Zakeke allows you to offer product variants. This is a guide on how to set and manage them in your account.
Summary:
- Setting up variants
- How the variants are shown in the customizer
- How to edit variants
- Enabling customers to buy multiple variants for the same design
1. Setting up Variants
Note: This section covers products imported from your store.
If you want to see how to configure variants for products created from scratch, please refer to the dedicated section further below.
Step 1 - Import attributes & options
In the Variant Options section, Zakeke automatically reads the product’s existing attributes and related options from your store (e.g., Size, Color, Material), meaning you first need to set the variants of your product in your store.
In the example below, you see "Color" and "Size":
Don't see your variants?
Read the guidelines here if you are not able to see the variants on Zakeke even though they exist on your store’s product.
From here, you can choose which attributes/options to import in Zakeke.
The attributes you import here will be available to the customer both on the product page and inside the Customizer. This means that after entering the Customizer, the customer can still change the attributes independently of the selection made on the product page, and the corresponding variant image will update accordingly.
If you decide to import only specific attributes or options, non-imported attributes/options will still be available on the product page but will not be visible or manageable in Zakeke. They will still be passed to the cart.
Example: You sell t-shirts with two attributes: Color and Size.
If you choose to import only the Color attribute and its options, the customer will initially select both Color and Size on the product page. In Zakeke, they will see the chosen Color and can change it within the Customizer, but Size cannot be changed. When the product is added to the cart, it will reflect the last Color selected in Zakeke together with the Size originally chosen on the product page.
Step 2/2 - Generate the Variant Matrix
Once you have decided for the attributes and options to import, Zakeke automatically generates all variant combinations from your attributes and options. For each variant you can:
Set a variant image;
Adjust variant-specific print areas if needed.
- Also, you can still change the name of the variant or delete it or even remove a single combination of variant/product sides. See How to edit variants for further details.
Variant Images Note
If you import all attributes and options, Zakeke can automatically import the related variant images from your store.
If you import only specific attributes or options, variant images must be set manually in Zakeke for each combination.
Note: Automatic import is not supported on all e-commerce platforms. For unsupported platforms, you will need to upload variant images manually even if all attributes are imported.
Setting up variants for products from scratch – Detailed Guide
When you create a product from scratch in Zakeke, you have two options for setting up variants:
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Define attributes and options manually in Zakeke
You can define attributes directly in Zakeke (e.g., Size, Color, Material), just like you would in an e-commerce platform.
After defining the attributes and options, Zakeke will generate the variant matrix, allowing you to set images, adjust print areas, rename, or delete variants.
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Import variants from an existing product in your store
In this case, you must first link the configuration you are creating in Zakeke to an existing product in your store (and you will need to integrate your Zakeke account with the store if you haven’t already done so).
Zakeke will then read the existing attributes and options from the store product, and you can select which ones to import.
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Products created from scratch can be used immediately for manual orders in the back-office.
To make them available online, they must be linked to a store product.
If you have manually created variants in Zakeke, you will then be asked to properly map those variants to the corresponding variants on the product you are connecting.
2. How the variants are shown in the customizer
Variants are shown as images if the attribute is only one (see example below where the attribute is "color").
If you don't see this UI, it means you're using our previous version. You can switch from your Zakeke back-office > User Interface settings, but if you don't see the option to switch, contact us at help@zakeke.com.
If you import more than one attribute in Zakeke, then the variants will be shown with dropdown menus to allow the customer to select an option for each attribute (see example below where the attributes are "color" and "size").
If you don't see this UI, it means you're using our previous version. You can switch from your Zakeke back-office > User Interface settings, but if you don't see the option to switch, contact us at help@zakeke.com.
You can't decide the way variants are shown, it goes automatically based on the number of attributes.
3. How to edit variants
Once a customizable product with variants has been published, you can still modify its variants and their properties.
To do this, go to the Customizable Products list, click on the product menu on the right, and select "Add or Edit Variants", or open your Customizable Product and choose Edit > Variations.
Next, you will see the option to add variants if none have been added previously. Otherwise, you will see the variant matrix, where you can perform the following operations on the existing variants:
- Rename, move or delete the variant
- Change the image and edit the print area for a single variant and make personalization mandatory for a specific variant/side
- Add a new variant
Warning
Remember to save the changes before closing the page. In order to save, click on Go to Preview > Save.
Warning 2
Once a product with variants in your store has been turned into a customizable product in Zakeke, you may need to change its attributes and options in the store. Those changes don't always reproduce automatically in Zakeke and you may need to set the variants in Zakeke once again. Please refer to this article for details.
4. Enabling your customers to buy multiple variants at once
You can allow your customers to order more than one variant with the same design at once.