How to manage attributes and attribute values

In short. Attributes are the variation axes (Size, Color, Material) that power variable products. Create an attribute in the Attributes list screen, pick its display type (Dropdown, Buttons, Color Swatches, or Image Swatches), then drill into its Items screen to add values — either one at a time or in bulk. Once defined, attributes are reusable across your entire catalog.

On this page: What is this for · Steps: create attribute · Steps: add values · Examples · Troubleshooting

How to define Size, Color, and other picker options that power variable products

Attributes are the axes of variation your products can be offered on — Size, Color, Material, Fit. Each attribute has a list of values (Size → S/M/L; Color → Black/White/Red) and a display type that controls how it renders on the public product page (Dropdown, Buttons, Color Swatches, or Image Swatches). Setting up Size and Color for a clothing store takes about 5 minutes total.

What is this for?

The Attributes screens are your variant-option library. You reach for them before creating a variable product so the attributes exist to attach to it. You come back when your product line grows and needs a new option axis (introducing a Material attribute alongside Size and Color). You also come back when visual choices change (updating the Color attribute's swatch hex codes to match refreshed brand colors).

Two screens work together:

• Attributes list (/sg-admin/ecommerce/product_attributes) — where attributes live. You create Size here, or Color, or Material.
• Items drill-down (/sg-admin/ecommerce/product_attributes/view/<id>) — where each attribute's values live. Open Size's items to define S, M, L. Open Color's items to define Black with hex #000000, White with #FFFFFF.

Scope

The Attributes panel covers two screens: the Attributes list (where you create and name each variation axis) and the Items drill-down (where you define each axis's values). Both screens are under Store Management → Products → Attributes. The panel does not cover variant pricing, inventory per-variant, or the per-product opt-in step — those live on the product editor's Attributes tab. Attributes defined here are global and reusable across your entire catalog; each product independently chooses which attribute values apply to it.

Examples

Example 1: Setting up Size and Color before your first variable product. Before you create the T-Shirt, open Products → Attributes. Create Size (Display Type: Dropdown) and add values S, M, L by pasting them into the Bulk create card. Create Color (Display Type: Color Swatches), drill into its items, and add Black with hex #000000 and White with #FFFFFF. Now when you open the T-Shirt's Attributes tab, Size and Color are ready to attach.

Example 2: Bulk-adding 50 US states as a Shipping Region attribute. For a product that ships only to specific states, create a Shipping Region attribute. Open its items screen, paste all 50 state names into the Bulk create textarea (one per line), tick Skip duplicates, click Bulk add items. All 50 save in one pass.

Example 3: Refreshing brand colors at the start of a season. Your brand has refreshed its palette. Open the Color attribute's items screen, click Edit on each color row, paste in the new hex, save. The next pageview on your public site shows the refreshed swatches everywhere.

Example 4: Adding a Finish attribute mid-season. You're launching a new product line with Matte / Gloss finishes. Create a new attribute Finish. Add items Matte and Gloss. Your existing products don't see the new attribute until you go into each of their edit pages and attach it — so there's no disruption to live products.

What NOT to use this for

• Do not use attributes to collect free-text customer input. Attributes are pickable from a fixed list. If the customer needs to type their child's name for a monogram, attributes are the wrong shape — pair the product with a form field instead.
• Do not rename an attribute's Slug after it's attached to products. The Slug is used internally to link attributes to products. Renaming after-the-fact risks breaking the link for existing variants; rename only before the attribute is in use.
• Do not delete an attribute while products reference it. Deletion doesn't cascade — the attribute disappears from this list, but products that had it attached keep pointing to nothing, leaving variants without their axis. Always detach the attribute from all products first.
• Do not bulk-paste more than 1000 items at once. The Bulk create cap is 1000 items per submit. Anything past 1000 in a single paste is silently dropped. Split very large imports into multiple passes.

How this connects to other features

• Create a variable product — the attributes you define here show up in the Attributes tab of a variable product's edit page, where you attach them and pick values for that specific product. See Create a variable product.
• Your store's public page — the Display Type you pick here drives how the variant picker renders on /product/<slug>. Dropdown = a <select>; Buttons or Labels = clickable button group; Color Swatches = colored circles; Image Swatches = product-image thumbnails.
• Media Library — Image Swatches attributes let each value have its own thumbnail (a mini product photo for that color / pattern). The picker pulls from your Media Library.
• Ecommerce → Configuration — some advanced swatch behaviors (swatch size, hover states) are set site-wide under your ecommerce configuration, not per-attribute.

Before you start

• You are signed in to SGEN as an admin.
• You've decided what attributes your catalog needs — Size, Color, Material, Fit, whatever matches the shape of your products.
• For Color Swatches: you have your brand's hex codes ready (#000000 for Black, #FFFFFF for White, your brand red, and so on).
• For Image Swatches: you've uploaded the swatch thumbnails to the Media Library.

Where to go

1. Open the left navigation.
2. Click Store Management → Products → Attributes (or open /sg-admin/ecommerce/product_attributes directly).
3. The Attributes list screen loads as a split layout: left is the create / edit form, right is the table of existing attributes.

Steps — Create an attribute

1. Write the Name

The Name field is how this attribute shows up on both the admin and the public product page. Write the display name, capitalized the way shoppers expect: Size, Color, Material, Fit.

2. Write the Slug (or leave it blank)

The Slug is the URL-safe identifier. If you leave it blank, the form auto-generates it from the Name. Short one-word names that auto-generate can fail form validation (for example the slug size is only 4 characters and the form rejects slugs under 5) — leaving Slug blank on short words dodges that; the system will auto-generate a valid slug. For longer names (Shipping-Region, Fabric-Weight), type the Slug directly and the form accepts it.

