Publishing and unpublishing product variants

You can choose which product variants to publish or unpublish across your different sales channels and product catalogs, so that you don't need to delete variants or create duplicate products.

When you unpublish a particular product variant from a specific channel, that variant is hidden from being displayed. Only your published variants, and their options and pricing, are displayed.

New product variants default to being published when you create them, unless their parent product is unpublished, or unless you unpublish the variants before saving them for the first time. You can manage variant publishing on the product details page, variant details page, and with bulk editing in your Shopify admin.

Understanding how variant publishing works

For a variant to be displayed in a sales channel or catalog, both the parent product and the variant must be published to that channel or catalog. Variant publishing lets you hide specific variants in channels or catalogs where the parent product is published, according to the following rules:

If a product isn't published to a channel or catalog, then all its variants are hidden in that channel or catalog regardless of the variant settings. Individual variant publishing settings apply only when the parent product itself is published.
If a product is published to a channel or catalog, then only its variants that are also specifically published to that channel or catalog are displayed.
If every variant of a product is unpublished from a channel or catalog, then the parent product itself is entirely hidden from that channel or catalog until you republish at least one variant.

Considerations for publishing and unpublishing product variants

Review the following considerations for publishing or unpublishing specific product variants:

You can't set a publishing date for individual product variants.
If you use catalogs that have custom pricing for the products that a catalog contains, then any variants that aren't published to the catalog don't receive the custom pricing adjustment.

Add a new variant as unpublished

When you add a new variant to a product, you can set the variant to be initially unpublished on specific sales channels or catalogs. You need to set your new variant's sales channel and catalog publishing availability before you save your changes to the product.

Steps:

Desktop

From your Shopify admin, go to Products.
Click a product that you want to add a new variant for.
Add a new variant to the product.
In the Variants section:
- To manage publishing for a single new variant, in the Publishing column, click either All or the icons that are displayed for the relevant variant.
- To manage publishing for multiple new variants, select the relevant variants, and then click > Manage publishing.
In the Manage publishing dialog, select or deselect from your available Sales Channels or Catalogs.
Click Done.
Click Save.

Mobile

From the Shopify app, tap the icon .
Tap a product that you want to add a new variant for.
Add a new variant to the product.
On the Variants page, tap your new variant.
Tap or , and then tap Manage publishing.
Select or deselect from your available Sales Channels or Catalogs.
Tap Save or ✓.

Unpublish a product variant from specific sales channels or catalogs

You can unpublish product variants from specific sales channels and catalogs. When you unpublish a variant, it's hidden from being displayed by the channels and catalogs that you deselect.

Steps:

Desktop

From your Shopify admin, go to Products.
Click a product that you want to manage variant publishing for.
In the Variants section:
- To manage publishing for an individual variant, in the Publishing column, click either All or the icons that are displayed for the relevant variant.
- To manage publishing for multiple variants, select the relevant variants, and then click > Manage publishing.
In the Manage publishing dialog, deselect the Sales Channels or Catalogs that you want to unpublish your variants from.
Click Done.
Click Save.

Mobile

From the Shopify app, tap the icon .
Tap a product that you want to manage variant publishing for.
In the Variants section, tap to open the product variants, and then tap the variant that you want to manage publishing for.
Tap or , and then tap Manage publishing.
Deselect the Sales Channels or Catalogs that you want to unpublish your variants from.
Tap Save or ✓.

Publish a product variant to specific sales channels or catalogs

You can publish product variants to only specific sales channels and catalogs. When you publish a variant, its options and pricing are displayed by the channels and catalogs that you select.

Steps:

Desktop

From your Shopify admin, go to Products.
Click a product that you want to manage variant publishing for.
In the Variants section:
- To manage publishing for an individual variant, in the Publishing column, click either All or the icons that are displayed for the relevant variant.
- To manage publishing for multiple variants, select the relevant variants, and then click > Manage publishing.
In the Manage publishing dialog, select the Sales Channels or Catalogs that you want to publish your variants on.
Click Done.
Click Save.

Mobile

From the Shopify app, tap the icon .
Tap a product that you want to manage variant publishing for.
In the Variants section, tap to open the product variants, and then tap the variant that you want to manage publishing for.
Tap or , and then tap Manage publishing.
Select the Sales Channels or Catalogs that you want to publish your variants on.
Tap Save or ✓.