Inventory & Variants

Overview

Podifai can link option values to Shopify product variants. When configured, the linked variant's inventory data is fetched and used for display and availability tracking in the customizer. Podifai also supports a custom inventory mode where you manually set availability per option value.

How It Works

Variant linking connects a Podifai option value (e.g. "Size: Large") to a specific Shopify variant. When the customizer loads, Podifai batch-fetches inventory data for all linked variants from Shopify's GraphQL API. This data is used to display pricing and availability status alongside option values on the storefront.

Data from Linked Variants

When an option value is linked to a variant, the following fields are read from Shopify:

• Price — The variant's current price, displayed alongside the option
• Compare-at Price — For displaying discounts
• SKU — Shown for inventory tracking and fulfillment reference
• Inventory Quantity — Current stock level
• Availability — Whether the variant is in stock (the storefront receives out-of-stock flags that can indicate availability state)
• Image — The variant's product image
• Product URL — Link back to the source product

Inventory & Pricing Independence

In Shopify's native system, each variant bundles price and inventory together — and products are limited to 3 option types and 100 variants. Podifai decouples these: you can track inventory via variant linking without affecting the price, or add a price add-on without tracking inventory. This gives merchants more flexibility for products with many customization combinations.

Use Cases

• Display variant-specific pricing next to option values
• Surface out-of-stock status so customers can see availability per option
• Show SKU and stock information for each option value
• Use custom inventory mode to manually control option availability without linking to variants
• Combine with Dynamic Pricing to add independent surcharges on top of variant data

Color Swatch Variant Linking

Color Swatches support linking each color to a Shopify variant directly from the option editor. This is the most common variant linking pattern — each color maps to a variant with its own price and SKU.