Product Variant Selection Performance

Patterns for making variant selection instant in Deco storefronts on TanStack Start. Discovered while optimizing espacosmart-storefront where clicking a variant triggered 2 full loadCmsPage server calls (1300ms+ each).

When to Use This Skill

• Variant changes on PDP are slow (>500ms)
• HAR analysis shows duplicate loadCmsPage calls with/without ?skuId
• preload="intent" on variant <Link> causes double-fetch
• Need to add loading feedback for cross-product variant navigation
• Implementing a new variant selector component

---

Key Insight: Two Types of "Variant" Navigation

Type	Example	Data needed	Approach
Same product, different SKU	Size 90x0.8 → 90x0.95	Already loaded in isVariantOf.hasVariant	replaceState — zero fetch
Different product	Product A → Product B (visual variation)	New product data	navigate() — single fetch

The CMS block "PDP Loader" does NOT pass skuId to the server loader. All SKU data comes in the first load via isVariantOf.hasVariant. The ?skuId in the URL is purely for bookmarking/sharing.

---

Problem: Double-Fetch on Variant Click

Root Cause

When using <Link to="/slug/p?skuId=160" preload="intent">:

1. Hover → TanStack Router fires a prefetch. The loaderDeps filters skuId, so it sends loadCmsPage({ data: "/slug/p" }).
2. Click → Router fires the real navigation. Depending on timing and staleTime, it may fire loadCmsPage({ data: "/slug/p?skuId=160" }).

Result: 2 server calls for one variant click, each taking 1-2 seconds (full CMS resolution + section loaders + VTEX API calls).

How to Diagnose

Export a HAR from Chrome DevTools (Network tab → Export HAR). Analyze:

# Find all loadCmsPage calls
import json, urllib.parse, base64
with open('localhost.har') as f:
    har = json.load(f)
for e in har['log']['entries']:
    url = e['request']['url']
    if '/_serverFn/' not in url:
        continue
    qs = url.split('?')[1] if '?' in url else ''
    params = urllib.parse.parse_qs(qs)
    if 'payload' in params:
        payload = json.loads(urllib.parse.unquote(params['payload'][0]))
        # Extract the "data" (path) from TanStack's serialized payload
        print(f"{e.get('time',0):.0f}ms  skuId={'skuId' in str(payload)}")

If you see two calls for the same slug (one with skuId, one without), this is the double-fetch.

---

Fix 1: Same-Product Variants — replaceState (Zero Fetch)

Replace <Link> with <a> + window.history.replaceState. This changes the URL for bookmarking without triggering any TanStack Router navigation or loader.

Before (slow)

import { Link } from "@tanstack/react-router";

function VariantSelector({ product }: { product: Product }) {
  const possibilities = useVariantPossibilities(hasVariant, product);
  return (
    // ...
    <Link to={relativeLink} preload="intent">
      <Avatar variant={relativeLink === relative(url) ? "active" : "default"} />
    </Link>
  );
}

After (instant)

import { useState, useCallback } from "react";

function VariantSelector({ product }: { product: Product }) {
  const possibilities = useVariantPossibilities(hasVariant, product);
  const [currentUrl, setCurrentUrl] = useState(() => relative(product.url));

  const handleVariantClick = useCallback(
    (e: React.MouseEvent<HTMLAnchorElement>, link: string) => {
      e.preventDefault();
      setCurrentUrl(link);
      window.history.replaceState(null, "", link);
    },
    [],
  );

  return (
    // ...
    <a
      href={relativeLink ?? "#"}
      onClick={(e) => relativeLink && handleVariantClick(e, relativeLink)}
    >
      <Avatar
        variant={relativeLink === currentUrl ? "active" : relativeLink ? "default" : "disabled"}
      />
    </a>
  );
}

Why This Works

1. replaceState changes browser URL without notifying TanStack Router → zero loader execution
2. useState(currentUrl) tracks the active variant for UI highlighting → instant re-render
3. <a href> preserves accessibility (right-click, ctrl+click open in new tab)
4. The CMS PDP Loader does NOT use skuId from the URL — all variant data is in isVariantOf.hasVariant

