Error 8016 is a frequent issue encountered in parent-variant configurations, often observed in the Variant/Child API. The corresponding error message reads:
"The product data provided was insufficient for creating a variation (parent/child) relationship for SKU: [SKU]. Ensure that the parent and child share the same VariationTheme and that there is a submission for variation theme attributes (for example, size and color for SizeColor VariationTheme)."
There are two common causes for this error:
- The Variation Theme of a variant (or child) product is different from its parent product. For example, in the Parent’s template you have selected 'SizeColor' as the Variation Theme, but in the Variant/Child’s template one or more products have only 'Size' as Variation Theme.
Solution: Check the Variation Theme attribute in both templates, and make sure they are the same for all Parents and Variants that belong to the same family.
- One or more variation attributes required by the chosen Variation Theme are missing for the variant/child product. For instance, if you've designated 'SizeColor' as the Variation Theme for a product family, and only the 'Size' attribute is populated in the template of the Variant, you will encounter this error.
Solution: Check which Variation Theme you have selected for your product families, and check if all the attributes that are part of this Variation Theme are completely filled in for your Variant products. If not, make sure to fill them in by enriching the product data of the relevant products.
Other errors related to your Parent-Variant setup you might encounter are:
Error 8017: Variation Theme missing,
Error 8018: Cannot delete non-existing relationship,
Error 8019: Parent and Child have the same SKU.