Introduction
This article explains one of the core concepts of TRAEDE’s Shopify integration: splitting products by attributes.
This function determines whether a product with several color variations is created in Shopify as:
One product with multiple variants, or
Multiple separate products, where each color becomes its own product.
Understanding this setting is essential because it affects your product catalog structure, storefront design, and syncing behavior.
What split-by-attributes does
In TRAEDE, a single product can contain multiple colors or variants—for example:
Black
Light grey
Beige
When synchronizing this product to Shopify, you have two options:
1. One product with multiple colors (default behavior)
All colors are grouped under one Shopify product.
2. One product per color (split-by-attributes)
Each color becomes its own standalone Shopify product, with its own images and variants.
Many brands prefer the second option because it allows them to show each color as a separate item on collection or search pages—this often improves conversion and user experience.
Global setting: Split products by attributes
If you want all products in your catalog to sync as one product per color, you can configure this globally:
Go to Settings → Shopify.
Find Split products by attributes.
Select Color (or another attribute if relevant).
Save.
From now on, TRAEDE will create one Shopify product per color for every product you sync.
Important
Switching this setting later can be difficult if products already exist in Shopify. Changing between single-product and split-product structures requires deleting existing Shopify products and resyncing them. This is significantly easier than trying to restructure them.
We highly recommend deciding on this setup before launching your catalog.
Product-level override
If you want to split only specific products, you can override the global setting.
Open the product in TRAEDE.
Go to Master data.
Scroll to the Split by attributes section.
Tick Override global setting.
Select the attribute to split by (typically Color).
Save.
This allows you to:
Keep most products as multi-variant items.
Split only selected products into one-product-per-color structures.
Updating existing Shopify products
If you change the split settings for an existing Shopify product:
Delete the product from Shopify.
Trigger a product sync (normally automatic, but can be manual for testing).
TRAEDE will recreate the product in Shopify according to your new split configuration.
This is the recommended approach because reorganizing variants into separate products (or vice versa) is otherwise error-prone.
Why this setting matters
Split-by-attributes affects:
How your storefront theme displays products
How your agency designs navigation, filtering, and search
How customers browse color options
Image handling in Shopify
SEO considerations
Because it influences both UX and store structure, you should discuss this setting with your Shopify agency before choosing your preferred method.
Summary
TRAEDE allows you to sync products as one product with variants or one product per color.
You can configure this as a global setting or override it per product.
Changing the structure later requires deleting and resyncing the Shopify products.
Always consider your theme and agency setup before deciding on a strategy.