3. Pick a Display Type

The Display Type dropdown is how this attribute renders on the public product page. Four options:

• Dropdown (default) — a plain <select> dropdown. Works for everything; simplest. Best for Size, Material, anything with many values or text-only values.
• Buttons or Labels — a row of clickable buttons instead of a dropdown. More tactile; takes more screen space. Good for Size when there are 3–5 values.
• Color Swatches — clickable colored circles. Requires a hex code per value. Ideal for Color.
• Image Swatches — clickable thumbnails. Each value has its own small image. Good for patterns, fabrics, finishes where a color doesn't capture the look.

4. Click Add new attribute

Click the button. The form clears; the new attribute appears in the right table. A success message confirms.

Steps — Configure values (items)

5. Click Configure Items or the attribute name

In the right table, each row has a link to open its values. Click Configure Items (N) or click the attribute's name itself. You land on the items drill-down for that attribute.

6. Add values one at a time

The left form on the items screen has Name / Slug / Description fields (and, depending on your attribute's Display Type, a Color picker for Color Swatches or a Thumbnail picker for Image Swatches).

Fill Name (for example Small). Slug auto-fills (for example small). If Display Type is Color Swatches, a color input appears — pick or type a hex code (#000000 for Black). If Display Type is Image Swatches, a thumbnail picker appears — click Choose Image.

Click Add new item. The value appears in the right table.

7. Or add many values in one paste

Below the single-item form is a Bulk create section. Paste your values separated by commas or new lines:

SMLXL

Tick Skip duplicates (default on) so re-pasting a list doesn't create second copies of values that already exist. Click Bulk add items. A message confirms how many were created and how many were skipped as duplicates.

The Bulk create card doesn't set hex codes or thumbnails — those are per-value fields you fill by clicking Edit on each row afterwards. So Bulk is best for text-based attributes (Size, Material); Color Swatches benefit from one-at-a-time creation so you can set each hex as you go.

Steps — Edit or delete a value

8. Click Edit on a row

The right items table lists every value with Edit / Delete actions. Click Edit to load the value into the left form. Change any field, click Update item. The row refreshes.

9. Click Delete to remove a value

Deletion is immediate and doesn't cascade. If any product is already using this value for a variant, the variant will reference a value that no longer exists — detach the value from all variants first, then delete.

10. Confirm the change in the items table

After editing or deleting, check the right-hand items table to confirm the row reflects your change. Edited values show the updated Name and Slug immediately. Deleted values disappear from the list and are no longer available on the product editor.

What success looks like

• After clicking Add new attribute, the attribute appears in the right table with its Name, Display Type, and an Items preview. A success message reading "Attribute has been successfully created!" appears.
• Clicking Configure Items opens the drill-down for that attribute; your new values appear as rows as you add them.
• Opening a variable product's Attributes tab shows the new attribute in the picker, ready to attach.
• On the public product page of a variable product that uses the attribute, the picker renders in the Display Type style you chose (Dropdown / Buttons / Color Swatches / Image Swatches).
• Bulk creating 10 values and returning to the items list shows 10 rows, each with its Name and auto-generated Slug.

What to do if it does not work

• Add new attribute rejects my Slug. Short slugs (under 5 characters) are rejected by the validator. Leave Slug blank and the system will auto-generate a valid one from the Name — that's the cleanest way to dodge the check on one-word attribute names like Size, Fit, or Age.
• I renamed an attribute and one of my products is showing a missing label. Product variants cache the attribute name at the time of the variant's creation. Open the product, reselect the attribute in its Attributes tab, and click Update Product to refresh the cached name.
• Color Swatches show as grey even though I set a hex code. The hex is stored per-item, not per-attribute. Drill into the attribute's items list, click Edit on each color row, confirm the Color field has a valid hex (six characters after #), save.
• I bulk-pasted 1500 values but only 1000 appear. The Bulk create cap is 1000 per submit. A warning appeared mentioning the truncation — paste the remaining values as a second Bulk submit.
• Deleting an attribute didn't delete its items. That's expected: the delete doesn't cascade. The attribute is gone but its items stay in the system unattached. Open the items screen before deleting the attribute if you want to remove values first.

Vocabulary

Key terms used across both screens:

Attribute display order

• Attributes appear on the product editor in the order defined here. Variant selectors on the public storefront follow the same order. Reorder by dragging in the global list — not on the per-product editor.
• Hidden attributes (Visible to shoppers off) still appear on the editor but render as internal-only labels on the storefront.

FAQs

Q: Can the same attribute have different values per product? No. Attribute values are defined globally per attribute. Products opt into the values they need.

Q: How do attributes relate to product variants? Variants are combinations of attribute values (e.g. Red + Medium + Cotton). Variants are configured per-product on the product editor.

Q: Can I import attribute values from CSV? Not directly — attributes are defined inline. CSV product imports can reference existing attribute values by slug.

Good to know

• Renames propagate immediately. Renaming an attribute updates its label on every product that uses it. The slug stays the same unless you edit it explicitly.
• Slug renames have SEO impact. If your theme exposes an attribute archive URL, changing the slug breaks that URL. Rename slugs before the attribute goes into use.
• Deleted attributes leave values for 30 days. The attribute disappears from the list, but its items remain in the database for 30 days before final purge — restoration is possible within that window.
• Audit log. Every attribute creation, rename, value-add, value-rename, and deletion is recorded with a timestamp and operator ID.
• Localization. Attribute names translate through Settings → Translations → Attributes. Slugs do not localize — they remain URL-safe identifiers across all languages.
• Scale. Stores with 200+ attributes may see a brief indexing delay on first load; subsequent loads are cached. Value lists above ~100 items per attribute become unwieldy on the product editor — split into multiple attributes instead.

Next step

• Create a variable product with variants
• Manage categories
• Create a simple product
• Manage your product list