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Does Matrixify support variant publishing to Shopify sales channels? Yes, since October 2026

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Short answer: Yes, since October 13, 2026. The Matrixify Products sheet now has Variant Published: <Channel> and Variant Published At: <Channel> columns on the variant rows, for every sales channel on the store, including Point of Sale. Before that, Matrixify read publishing values from the first row of each product only, so it could not publish or hide a single variant.

Altera uses the same columns. It has had Variant Published: <Channel> since May 2026, and since October 2026 it also has Variant Published At: <Channel> and supports Point of Sale for variants. Because Altera reads and writes the same files as Matrixify, a products file with these columns imports into either app without changes.

Matrixify and Altera variant publishing columns
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FeatureMatrixifyAltera
Variant Published: <Channel> columnsSince October 2026Since May 2026
Variant Published At: <Channel> columnsSince October 2026Since October 2026
Variant Published: Point of SaleSince October 2026Since October 2026
Product Published: <Channel> columns in the same fileSince October 2026Since July 2025
Channels in the exportThe channels you pickEvery channel installed on the store

Point of Sale became possible for variants with Shopify’s 2026-10 API. Before that, neither app could set it per variant. For product and collection channel columns, see Matrixify sales channel publishing.

What variant-level sales channel publishing is
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A Shopify store sells through sales channels: the Online Store, the Shop app, Point of Sale, Hydrogen storefronts, the Buy Button, the GraphQL App, and marketplace channels such as Facebook & Instagram and Google & YouTube. A product is published or unpublished on each channel separately.

Shopify also tracks publication per variant. A product that is published to the Online Store and to Hydrogen can have one variant hidden from Hydrogen and still visible on the Online Store. You can see this in the Shopify admin by opening a product, opening a variant, and looking at its Sales channels section. Two rules apply:

  • A variant inherits the parent product’s publication state by default. You only set a variant’s state where it differs from the product.
  • A variant can only appear on a channel where the parent product is published. Variant publishing narrows a product’s channel visibility.

How the columns work
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  • Variant Published: <Channel>: TRUE publishes the variant on that channel, FALSE hides it. In Altera, a blank cell is skipped, so it never hides a variant.
  • Variant Published At: <Channel>: the publish date of the variant on that channel. Shopify can’t schedule a variant, so on import both apps ignore this date. A future date gives a warning.
  • Product columns in the same file: Published: <Channel> and Published At: <Channel> on the same rows set the product’s state, so you can publish a product to a new channel and hide two of its variants there in one import.

The same file works in both apps
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Altera reads and writes the same spreadsheet format as Matrixify. A Matrixify products file with Variant Published: <Channel> columns imports into Altera unchanged, and an Altera export imports into Matrixify. What carries over:

  • The column names: Variant Published: <Channel>, Variant Published At: <Channel>, Published: <Channel>, and Published At: <Channel>.
  • The same identifiers: Handle, Variant ID, and Variant SKU to match variants, a Command column with MERGE, NEW, UPDATE, and DELETE, and one row per variant.
  • The same export and import flow: filter, download a spreadsheet, edit it, upload it back.

When you need to publish variants separately from the product
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  • Wholesale and B2B sizes that belong on a private GraphQL App channel but not on the public Online Store.
  • Headless migrations, where a Hydrogen storefront shows a subset of a product’s variants while the Online Store keeps the full range.
  • Buy Button embeds that should show one featured variant without listing the rest.
  • Marketplace policy limits on specific variants, such as bundles or oversize items, where you want to exclude those SKUs without delisting the product.
  • In-store ranges, where some variants are sold on Point of Sale and others online only.
  • Phased rollouts that release new variants to one channel at a time.
  • Discontinued variants that should leave one channel but keep their inventory and order history.

Without per-variant publishing, the only ways to hide one variant from one channel are to split the product, duplicate it, or unpublish the whole product. With per-variant columns, it is one FALSE cell on the variant row.

How to publish or unpublish variants with Altera
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  1. In Altera, click Export and select Products. In the Sales Channels field category, tick “Variant Published on Sales Channel” (and “Published on Sales Channel” if you also want the product-level columns). Use the export filters to narrow the export by handle, vendor, or tag.
  2. Open the exported spreadsheet. There is one Variant Published: <Channel> column per channel, and each variant row shows its current state.
  3. Set a cell to TRUE to publish the variant on that channel, FALSE to hide it, or leave it blank to keep the current state.
  4. Delete the rows for variants you do not want to change. Keep the Handle, Variant ID, and Variant SKU columns as they are so each row matches the right variant.
  5. Upload the file to Altera, check the product and variant count in the analysis preview, and start the import.

You can also start from a Matrixify products export that has the variant columns. Altera imports it unchanged.

Example: hiding the Large size from the Shop app while leaving it on the Online Store and Point of Sale.

HandleVariant SKUVariant Published: Online StoreVariant Published: ShopVariant Published: Point of Sale
cotton-t-shirtCOTTON-TEE-SMTRUETRUETRUE
cotton-t-shirtCOTTON-TEE-MDTRUETRUETRUE
cotton-t-shirtCOTTON-TEE-LGTRUEFALSETRUE

The same column pattern works for any installed channel, for example Variant Published: Facebook & Instagram or Variant Published: Google & YouTube.

See the how-to guide with a video walkthrough, or the product field reference for every publishing column. For examples of hiding sizes, retiring SKUs, and staging channel launches across many products, see the bulk variant publishing guide.

Rules Altera follows for variant publishing
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  • TRUE publishes, FALSE unpublishes, and blank is skipped. A blank cell never unpublishes a variant.
  • The parent product must be published on the channel first. Altera cannot publish a variant to a channel its product is not on, because Shopify does not allow it.
  • Altera leaves the parent product’s publication state unchanged when it processes Variant Published: columns.

Frequently asked questions
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Does Matrixify support variant publishing to sales channels?

Yes, since October 13, 2026. The Matrixify Products sheet has Variant Published: and Variant Published At: columns on the variant rows, including Point of Sale. Before that, Matrixify read publishing values from the first row of each product only, so it could not publish or hide a single variant.

Does Altera support the same columns?

Yes. Altera has had Variant Published: columns since May 2026. Since October 2026 it also has Variant Published At: columns, and Variant Published: Point of Sale works. Altera reads and writes the same files as Matrixify, so a Matrixify products file with these columns imports into Altera unchanged, and the reverse.

Can I publish or hide a variant on Point of Sale?

Yes, since Shopify’s 2026-10 API. Before that, Shopify allowed Point of Sale visibility at the product level only, and neither Matrixify nor Altera could set it per variant. Both apps now support Variant Published: Point of Sale.

What happens if I leave a Variant Published cell blank?

Altera skips that channel for that variant and leaves the current state alone. Only cells set to TRUE or FALSE are updated, so you can change one channel without changing the others. To hide a variant, set the cell to FALSE.

Can I publish a variant to a channel the product is not published on?

No. Shopify requires the parent product to be published on a channel before any of its variants can appear there. Variant Published columns narrow a product’s channel visibility. To put a variant on a new channel, publish the product there first with the Published: column for that channel, in the same file if you want.

Can I keep using Matrixify and use Altera for some jobs?

Yes. Both apps read the same files, so you can run them side by side and move a file from one to the other without changes.

See the full Altera vs. Matrixify comparison for the differences between the two tools, or the FAQ for more common questions.

Publish variants to specific sales channels with Altera. Available on Shopify App Store