What is the difference between product options and variants?

Product options and variants help to offer choices to customers such as size, color, material etc. This allows the customer to compare and choose the different variants within the same product range. 

Options are the different properties of a product that are used to define product variants. An option which can have multiple values. For example, you have added shoes as a product in your e-commerce store. The size values of shoes like Small, Medium, and Large are product options. So, the size of a product is an option which can have multiple values. To know how to create option sets, go to the helpcenter - https://help.storehippo.com/topic/option-sets. 

On the other hand, Product variants are the different combinations of options for a single product. For example, shoes added as a product in your ecommerce store with the size small and the color red is a variant of the product shoes. You can create variants to your product either manually or automatically. To know how to create product variants, visit the helpcenter - https://help.storehippo.com/topic/options-and-variants.