What is Variant Grouping?

Variant Grouping ensures that different variations of the same product (e.g., a t-shirt in multiple colors) don’t appear multiple times within a single recommendation or in Search and categories. This enhances diversity, reduces visual clutter, and optimizes screen space to improve the shopper experience.

The feature functions in two-folded manner, but the core concept is the same between Recommendations and Search & Categories. However, each have separate settings to support full flexibility. Search Variant Grouping impacts search results and category listings, Recommendation Variant Grouping applies to product recommendations shown throughout the store.

Recommendation Variant Grouping

Before Grouping

Without grouping, merchants often see multiple color variations of the same product appearing in recommendations. This happens because many merchants (especially in Shopify) structure their catalogs with color variations as standalone parent products rather than actual variants.

After Grouping

Once enabled, Nosto groups product variations under a single representation, ensuring that recommendations:

Show a diverse selection of products rather than repeated variations.
Use on-site real estate efficiently by reducing duplicate product appearances.
Improve the shopping experience by making recommendations more relevant.

How Does it Work

Merchants have to define a shared attribute (such as a main product ID or a custom field) in Nosto, which is used for grouping under Recommendation Settings

Nosto then automatically prevents duplicate product variations from appearing in the same recommendation. The logic applies globally across all Recommendations, eliminating the need for manual filters.

How to Enable Recommendation Variant Grouping

Find & Define the Grouping Attribute: Identify a main product ID in your product data that should be used for grouping. This step is manual and must be completed in Recommendation Settings.
Save & Apply Changes: Once the attribute is defined, save it in Recommendation Settings.
Wait for Processing: Changes take approximately 24 hours to take effect due to data reprocessing. This delay occurs because Nosto updates product properties once per day.
Activate: Activate the option by simply flipping the toggle on

Technical Considerations

Recommendation grouping works separately from Variant Grouping in Search but follows a similar concept. It is not limited to Shopify, though it particularly benefits Shopify merchants due to common catalog structures.

Search and Categories Variant Grouping

Variant Grouping is available in both Search and Category Merchandising (Universal) under the Settings tab. It offers three configurable options that work together to shape how variants are displayed, depending on the desired outcome. It’s important to note that at least one of the two main options must always be selected within the settings to ensure proper functionality.

Please note that the fields that you want to choose for grouping have to be added to the indexed fields beforehand.

Default Options

By default, Variant Grouping is configured with the indexing option set to Index SKUs as a single product and without grouping. This setup is suitable if your catalog contain only individual products with no variants.

However, if you have a variant-rich catalog, this default may not deliver the desired outcome. In such cases, variants will be grouped under a single parent product, but important functionalities such as proper variant filtering, result counts, control over variant filtering logic, and other parts will not behave as expected. Therefore, to ensure the setup aligns with your needs and delivers the right experience, it’s important to review and adjust the settings accordingly. Each component of Variant Grouping is explained in more detail below.

How to Enable Variant Grouping

Enabling Variant Grouping involves configuring three key settings, found under the Settings tab in Search or Category Merchandising (Universal):

SKUs indexing;
Grouping;
Variant Filtering Logic (optional).

SKUs indexing

To begin with, Variant Grouping introduces two ways to index SKUs a.k.a. product variants, each suited to different catalog structures and use cases:

Index SKUs as a single product - Best used when the catalog contains only individual products without variants. This simplifies indexing and presentation.
Index SKUs separately - Recommended when products have multiple variants. This ensures that each variant is indexed individually and is a required step for enabling advanced grouping options.

These indexing choices lay the foundation for how variants will be grouped and displayed in search and category results.

Grouping Options

Once the preferred indexing option is selected, the next step is to choose whether or not to group variants. If grouping is enabled, a specific field must be selected to define how the variants are grouped:

Do not group results - This option ensures that all variants are displayed individually, with no grouping applied.
Group by - This option allows merchants to group variants under a single product. For example, instead of displaying 10 separate products for different colours of the same dress, all colour options can be grouped under one product. Grouping can be based on any indexed field, with Product ID being the most commonly used.

Variant Filtering Logic

The final step in configuring Variant Grouping is the Variant Filtering Logic, which is only available when indexing SKUs separately is selected as the primary indexing type. This setting determines how variants are displayed after filters (e.g., colour, size) are applied:

Show all variants when matching a filter - Returns not only the relevant variant that matches the filter but also displays other variants of the same product alongside it.
Show matching variant only - Returns only the specific variant that matches the selected filter values. For example, filtering for a red dress will display only the red variant, without showing other colour options.

This setting gives greater flexibility in how filtered results appear. Though, it can only be used if indexing option is set to Index SKUs separately since it’s only relevant when there are multiple variants.

Limitations

SKU-level fields cannot be used for grouping (yet).
Currently, grouping can only be performed using indexed fields at the product level. Grouping by individual SKU-level attributes (e.g., size or colour stored only at the variant level) is not supported. This limits how granular the grouping logic can be in certain catalogs and may require to structure your data accordingly.
For example, if your catalog includes a hoodie with multiple colour and size options all grouped under a single product and colour is stored only at the SKU-level, Nosto will treat this as one product. Even though the hoodie comes in blue and white, it’s currently not possible to display these colour variants as separate, individual listings in search or category results.
Grouping products with variants into a single product has limited support.
Another current limitation arises in catalog structures where each product represents a different colour (or another attribute), and sizes are defined as SKUs under each of those colour-based products. In this setup, you may wish to group multiple colour-based products (e.g., white, black, and sand) into a single product group, typically using a custom field such as styleCode. However, Variant Grouping is not yet optimised for this use case due to two primary limitations:
- Swatch rendering is not supported: Only one colour (or relevant attribute) from the group is returned in the response. This prevents the ability to display all available colour options as swatches within the grouped product, limiting visual clarity and choice for shoppers.
- Filters will not function as expected: Because only one variant of the grouped product is returned, filters (e.g., by colour) won’t show all applicable options. This leads to incomplete or misleading filter behaviour, as some valid variants may be omitted from the results.
A full data sync is required after each configuration change.
Every time a change is made to the Variant Grouping settings (e.g., changing the grouping field or toggling indexing modes), a full catalog sync is necessary. This ensures that all data is reindexed properly and that the changes are reflected correctly across search and merchandising features.
Changing the setting alters the product import process.
Enabling or disabling Variant Grouping modifies how products are imported and indexed. Switching back and forth between configurations may result in temporary inconsistencies, such as missed product updates or incorrect product displays until a full reimport is completed.
Pinning is tied to the selected grouping field.
When Variant Grouping is active, the grouping field also becomes the field used for pinning in merchandising rules. For example, if grouping is based on a custom field like styleCode, all pinning must also be done using that field. This eliminates the default use of Product ID for pinning in such cases.
Click attribution is limited when using custom grouping fields.
When grouping is based on arbitrary or custom fields, clicks in search results or category pages are attributed to the exact variant clicked. This can affect click-level analytics and reporting accuracy.
Deactivating Variant Grouping may cause temporary display issues.
If you disable the Variant Grouping feature, it's recommended to first switch the grouping field back to Product ID. Otherwise, search and category pages may temporarily display each SKU as a separate product until the next data sync is completed. This may lead to an inconsistent shopper experience in the interim.