Inheriting values within a variant family

A variant family consists of products with the same model in the catalog's variant grouping. You do not create it manually; products only need to share a model. Find its settings on the product card, under the Variants tab, in Inheritance within variant family.

Parent

The parent is the product from which variants copy values. By default, it is the oldest product in the family. Change it in Parent (copy source). A star in the variant list marks the current parent.

What is copied

You can copy attributes and standard fields: name, weight, dimensions, photos, and categories. Attributes that distinguish variants (for example, color and size) are never copied.

The setting applies at three levels. The more specific one takes precedence:

1. This family—this one model only.
2. Catalog defaults—all families in the catalog without their own setting.
3. Attribute definition—the “inherited” and “inheritance behavior” fields on the attribute.

The switch above the table selects the level to edit. The Currently applied column shows what is active and which level it comes from. Use next level down clears the setting at the edited level. Add a missing attribute with Add attribute to inheritance.

Modes

• Do not inherit—the variant always has its own value.
• Fill empty only—the parent's value is copied only where the variant has no value.
• Copy—editing a variant detaches it—a parent change propagates to variants. If you edit a variant manually, its value becomes its own and the parent stops overwriting it.
• Copy—editing a variant updates the whole family—an edit to any variant also updates the parent and other variants.
• Merge lists—multi-values, photos, and categories are combined. For name, weight, and dimensions, it works like ordinary copying.

Variant-specific values

A variant detached from its parent has a yellow Own value marker. The × on the marker restores inheritance and, when inheritance is enabled, immediately copies the parent's value.

Note: any save on a variant counts as a manual edit, including synchronization from an integration. If an import saves the parent and variants at the same time, variants keep their imported values in detach mode. In “updates the whole family” mode, the parent's value wins. Deleting a category or product does not detach variants from their parent.

Copy on demand

Values copy automatically after every change to the parent. After changing settings, use Copy to variants now to propagate inherited values across the family. Variant-specific values remain untouched. Turning off Inheritance enabled pauses copying for this family.