We’re pumped to share some good news.

After many requests and a long time coming, Oberlo is rolling out the variant mapping feature to ALL users – instead of just Boss plan members.

Go ahead. Do your happy dance. We’ll wait. Actually, we’ll do one with you!

Even if you weren’t aware of the variant mapping feature, you’ve probably come across some of the pains of not having it.

For example, have you ever:

  • Had to make separate listings/product pages for the same item in your store, just because there were variations in the color, size, or design? (And had an unorganized and confusing store as a result?)
  • Had to stop selling one variant of a product just because your supplier ran out, even though other suppliers still had it in stock?
  • Been stuck selling a product from your current supplier, even though you found a better or cheaper version of the exact same product with another supplier?
  • You had to override a completely good product (just because your supplier added or removed a variant).

If you answered “yes” to any of these, variant mapping is here to save the day.

Let’s look closer at what exactly this feature is and how it can help make your ecommerce and dropshipping experience easier.

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Variant Mapping Uses and Examples

First, a quick refresher on what a variant is:

A variant is any difference in a product, like the size, color, material, and design. For example, if you sell a shirt that comes in five sizes and five colors. That’s 25 possible variants because each size can come in each color. A large green shirt is one of your variants.

Now, let’s look at a few examples of how you can use variant mapping to streamline your store – for your shoppers, as well as for how you run the backend.

Merge Options That Have Separate AliExpress Listings

It’s common for suppliers to create separate AliExpress listings for different variants of a product, or for a supplier to have most – but not all – possible product variants in a single listing.

Many dropshippers who encountered this issue were forced to create separate product pages for the other variants. This can make your store unorganized and hard for customers to navigate. On top of that, your marketing efforts can get confusing when you have to switch between separate pages. And let’s not even get into the tracking and analytics nightmare.

But now, you can use variant mapping to merge the variants into the same listing and simplify your storefront.

Consider this example from the international Shopify dropshipping store Inspire Uplift. It offers three variants of mini electric heaters for US, UK, and EU plugs. Customers from any of those regions can just choose the right plug and be on their merry way, instead of having to find the right page for their needs. Amazing, right!?

variant mapping oberlo

Other Ways to Use Variant Mapping

Pull out-of-stock variants from a different supplier. No merchant wants to deal with out-of-stock chaos, especially when there are other suppliers at the ready with the same product you are trying to sell. Instead of having to turn customers down or scramble to find a solution, you can use variant mapping to replace only the out-of-stock variant and link up with a supplier who has the item(s). This happens behind-the-scenes so your customers never know the difference. It’s seamless.

Replace current items with a better or cheaper version. If you find exactly the same item (or one or more variants of that item) with another supplier, use variant mapping to easily replace it with the new item.

Important: Keep in mind that if you’re on the Explorer plan, you can map up to two AliExpress product listings into one product page on your store. Boss plan merchants can map up to five AliExpress product listings on a single product page.

And there you have it! Less pain managing your store’s products. More time to build, grow, and smash those daily, monthly, and yearly goals.

If you have any more questions about this feature or want to find step-by-step instructions to use it in your store, check out our Help Center article here. 

And as always, don’t hesitate to reach out to our customer success team for insightful guidance.