Varn Docs Add Varn free

Quick start

From install to live swatches in about two minutes, using the setup guide on your dashboard.

This is the fastest honest path from a fresh install to swatches on your storefront. Every step here matches a step in the app's own setup guide, so you can follow either.

  1. Install Varn#

    Add the app from the Shopify App Store listing and approve the permissions. You land on the Varn dashboard with a three-step setup guide.

    You start on the Free plan, which has no time limit. Every paid plan is free for 7 days.

  2. Activate the app embed on your theme#

    Nothing renders on your storefront until the app embed is switched on. This is a Shopify requirement for every app that touches the storefront, and it is a once-per-theme job.

    Click Activate on your theme. Varn opens a theme picker listing every theme in your store with its current status, so you can activate an unpublished theme you are still building as well as the live one.

    In the theme editor that opens, the Varn embed is already selected. Toggle it on and press Save.

    Come back to the app tab. Varn re-checks automatically when the window regains focus, and the step turns green.

  3. Pick a product#

    Open Swatches in the left navigation and choose a product from the table. Search by title, or use the filters to jump to products that are not configured yet.

    Varn only lists options it recognises as color options: Color, Colour, Couleur, Farbe, Colore, Kleur, Farve. If your color option is called something else, add its name in Style, Option names.

  4. Let AI setup do the first pass#

    Press One-click AI setup. Varn matches each option value against a multilingual color dictionary and fills in the confident matches only. "Midnight Blue" becomes navy, "Assorted" is left alone for you to decide.

    Everything it does is a normal, editable assignment. Change any value by hand, upload a photo instead, or use a two tone chip for something like "Black and White".

    Read more in AI setup.

  5. Save and look at your storefront#

    Press Save. Open the product on your storefront and pick a swatch.

    You should see the chips replace the dropdown, the selected chip take a ring, and the main image swap to the photo for that color if you have one.

What to do next#

Configure the rest of your catalogueOne button, whole catalogue, free.Style your swatchesShape, size, labels and effects, previewed live.Map photos to colorsShow only the photos that match the chosen color.Put swatches on collection pagesFree on every plan, one toggle.

If nothing appeared#

Work through these in order. In practice the first one is the answer about nine times out of ten.

  1. Is the app embed on the theme you are actually looking at? Not the theme you activated, the one your browser is showing. window.Shopify.theme.name in the browser console will tell you.
  2. Did you press Save in the theme editor? Toggling the embed is not enough on its own.
  3. Does the product have a color option with more than one value? A single-value option renders as static text on most themes, and Varn handles that separately.
  4. Is the master switch on? Style, "Show swatches on your storefront", at the top of the page.

Full checklist: Swatches are not showing.