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Shopify variants for an art store
Shopify gives you three options per product, and in framed art they run out sooner than you'd think. How you set this up decides your order value, your shipping cost, and whether augmented reality is even possible.
First, the limit that will bite you
Shopify allows three options per product and up to a hundred variants. In framed art that runs out sooner than you'd think.
Size × Frame × Finish with six sizes, four frames and two finishes is 48 combinations. Add one more size and you're at 56. Decide which three axes you're using before you create the first product, because changing it once the catalogue exists is a miserable job.
The three axes that work
| Option | Typical values | Why this and not something else |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 21 × 30, 30 × 40, 50 × 70… | Non-negotiable. It's what drives price and shipping |
| Frame | Unframed, black, oak, walnut | The order-value lever. "Unframed" has to be a value, not the absence of the option |
| Finish / paper | Matte, satin | Only if you genuinely sell it. Otherwise leave the third axis free |
Don't spend an axis on artwork colour. If you sell the same illustration in three colourways, those are three products, not three variants. As variants you lose a primary image per colour and the SEO of each version.
How to name the values — it matters more than it looks
The value name isn't cosmetic: it's what your apps, your feeds and your suppliers read. Three rules:
- Put the measurement in the name. "50 × 70 cm", not "Large". An AR app, a Google feed or a print supplier can read the first; the second means nothing to a machine.
- One format across the whole catalogue. If one product says "50x70" and another says "50 × 70 cm", you have two different values for the same thing and any automation breaks.
- Name frames by colour and material. "Natural oak" beats "Frame 2", because the customer chooses by what they see.
Write sizes the way a machine reads them and a person understands them: number, times symbol, number, unit. "50 × 70 cm". With that, AR, feeds and suppliers all work without touching anything.
Price and weight per variant
- Price, on every variant. Obvious, but check the jump between sizes is right: smaller than the perceived jump in size.
- Weight, on every variant too. A framed 70 × 100 weighs several kilos more than an A4. Leave the default weight and your shipping calculation will eat the margin on the large ones and inflate it on the small ones.
And why this decides whether you can use AR
An augmented reality app needs to know how big the work is to anchor it to a wall at real size. That data comes from the variant, not the description.
If your size option is "Large / Medium / Small", no app can do anything with it. If it's "50 × 70 cm", it works with nothing to configure. Same with the frame: a value called "Oak" can be tied to a specific moulding; "Option 2" cannot.
The AR comes for free
InRoom reads your variants as they are: it detects the frame option, ties each value to its moulding in millimetres, and shows the work at its true size. Free plan of three artworks, no card.
See it on the Shopify App Store →Keep reading: standard frame and print sizes.