What is the difference between Options and Variations?

[georgec]

I cannot wrap my head around the difference between these two items. To me they are synonyms and the Square help docs and interface do not help at all differentiating between them or providing insight as to when one is the more appropriate method. 

[lawnbrook]

@georgec ,

Options essentially generate the variations.

Untilmately you need a separate SKU for each variation of a product however if there are lots of variations this will become cumbersome to manually enter them all.

Imagine a T-shirt that has 3 colors and 3 sizes: that's 9 item variations for 1 item... Then imagine you have 10 different T-shirts styles... thats now 90 SKUs.

Instead you can create a color option set, and a size option set, then apply them to the 10 different T-shirt styles... the 9 different variations will be generated for each T-shirt items..

I hope that makes sense.

[georgec]

Thank you. Yes after some further experimentation it makes a bit more sense. Essentially Variations seem to be combinations of Options, which are derived from Option Sets. 

Ultimately products end up with Variations, and Options (via Option Sets) are one way to set those up. Especially if the type of variations are similar across products (size, color). 

thanks!