Overview
Product Card (Parent): The core product entry that holds shared information (such as subcategory, Classification , attributes) and serves as a "parent" for various versions.
Variant: A version of the parent product that differs by size, price, image, or Product weight. Think of it as a sub-product tied to the same major product.
Inventory Batch: An actual, physical group of inventory tied to a variant or product - each batch has its own history and criteria such as received date, invoice #, and lab results.
Product Card (Parent)
This is the main product container before creating variations (variants) of this 'parent' product card.
Created via the Central Catalog or Product Management module.
Contains shared information like category, brand, and attributes (e.g., classification, effects) that apply to all its variants.
Used to manage product-level data consistently across variants, especially in multi-store configurations.
Variant
A variant is a specific version (sub-product) of the parent product.
Represents differences in things like size, UoM, packaging, price, or description. Examples include “Blue Dream 1 g” and “Blue Dream 3.5 g.”
At least one variant is required to activate the product in the catalog.
Can have its own external ID, SKU, Product barcode, image, menu title, and description (overriding the parent product’s defaults).
Shared attributes (classification, flavor, etc.) remain linked to the parent product.
Inventory Batch
This is where the specific details of the product (batch) are contained.
When inventory is received, it is associated with a specific variant (or sometimes the parent product) and grouped into batches.
Each batch captures:
The physical count of units
Received date, invoice # and date, lab results, and Package IDs
Batches are actionable:
You can split one batch into multiple batches (dividing quantities).
You can merge batches that share the same parent, location, and Metrc Package ID.
