Adding Products

A Guide to Adding Products in WooCommerce

Adding Products

 

First, let’s define the four different types of products you can setup in WooCommerce: simple, variable, grouped, and external/affiliate product.

Simple Products

Simple products have one SKU, are shipped, and have no variations/options. For example, a book.

Variable Products

Variable products can have multiple variations/options, each of which may have a different SKU or price. For example, a piece of clothing that is available in a variety of colors and sizes.

Grouped Products

Grouped products are related products that can be purchased individually. Note that, grouped products can only consist of simple products. For example, an iPhone could be a grouped product as there are 8GB, 16GB, etc. variations of that same product parent.

External/Affiliate Products

External or affiliate products are ones that you list/display on your website but they are sold elsewhere.

Adding the different types of products all take a similar process, however, based on the product you are adding there will be some different product data required. To ensure a seamless process, make sure to setup product categories, tags, shipping classes, and attributes before getting started.

Below we will give an overview of how to add each type of product. But first here are is some product information that you will need/can add regardless of the type of product.

Title: Add the name of the product at the top of the page

Full Description: Add your product description here (you can add a shorter one later)

WooCommerce Product Description

Product Categories and Tags: Use categories and tags to organize your products depending on how you would like to structure your website. It is VERY important to use these categories to identify your products. One product CAN belong to MANY different categories and it is a good practice to add your products to as many categories as makes sense to do.

WooCommerce Product Categories and Tags

Product Image: This is the primary image of your product. It will be used for the thumbnail, catalog, and as the first image on your product page.

Product Gallery: Product gallery images will show up as small thumbnails next to your main product image described previously. Product galleries, for example, could be used for alternate views of your product.

Product Short Description: The short description typically appears next your product image on its page depending on your theme. Use this for a brief overview of your product. Save details for the long description (described above), which typically appear within the product description tab.

WooCommerce Product Short Description

Adding Simple Products

Adding simple products can be very straightforward, especially for experienced WordPress users.  A simple product can also be virtual (not shipped) or downloadable (customers given access to a file after purchase).

General

On the general tab fill out the SKU, regular price, and sale price of your product. It is important to note that prices must be entered without $. Sales prices can be schedule for a particular day, week, month, etc.

Simple Product WooCommerce

Inventory

If you have products that will sell out, be sure to enable stock management at the product level. If selected, a stock quantity field will appear where you can enter/add your quantity. This number will reduce automatically as orders are placed. Depending on your settings, out of stock items can be hidden on the front-end of your website. On this tab you can also specify if you would like to allow back orders of out of stock items or if they are to be sold individually.

WooCommerce Simple Product Inventory

Shipping

Enter the weight, dimensions, and shipping class (if applicable) of your product here. The weight and dimensions of your product are required when using table rate shipping or shipping extensions that use this information to calculate rates.

RelatedHow To Add Flat Rate Shipping WooCommerce

Linked Products

Here you can add up-sells and cross-sells to your product, which is a great way to drive extra sales and increase revenue!

Up-sells are displayed on the product details page and encourage visitors to view other products. Think, “You May Also Like…”. An example of an up-sell would be to offer some of your other Aerosmith merchandise to a visitor who is viewing an Aerosmith t-shirt.

Cross-sells are displayed on the cart page and relate to the product(s) that your customer has in their cart. For example, if your customer has an iPhone in their cart, you may also suggest that they also purchase a case.

To add, simply start typing the name of other products you have already added and select. (Tip: you may want to add all of your products first and go back to do up-sells and cross-sells so you have your full inventory to choose from)

Advanced

On the advanced tab you can set up an optional purchase note to be sent to the customer after purchase, a custom ordering position, or enable/disable customer reviews for the product.

WooCommerce Advanced Simple Product

 

Adding a Variable Product

Adding variable products is very similar to adding simple, but with the selection of variable as the product type, additional tabs are added to your product data section.

General

Enter SKU of your item. Note: you will enter SKUs for variations later on.

WooCommerce SKU variable Product

Inventory

Here you can set the stock quantity for the product, or leave it blank to use the stock settings on the variable product’s.

WooCommerce Inventory Variable Product

Shipping

Enter the weights and dimensions of the product, or leave it blank to use the stock settings on the variable product’s.

Linked Products

Same process as simple products. Refer to Linked Products section above.

Attributes

Here is where the differences between simple and variable products begin. In the following example, we will use an attribute we have already setup: size. Don’t have any attributes? Read How To Setup Attributes in WooCommerce.

Select size from the drop down menu and click add. Click select all to add all sizes. If you would like to remove any options, click the x next to the term name. Select visible on the product page if you would like customers to choose from these sizes. Then, click used for variations if each size has it’s own sku/price/weight/etc.

Make sure to click save attributes as these will not be visible on the variations tab until you do so.

WooCommerce Attributes Variable Product

Variations

On the variations tab you will add all of the product data for each individual size.

First, click the ‘add variation’ button 4 times if you will be using all 4 sizes. Select the name of your sizes from the drop down menus. Then, fill in the product data for each size. Note: variation price is required or the variation will not show up on the front-end of your website.

WooCommerce Adding Product Variations

If you fill in all the product information for your variations, you will now be able to see them on the front-end of you website on your product page.

Variable Product Page WooCommerce

Advanced

On the advanced tab you can set up an optional purchase note to be sent to the customer after purchase, a custom ordering position, or enable/disable customer reviews for the product.

 

Adding a Grouped Product

Grouped products are related products that can be purchased individually. Note that, grouped products can only consist of simple products. For example, an iPhone could be a grouped product as there are 8GB, 16GB, etc. variations of that same product parent.

Group products are setup very similar to a simple product and consist of establishing a parent product and then child products within that group.

Setting Up the Parent Product

To establish the parent product, select a product type of ‘Grouped’ from the drop-down menu. Then fill in product information like description, images, categories, and tags in the same way you would for a simple product.

Now that the parent product is established, you will need to create the child products inside of that group.

To create a child product, create a new product. For the child product you will only be required to fill in the:

  1. Title
  2. Product type = Simple

However, add any necessary product data like descriptions or prices for each child product.

Next, navigate to the linked products tab. Now that a grouped product has been established, a grouping field appears below the Up-Sells and Cross-Sells. Select the parent product from the drop-down menu.

Grouped Product WooCommerce

In this example, we setup an iPhone as the grouped (parent) product and the 8GB/16GB as the child products. If setup properly you should see links to each child product on the iPhone product page. Note: an individual product page exists for each child.

Grouped Product Page WooCommerce

Adding an External/Affiliate Product

External or affiliate products are ones that you list/display on your website but they are sold elsewhere.

First, select this product type from the drop-down menu.

Enter SKU, the external URL to the product, the price, and the text you would like on the button that links externally to the product.

External Affiliate Product WooCommerce

Be sure to fill in all other product information outlined in previous examples like description, tags, categories, images, up-sells/cross-sells, etc.

There you have it! You’ve successfully added your products in WooCommerce.

Do you want to feature a product? Check out how to add featured products in WooCommerce.

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