When NOT to Use replaceState

• The variant changes the product (different productGroupID) — use navigate() instead
• The server loader actually reads skuId from the request URL to fetch different data
• SEO requires each variant to be a separate indexable page with unique server-rendered content

---

Fix 2: Cross-Product Variants — navigate() with Loading

For SkuVariation (different products shown as visual variations), use navigate() but WITHOUT preload="intent" and WITH a loading state.

import { useNavigate } from "@tanstack/react-router";
import { useState, useCallback, useEffect, useRef } from "react";

export default function SkuVariation({ products }: { products: Product[] | null }) {
  const [loadingIdx, setLoadingIdx] = useState<number | null>(null);
  const navigate = useNavigate();
  const prevProducts = useRef(products);

  // Reset loading when products change (navigation completed, component reused)
  useEffect(() => {
    if (prevProducts.current !== products) {
      setLoadingIdx(null);
      prevProducts.current = products;
    }
  }, [products]);

  const handleClick = useCallback(
    (e: React.MouseEvent<HTMLAnchorElement>, link: string, idx: number) => {
      e.preventDefault();
      setLoadingIdx(idx);
      navigate({ to: link });
    },
    [navigate],
  );

  if (!products?.length) return null;

  return (
    <ul>
      {products.map((product, index) => {
        const link = relative(product.url) ?? "#";
        const isLoading = loadingIdx === index;
        return (
          <li key={index}>
            <a href={link} onClick={(e) => handleClick(e, link, index)} className="relative">
              <div className={`transition-opacity ${isLoading ? "opacity-30" : ""}`}>
                <img src={product.image?.[0]?.url} width={35} height={35} />
              </div>
              {isLoading && (
                <span className="loading loading-spinner loading-xs absolute top-1/2 left-1/2 -translate-x-1/2 -translate-y-1/2" />
              )}
            </a>
          </li>
        );
      })}
    </ul>
  );
}

Key Details

Aspect	Why
preload={false} / no preload	Prevents duplicate fetch (hover + click)
useRef(prevProducts) + useEffect	Resets loading when component reuses with new props
No await navigate()	navigate resolves when route renders — component may already be unmounted
<a href> not <Link>	Avoids TanStack Router's built-in prefetch behavior

---

Fix 3: Remove preload="intent" from All Variant Links

Any <Link> with preload="intent" in variant selectors causes prefetch on hover, leading to:

• Extra server calls
• Race conditions with the click navigation
• Wasted bandwidth

Replace with preload={false} or use <a> elements:

# Find all variant links with preload="intent"
rg 'preload="intent"' src/components/product/ --glob '*.tsx' -l

Files to check:

• ProductVariantSelector.tsx
• SkuVariation.tsx
• ProductCardCategory.tsx (variant selector in PLP cards)

---

Verification

After applying fixes, export a new HAR and verify:

1. Same-product variant click: Zero loadCmsPage calls (only image requests)
2. Cross-product variant click: Exactly 1 loadCmsPage call per product
3. No duplicate calls: Each unique slug appears at most once

# Quick HAR verification
server_calls = [e for e in har['log']['entries'] if '/_serverFn/' in e['request']['url']]
print(f"Server calls: {len(server_calls)}")
# Should be 0 for same-product variants, N for N different products

---

Related Configuration

ignoreSearchParams in Route Config

The CMS catch-all route should filter skuId from loaderDeps:

const config = cmsRouteConfig({
  siteName: "My Store",
  defaultTitle: "My Store",
  ignoreSearchParams: ["skuId"],
});

This prevents skuId changes from being treated as dependency changes by TanStack Router.

staleTime in Dev Mode

With staleTime: 0 (default in dev), even identical loaderDeps trigger re-fetch. Set a minimum staleTime in dev:

// In routeCacheDefaults()
if (isDev) return { staleTime: 5_000, gcTime: 30_000 };

---

Related Skills

Skill	Purpose
deco-cms-layout-caching	Cache layout sections (Header/Footer) to avoid redundant API calls
deco-api-call-dedup	In-flight deduplication for VTEX API calls
deco-cms-route-config	CMS route configuration in @decocms/start
deco-tanstack-storefront-patterns	General patterns for deco-start storefronts