One crucial aspect of customer satisfaction is transparent communication, especially regarding product availability.
If you run a WooCommerce online store and need to inform customers about discontinued products, you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, we will explore the importance of displaying a discontinued message on WooCommerce products and discuss how to implement this feature effortlessly.
So without any further ado, let’s jump into the tutorial.
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Importance of Displaying a Discontinued Message
The importance of displaying a discontinued message on your WooCommerce products cannot be understated. Here are several reasons why it is crucial for the success of your online store:
- It provides transparency and prevents frustration during the purchase process.
- It builds trust by being honest about product availability.
- It helps streamline fulfillment and prevents unfulfillable orders.
- It redirects customers to alternative options, potentially leading to additional sales.
- It showcases professionalism and establishes a positive brand image.
Now let’s dive in and see how to implement this feature in your store.
How to Add Discontinued Message to a WooCommerce Product?
To add a discontinued message to WooCommerce, I’ll use the Discontinued Product Stock Status for WooCommerce plugin. The following are the steps to display a discontinued message.
1. Install and Activate the Discontinued Product Stock Plugin
First, you need to install the plugin. To install it, navigate to Plugins » Add New from your WordPress admin dashboard and search for the plugin name in the search bar.
Install and activate the very first plugin from the search results. You will see the ‘Install Now’ button on the plugin, and once you have installed the plugin, it will be replaced with the ‘Activate’ button.
Click the button to activate the plugin.
I have already installed and activated the plugin, so it is showing the active button over it.
2. Edit the Product
Once the plugin is installed and activated, navigate to Products » All Products from your WordPress dashboard. Here you will see all the products you have added to your store.
Hover your mouse over the product you want to edit. Click the ‘Edit’ button to edit the product.
3. Change the Product Status to ‘Discontinued’
Once you click the button, you’ll be redirected to the product edit page. Scroll to the ‘Product Data’ section and click the ‘Inventory’ tab.
After that, from the ‘Stock Status’ dropdown, select the ‘Discontinued’ option. It is added by the plugin that we installed in the previous step.
4. Configure a Discontinued Message
After that, if you want to set a discontinued message for this product, click the ‘Discontinued Products’ tab within the ‘Product Data’ section.
Next, from the ‘Product Message Type’ dropdown, you’ll get two options,
- Global Message
- Product Specific Message
Select the ‘Product Specific Message’ option from the dropdown. Once you select it, you’ll see a text editor below it. Add the message in the text editor to display a product-specific message.
5. Publish the Product
Finally, scroll to the top of the page and click the blue ‘Update’ button to update the product.
6. Enable the Custom Discontinued Message
If you want to display a custom discontinued message for specific products, you need to enable it. Even though you added the message in the previous step, it won’t be displayed on the front end until you enable the custom message from the plugin’s settings.
To enable the custom discontinued message for specific products, follow the following steps.
6.1. Navigate to Plugin’s Settings
After setting up the product-specif message, you’ll need to enable it from the plugin’s settings. To enable it, navigate to the WooCommerce » Settings » Discontinued Message from your WordPress dashboard.
6.2. Enable the Custom Discontinued Message
To enable the custom message for specific products, check the ‘Enable custom discontinued message for Discontinued products’ option.
Enabling it will also allow you to edit the ‘Global’ message.
6.3. Save Changes
Finally, click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page to save the settings.
7. Final Results
Once the product is published, let’s visit the product page to see the message.
After publishing the product, you’ll see a link that says ‘Visit Product’ at the top of the product edit page. Click it to visit the product page.
You can also click the product permalink to visit the product page.
Once on the product page, you’ll see the custom discontinued message we added in the above steps. The customers will be unable to purchase the product and will also know why.
Conclusion
That’s it for today’s article. I hope this article was helpful to you and you were able to add a discontinued message to let your customers know that the product has been discontinued.
However, if your product is out of stock and you want to inform your customers when it will be back in stock, you can add lead times to your store.
Here’s the guide to help you with this,
