A product page offers two very different kinds of choice. “Medium, Navy” picks a different physical item. “Add engraving (+$10)” changes what you do to the same item. minipim models the first as variants and the second as modifiers.

Variant or modifier?

Ask: would the warehouse stock it separately?

  • Yes → variant. Sizes, colours, pack sizes, flavours. Each gets its own SKU and barcode, and can have its own price, weight and images.
  • No → modifier. Engraving, gift wrap, a subscription cadence, a monogram. No new SKU — the option is applied to the order.

Creating variants from a matrix

  1. Make sure the attributes that distinguish variants — say size and colour — are marked Variant axis on the Attributes page.
  2. Open the product and choose Generate variant matrix.
  3. Pick the values for each axis: S, M, L × Navy, Oat.
  4. Optionally give a SKU template using the axis values; otherwise SKUs are built from the product slug and the values.

minipim creates every combination at once and validates each one. If a SKU would clash with one that exists, nothing is created, so you never end up with half a matrix.

What goes on the variant

A variant inherits everything from its product. Only set what’s different — the variant’s Overrides section says it plainly: anything blank inherits from the product. Typical overrides are price, weight and an image of that colour.

Add identifiers on each variant — SKU, UPC, GTIN, EAN, MPN. Barcodes are checked against the GS1 check digit when you save, so a mistyped barcode is caught immediately.

Adding modifiers

  1. Go to Modifiers and create one — pick a type: Select, Text, Number, Yes / no or File upload.
  2. For choice-based modifiers, add choices. Each choice has a label, a value and an optional price change: a fixed amount or a percentage.
  3. Open each product that offers it and attach the modifier, deciding whether it’s Required and where it sits in the order.

A modifier is shared: change the gift-wrap price once and every product using it updates. That also means its prices are the same everywhere — create a second modifier if one product needs a different price.

Modifiers imported from BigCommerce are refreshed on every pull, so change those in BigCommerce.