Merges now supports Shopify’s 2048 variant limit

We're thrilled to announce that Merges now fully supports Shopify’s expanded product variant limit of 2048. Shopify is currently rolling this feature out to Plus merchants first, with plans to extend it to all Shopify plans in the future. The important news is that Merges is already fully prepared and optimized for this change, so you’ll be able to take advantage of the expanded capabilities as soon as Shopify makes them available to your store.

This represents a 20x increase from the previous 100 variant limit and opens up transformative possibilities for merchants with complex product catalogs. Our team has completely refactored Merges with advanced AI capabilities to ensure you can seamlessly work with these expanded product structures without performance degradation.

Understanding Shopify’s 2048 variant expansion

Shopify has begun rolling out early access to an expanded variant limit, increasing the maximum from 100 to 2048 variants per product. This rollout is starting with Plus merchants, but Shopify plans to extend this capability to all merchant plans in the future. This change, implemented through Shopify’s new GraphQL Product APIs, addresses a long-standing limitation that has constrained merchants with complex product offerings.

For years, the 100 variant limit forced merchants to create workarounds, such as splitting what should logically be a single product into multiple separate products. This not only complicated inventory management but also created disjointed customer experiences. With the new 2048 variant capability, merchants can now structure their product catalog in a more natural and customer-friendly way.

Why this matters for your business

The expanded variant limit is particularly valuable for merchants in specific industries:

• Fashion and apparel stores with extensive size/color/style combinations

• Furniture retailers offering various materials, colors, and configurations

• Custom product builders with numerous customization options

• B2B suppliers with comprehensive product lines and pricing tiers

• Food and beverage merchants with multiple flavor, size, and packaging combinations

For these merchants, the ability to manage up to 2048 variants per product translates to streamlined operations, improved inventory accuracy, and a more intuitive shopping experience for customers.

How Merges implemented support for 2048 variants

When Shopify announced the upcoming variant expansion, our development team immediately recognized both the opportunity and the technical challenge this presented. Processing, merging, and managing products with potentially 20x more variants required a fundamental reconsideration of our app’s architecture.

Our implementation approach focused on three key areas:

1. API Compatibility: We fully adopted Shopify’s new GraphQL Product APIs, ensuring all product interactions use the most efficient and future-proof methods.

2. Performance Optimization: We completely rebuilt our data processing pipeline to handle the substantially increased data volume without sacrificing speed or reliability.

3. User Experience: We refined our interface to maintain simplicity even when working with products containing hundreds or thousands of variants.

Refactored AI processing pipeline for speed and reliability

The most significant challenge in supporting 2048 variants was maintaining performance when processing such large data sets. We trained our AI to find the best options and variant values based on all product information like titles, descriptions, and tags, while considering existing variants. This complex task requires massive data processing – comparing 2048 variants with each other requires over 2 million individual comparisons.

Our AI cluster processing approach allows Merges to efficiently handle the exponential increase in comparison operations. We implemented smart data chunking algorithms, predictive caching, anomaly detection for complex variant structures, and intelligent merge suggestions that help users manage complex product hierarchies.

These enhancements ensure that even when working with products at Shopify’s new 2048 variant limit, Merges remains responsive and reliable.

Real-world use cases and possibilities

With support for 2048 variants, entirely new approaches to product management become possible:

Case study 1: Apparel retailer

Before: A clothing store selling t-shirts in 8 sizes, 25 colors, and 5 materials had to split these into multiple product listings because the combinations exceeded 100 variants.

Now: All 1,000 possible combinations (8×25×5) can exist within a single product, creating a cleaner catalog and simpler inventory management.

Case study 2: Custom furniture

Before: A furniture maker offering tables with 4 sizes, 6 woods, 5 stain options, 3 leg styles, and 2 finish types (potentially 720 combinations) had to create an artificial product hierarchy.

Now: The complete product can be represented as a single entity with all possible customizations, streamlining both the merchant and customer experience.

Case study 3: B2B catalog

Before: A wholesale supplier with products available in various quantities, packaging options, and pricing tiers had to maintain separate products for what was essentially the same item.

Now: The complete product range can be consolidated, making it easier for B2B buyers to find and order exactly what they need.

Getting started with 2048 variants in Merges

If you’re a Shopify Plus merchant who has already opted into the early access program for 2048 variants, you can immediately start leveraging Merges’ expanded capabilities. For merchants on other Shopify plans, Merges is already prepared for when Shopify extends this feature to your store. Here’s how to prepare:

1. If you’re a Plus merchant, check if you have access to the 2048 variant limit

2. For all other merchants, stay tuned for Shopify’s announcements about wider availability

3. Start planning how you might restructure your catalog to take advantage of expanded variants

Future-proofing your Shopify operations

The expansion to 2048 variants represents Shopify’s commitment to supporting merchants with increasingly complex needs. By investing early in supporting this capability, Merges demonstrates our parallel commitment to keeping our tools at the cutting edge of what’s possible on the Shopify platform.

As Shopify continues to evolve its capabilities, you can count on Merges to rapidly adapt, ensuring you’re never limited by your tools in growing and optimizing your business.

Conclusion

The increased variant limit from 100 to 2048 represents one of the most significant expansions of Shopify’s product capabilities in recent years. By fully supporting this new limit with an AI-powered architecture, Merges continues its mission of providing merchants with the most powerful and flexible tools for managing complex product catalogs.

We invite you to explore how the expanded variant capabilities can transform your product management approach. Whether you’re looking to simplify an artificially fragmented catalog or planning to offer more comprehensive product options to your customers, Merges now provides the infrastructure to make that possible.

Ready to leverage 2048 variants with Merges? Start your free trial now!