each variant, so a fast-selling size does not run out while a slow-selling one piles up.

SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.

Related terms

SKU · Demand forecasting · Reorder point · Case pack · Inventory accuracy

Full inventory glossary

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