Options & Variations vs. Modifiers

[lmcmechan]

I was just kinda curious to know who all uses Modifiers to price your items as apposed to using and option with variations. 

It seems like a can adjust pricing so much easier this way! I sell shirts so for example a XXL shirt gets a +$2.00 and a XXXL gets a $4.00

Then a Crew and hoodie get a +$7.00 and a +$12.00 and I am liking that so far!

The title of this thread has been edited from the original by a Community Moderator to help with searching threads. 

[Donnie-M]

@lmcmechan This really depends on inventory purposes.  I love modifiers, but you can't track inventory on modifiers, only variations.  Most retail use options and variations for shirts like that.  But if your business is casual enough you can still track modifier sales, and for simplicity it is way way way simpler.  So you would have T-shirt  Large and the item price is 6.00.  I would put 1 modifier as Large no price.  The next option would be xxl +2.00 and etc and so on.  The last thing is I would limit the modifier to only 1 choice.

If you want to keep inventory track in square, you would use variations and options.

[RobynR · Accepted solution]

Hey @lmcmechan,

Great question!

You can use item variations/options and modifiers to customize how you display items to your buyers, helping them shop based on their needs. Which one you choose depends on how you run your business—Modifiers offer flexibility, while Variations help with detailed inventory tracking.

Item Variations/Options

• Best for items with stock tied to specific variations (e.g., different sizes or styles).
• Example: Selling shirts in Small, Medium, Large, and XL? Each size can be tracked as a separate stock variation.

Item Modifiers

• Perfect for offering customization or add-ons that don’t affect stock.
• There are two types:
  • Text Input Box: For special requests like "Add gift wrapping" or "Include a personal message."
  • Pre-Set List: For additional choices like "Add bacon (+$2.00)" or "XXL (+$2.00)."

Pro Tip: You can combine modifiers with item variations to create a seamless shopping experience for customizable items.

Let me know how you set it up or if you have questions!

[lmcmechan]

Thank you so much! I went ahead and tried out only using modifiers. But I may end up changing back to Modifiers/Options.

My biggest issue is that I cant go in and change pricing for a certain size and style by a group anymore and its just a pain to have to change each price each time.

[ncardenny]

Super late to this, but this is how we price almost everything. We're a bar with small kitchen menu. With modifiers I can add a modifier set 'Add Fries' to all items that we offer a side of fries for. Price change? Just change the mod set. This way I'm not manually changing each and every one, and likely missing one along the way, etc. It does complicate inventory, but we sell SO many fries that at the end of the day it's actually not even useful for me to have the info of how many side of fries we sold all in one place. Happy to go into more detail on our modifier set up for bar/bev purposes if it's helpful to anyone