Theme Studio version 15 and product variants more than 2,000

[rapidturtle]

Hello,

I read on the release note of theme Studio version 15 that it supports products with over 2,000 variants.

I upgraded the exisitng Studio theme to version 15 and I'm in the process of adding variants to products.

However, I still get this error message "This product can't have more than 100 variants. To save, remove some option values."

According to the release note, version 15 should support products with variants up to 2,000.

Did I misunderstand this?

My published theme is still based on version 13.x.x.
I made a back up of my current theme which I upgraded to versions 15.
Could this be the reason that's causing that error message?

Thanks!

[Imogen]

Hi there, @rapidturtle! Thanks for taking the time to reach out to the Shopify Community Forums with your question around the 'Studio' Theme changelog, and what you've noticed in the updates! My name is Imogen. It's good to meet you!

It's possible that our Theme Developers are working on some new theme features, as we recently announced that the Product API used in Themes and applications would be receiving changes. I am unable to provide any direct insight around what may be released in future updates, but at this time, the current product variant limit still stands at 100. It's likely that this changelog update is referencing a change being made to the theme to accommodate these API changes. The wording included in the update appears to be misleading, so I've flagged this thread and that update wording for folks internally so they can take peek at the wording used to describe the update in order to prevent any future confusion around product variant limits and Studio.

For now, the information in our Help Center is the most accurate resource we can offer around the current variant limit for products on Shopify. If the product variant limit is updated or adjusted, our help documents will be updated accordingly. Thanks for taking the time to post about these changes, and bringing this to our attention!

[rapidturtle]

Hello @Imogen 

Thanks for your reply. 

I have to say that I'm quite disappointed that the variant limit is still capped at 100.

Could you share with me other solutions where I can have several product variant options which result in variants over 100?

Thanks!

[Shay]

Hey @rapidturtle I'd be happy to help you out with that. I also have a bit more information that I can add onto what Imogen has shared already. 

Increased variant limits is coming in the near future, but we don't have a release date at this time. Themes that note they support an increased variant limit are so that developers who are testing this or building on Shopify know which themes currently support this. The increased variant limit is available in development stores created through a partner account. We have some more information available on that here: New Product API FAQs.

Depending on the nature of your business, you may be eligible to have your variant limit increased. There are strict criteria for this though. If you can let me know what kind of products you are selling and if you are using a third party supplier (dropshipping, pod, etc), I'd be happy to look into that option with you. 

If your business is not eligible, then these are some of the suggested alternatives you can look at: 

Option 1: This is the simplest option that doesn't require tweaking code or investing in an app/Shopify Expert. With this option you'd take one of your variant options and create separate product pages for each of the variants within that variant option. Let's look at an example:

Variant options:
- Style (t-shirt, tank top, hoodie)
- Size (S, M, L, XL, 2XL)
- Colour (red, blue, green, yellow, black, grey, white)

With those 3 variants and the amount of options you could have within them, you'd already be sitting at 105 possible variants. For the workaround, you could take the "style" variant option and create separate products for each of them.

Product types (create a separate product for each of these):
- T-shirt
- Tank top
- Hoodie

Variant options within those products:
- Size (S, M, L, XL, 2XL)
- Colour (red, blue, green, yellow, black, grey, white)

This creates 3 different products, each with 35 possible variants, which is easily supported by Shopify.

Option 2: Alternatively, you can look at customizing the theme and adding line item properties directly to the product. This will only work if the created line item properties do not affect price. This customization is not directly supported by Shopify and you may need to hire a developer for assistance. You can also look at apps that are designed to add additional product options through line item properties here: Shopify App Store - Product Options.