In addition to inheriting all the properties from the base product type, custom product types let you provide both type properties and variant properties for products.
Type properties let you add information specific to a particular kind of product. For example, suppose your store carries a large inventory of cameras. You might want to create a custom product type called Camera that includes type properties like effective pixels and exposure control.
Type property values can also be used as search terms and facets on your store. For more information, see Create custom product types.
SKU properties let you add information specific to a SKU. For example, you could create custom SKU properties that hold UPC codes or IDs that represent SKUs in an external order management system.
SKU property values can also be used as search terms and facets on your store. For more information, see Create custom product types.
Variant properties represent options you can combine to create SKUs. For example, if a shirt is available in three sizes and two colors, size and color are its variant properties.
Variant property values can also drive image display on your store’s product details and category pages. Select one variant property per product that gets images assigned to each of its values. For example, suppose a shirt called Cotton Tee is available in three colors, red, blue, and green. You can assign separate images to each color value. When a shopper navigates to the shirt’s product details page and selects the color green, the main image changes to the green shirt.
You can also display style-based products on category pages. That is, images for each value of the selected variant appear as separate products on your store. Continuing with the shirt example, suppose the shirt is part of the Tops & Tees category. When a shopper navigates to Tops & Tees, the shirt appears three times on the page, once in each of the available colors.
For more information, see Create custom product types.
