Many real products are sold as a family of related variants—for example a t-shirt offered in several sizes, or a sneaker offered in multiple size-and-color combinations. In the Ecommerce simulation, these variants are called child SKUs. A product family is a single parent product plus one or more child SKUs, where each child is distinguished by one or two axes (such as Size, or Size and Color). This lets respondents shop the way they would on a real storefront—choosing a variant from the product detail page—while keeping the shelf tidy, since only the parent product appears as its own card.

⚠️ Note: Child SKUs are supported on Amazon, Walmart, Costco, Chewy, Kroger, and Standard Web storefronts for product families of up to two axes (for example Size × Color).

In This Article

• Ways to Add Child SKUs
• CSV Examples
• Editing a Product Family
• What Respondents See
• Child SKUs in Analysis

Ways to Add Child SKUs

You can build a product family in three ways:

1. Import them automatically. When importing from Amazon Web or Walmart Web via the Search API, check the with child SKUs option so the search pulls in each product's variants alongside its parent. Each imported family is capped at 50 products (one parent plus up to 49 children) to keep imports manageable. When importing multi-axis families with child SKUs enabled, the product-count selector is limited to smaller values so a large search doesn't fan out into thousands of variants.
2. Build them manually. On any parent product card, click the product family icon to open the family editor. From there you can Add axis (e.g. "Size"), add the values for that axis, and click + Add child SKU to create each variant. You must add an axis before you can add a child SKU, since a variant's identity is its (axis, value) combination. A second axis (e.g. "Color") is available when multi-axis variants are enabled for your account.
3. Upload them via CSV. Build the whole family in a spreadsheet, one row per product, then upload it. Two things turn those rows into a family:
   • A dimension column pair names each variant's axis and value. Use dimension name / dimension value for a single axis, or dimension 1 name… and dimension 2 name… for two axes.

   • The parent product column links children to their parent. Leave it blank on the parent row, and on every child row enter the parent's market place id.

     When the file is ready, upload it using the Product sheet dropdown.

     💡 Tip: When the file is ready, upload it from the product list: click the Product sheet dropdown at the top-right and select Upload. Choosing Download first gives you a sheet with the columns already in place to fill in.

See the CSV Examples below.

CSV Examples

Example 1—single axis (Size). The TEE-S row is the parent, so its parent product cell is left blank. The other three rows are children, each pointing back to TEE-S.

Copy this as a starting point:

name,regular price,market place id,dimension name,dimension value,parent product
Classic Cotton Tee,$24.99,TEE-S,Size,S,
Classic Cotton Tee,$24.99,TEE-M,Size,M,TEE-S
Classic Cotton Tee,$26.99,TEE-L,Size,L,TEE-S
Classic Cotton Tee,$26.99,TEE-XL,Size,XL,TEE-S

Example 2—two axes (Size and Color). Same idea, with a second dimension pair added. The SHOE-M-RED row is the parent (blank parent product), and the remaining rows are children pointing back to it.

Copy this as a starting point:

name,regular price,market place id,dimension 1 name,dimension 1 value,dimension 2 name,dimension 2 value,parent product
Trailblazer Running Shoe,$89.99,SHOE-M-RED,Size,M,Color,Red,
Trailblazer Running Shoe,$89.99,SHOE-L-RED,Size,L,Color,Red,SHOE-M-RED
Trailblazer Running Shoe,$89.99,SHOE-M-BLU,Size,M,Color,Blue,SHOE-M-RED
Trailblazer Running Shoe,$94.99,SHOE-L-BLU,Size,L,Color,Blue,SHOE-M-RED

💡 Tip: Every product in the family gets its own row—parent and children alike—and each row carries its own regular price. The parent is simply the row whose parent product cell is empty.

Editing a Product Family

In the family editor you can:

• Rename an axis, or remove an axis and its values
• Add, rename, or remove axis values
• Drag value chips to set the order in which values appear to respondents
• Add or remove individual child SKUs, and set each variant's own name, price, and images

⚠️ Note: Before launching, make sure every variant has a value for each of its axes and that no two variants share the same combination of values. Blank axis values and duplicate combinations are flagged and will block launch until resolved.

What Respondents See

Only the parent product appears as a card on the shelf. When a respondent opens a product's detail view, a variant selector lets them switch between family members—one row of buttons per axis. On Walmart, single-axis families also surface inline variant tiles directly on the product card. Each variant carries its own images, price, and rating, and each can be added to the cart as an independent line item, so cart limits and spend caps count every variant separately.

Child SKUs in Analysis

In your results, each child SKU appears as its own row in the per-product statistics—there is no roll-up or aggregation between a parent and its variants. This means you can read purchase intent, add-to-cart, and other metrics at the individual variant level (for example, comparing how the "Small / Red" SKU performed against the "Large / Blue" SKU), just as you would for any standalone product.

See Also

• How to Program an Ecommerce Simulation
• How to Customize an Ecommerce Simulation
• How to Analyze an Ecommerce Simulation