Hi,
I don't see the link between your message (and question) and the Nicolas' answer.
If you have characteristics, yes, you create variants for each possible combination.
If there is too much variants ; you might think to use a different design or use something else than characteristics.. But it has a lot of impacts and it's a total different subject.
HikaShop have various ways to allow you to sell products but first ; you need to know what you are selling, how you are selling it and how you want to manage your products.
Depending that ; there will be different solution but few of them could require some custom development.
Regards,
Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.
Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.