product-data-modeling

Shopify products support up to 3 options (e.g., Size, Color, Material) generating up to 100 variants, each with its own price, SKU, inventory, and weight. Use metafields for attributes that don't affect price or stock, such as care instructions or certifications.

In WooCommerce, global attributes defined under Products → Attributes become variation axes on Variable products, each with unique price, SKU, and stock. Non-variation custom attributes or ACF fields store data like technical specs that don't generate separate purchasable combinations.

No, store prices as NUMERIC(10,2) in PostgreSQL or as integer cents in application code to avoid floating-point rounding errors. A price of $29.99 stored as 2999 cents eliminates display and calculation bugs common with FLOAT columns.

Shopify caps products at 3 options and 100 variants. Combine two dimensions into one option (e.g., "Size/Width"), move the fourth dimension to metafields, or split fundamentally different items into separate product records.

Use JSONB columns with a GIN index for flexible attributes in most custom builds, since it avoids expensive EAV joins. Reserve full EAV normalization for cases requiring typed attribute definitions and strict per-attribute validation across many categories.

Variants need their own assigned image in the platform admin, not just the product-level image, to trigger the storefront swap. Assign variant-specific images per color option and verify all purchasable combinations in the variant selector before launch.