Skip to main content

How can my customers choose product variants when buying a bundle?

How many variant selectors a bundle shows, what decides which variant each one opens on, and why the quantity stepper is not the control you want.

Written by Andrey Gadashevich

Every row in the widget carries its own variant selector when the product on that row has more than one variant. The shopper picks a size or a colour on each row, and those choices go into the cart together.

The part that trips people up is the number of selectors. It is fixed by how many copies of a product you built into the bundle — not by anything the shopper does in the widget.

The quantity stepper does not add a selector

The Quantity selector gives the shopper a +/- stepper on each row. It multiplies how many units of the variant already chosen on that row are taken. It never adds another variant selector, no matter how high the shopper raises it.

So a shopper-chosen count with a separate variant choice for each copy cannot be built. If you want "the shopper decides how many shirts, and each shirt gets its own size," you have to decide the number of copies yourself when you set the bundle up, and the shopper then picks a variant on each of those fixed rows.

Giving several copies of one product their own variant

Uncombined quantity, on the Offer tab in the Product settings card, is the setting that does this. It appears as soon as any slot's Item quantity is above 1, or while it is already on. It is never offered on Volume discount or Buy-X-Get-Y bundles.

With it off, a slot of quantity 3 stays one row: one variant chosen once, three units of it in the cart. With it on, that slot becomes 3 separate rows, each resolving its own variant and its own cart line — so three copies of a T-shirt can be size Small, Medium and Large.

It works the same way on Separate products and on Product groups. On Product groups, each uncombined copy keeps the full resource list of the group, so each copy gets its own product picker as well as its own variant selector, and three copies can end up being three different products.

Watch the ordering trap: the Uncombined quantity checkbox only appears once a slot's Item quantity is above 1. Raise the quantity first, then tick it.

Uncombined quantity multiplies how many combinations a bundle that creates a Shopify product must generate, and that count is capped — 2,048 on a Shopify bundle, 250 price combinations on a Physical bundle.

Pinning which variant a row opens on

Default variant sits inline on a product row in the Bundle products card and opens a "Select default variant" modal. It appears when a product has more than one variant. Inside the modal, picking one variant greys out every other, because exactly one can be chosen.

Leave it unset and the widget resolves the variant itself, in this order:

  1. Your pinned default variant, if you set one.

  2. A variant no other row has already taken.

  3. The first available variant.

  4. Simply the first variant.

A product whose only variant is titled "Default Title" shows no variant line at all. With nothing pinned, the row reads "Default variant: the first available one."

Whether rows open with a variant already chosen

Pre-select the first available product variant in the widget, on the Advanced tab in the Advanced settings card, appears on Separate products, Product groups, Volume discount and Buy-X-Get-Y bundles.

With it on, every row opens with a variant already chosen, following the same resolution order as Default variant. That is what makes the "different size on each copy" setup work smoothly, because several copies of the same product open on different variants by default.

With it off, every selector starts empty and the shopper must choose before Add to cart works — except for a product with exactly one variant.

How each selector is drawn

Variant display, in Widget customization → General settings, is shop-wide rather than per bundle.

"All variants in one selector" gives each row a single dropdown listing full variant titles. "Swatches / separate selectors" gives each row one control per product option — for example a swatch strip for colour and a separate selector for size.

Neither option changes how many rows the widget shows. It only changes how each row's picker looks.

Two settings named "Product variant selection"

Both live on the Advanced tab in the Advanced settings card, and each appears on one structure only.

On a Volume discount bundle. "Select variant for each item" gives the shopper one variant selector per unit in the tier — a numbered list of selectors (#1, #2, #3) as long as the tier's quantity. "Select once for the entire bundle" gives a single selector that applies to the whole quantity. This is the Volume-discount structure's counterpart to Uncombined quantity.

On a Product groups bundle. "The product from the current product page the customer is viewing" or "The first product in the group list" decides which product each slot shows before the shopper touches it. With the current-page option, the order is: the product of the page the shopper is on, if it is in the group and available, then the first available product no other group has already taken, then any available product, then the first one you listed. With the List template specifically, the current page's product wins even if it is out of stock.

Keeping new variants in the bundle

Add new product variants to product bundle automatically, on the Advanced tab in the Advanced settings card, appears on a Widget-only bundle whose items are specific products rather than collections or all-store.

Leave it ticked and any variant you create later on one of those products is picked up automatically, provided the product was originally added to the bundle with all of its variants selected. The new variant then appears in that row's selector without you re-saving the bundle.

Need Help?

If you have any questions, please contact our support team.

📩 Contact Support: Reach out to us via live chat or send an email to [email protected].

Did this answer your question?