I’m struggling with two products on Shopify that need to be sold as bundles of 3 colors. For the first one, customers can pick any 3 shades out of 13, and each shade has its own gallery, so when someone clicks on a color, the images for that specific shade must appear. The problem is that creating real variants for all the possible combinations exceeds Shopify’s variant limit, and I can’t use bundle apps because they also create too many variants. The second product is also a bundle of 3, but I already sell the same product individually, so I need the bundle to share the same inventory with the single product while still switching the gallery based on the selected shade. Basically, I need a way for customers to choose 3 colors, see the correct images when they click a color, and have the inventory track correctly with the original single-product variants—without relying on bundle apps or hitting Shopify’s variant limit.
Topic summary
Core issue: Two Shopify products must be sold as bundles of 3 colors, with per-shade image galleries. For one product, customers choose any 3 of 13 shades; creating all real variant combos exceeds Shopify’s variant limit, and bundle apps also create too many variants. For the other, the item is sold individually and as a 3-pack; the bundle must share inventory with the single product and still swap images based on selected shades, ideally without relying on bundle apps.
Recent inputs:
- A participant requested the store URL/password to review and propose a code-based solution.
- Suggestion: Use any bundle app, but manage inventory separately via back-end sync using automation apps (e.g., Mechanic; example “sync” tasks available).
- Update: Shopify’s variant limit has increased (comment cites up to 250 variants), but theme support may lag. Product media items are also limited (comment cites 250); variant metafields could help manage galleries.
Status: No decision yet. Next steps include sharing store access for assessment, considering inventory sync automation, and monitoring theme support for the increased variant limit.
Use whatever bundle app then treat inventory as a different process.
Just sync it on the back end with any of the hundreds of such apps from the app store.
Or use an automation app like mechanic https://tasks.mechanic.dev/?q=sync
The have plenty of off-the-shelf task but if you need something custom reach out to me for development.
Note that variant limit is now increased and we just need to wait for themes which support it.
I believe current themes will support up to 250 variants straight away, so if this can be enough…
Though there is also 250 media items per product limit, which can probably be worked around by using variant metafields…