Looking for a guide to add WooCommerce Variations for your products?
If yes, you’ve reached the right place.
Variations help your customers choose multiple different options for a specific item. For example, customers can select t-shirt in various sizes, colors, or materials.
You can easily set up variations for your WooCommerce store once you get used to this feature.
In this guide, I will walk you through the basics of what WooCommerce variations are, how they work and why we should use them.
Let’s get started!
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What Are Product Variations in WooCommerce?
A product in your store may come with only one option, whereas some items will come with multiple options to select from. For example,
- A handbag with different colors and sizes.
- Beverages with different flavors and ingredients, or
- Home décor with varying options of material.
Luckily, WooCommerce offers an inbuilt way to add such options to your products.
These are called product variations that customers choose while buying a product from your store. So, you should genuinely add product variations for your store for proper customer satisfaction and user engagement.
Hence, product variations in WooCommerce allow you to set different variants for a particular product. They can be used for any product, say for a handbag where you can offer a medium or one size with different colors.
These variations are based on attributes that work as product descriptors such as sizes, colors, dimensions, material, patterns, etc. Let’s learn more about attributes.
Product Attributes
Attributes define the WooCommerce products with specific characteristics allowing customers to know key details about a product’s size, material, color, dimensions, weight, etc. These characteristics depend on the type of product you are selling.
For example,
- The attributes for clothes can be size, color, or material.
- For refrigerator, it can be capacity, star rating, etc.
Variations are the choices that customers make from these attributes. If you want users to select different options, you’ll need to define attributes for the products. This will only allow you to add variations for the product.
Sounds a bit confusing, don’t worry! In the upcoming sections, we’re going to help you with how the process works.
Why Should You Add Variations in WooCommerce?
WooCommerce helps you to add multiple variations to your products. Displaying variations and attributes for your online products helps the customers to get a detailed overview of items they would like to purchase.
On the other hand, it can help you increase sales, overall revenue, and brand loyalty among your customers.
Here’s why product variation is important for your products.
- It becomes easy for a customer to understand your product better at a glance.
- Creates a good impression in front of your customers about the available choices.
- Product variation guarantees repeat purchases as customers know that your online store is well-stocked.
- Helps to meet customer demands, as they look for different features and ideas every day.
- Increases market share through product differentiation.
Therefore, a well-drawn and apparent product variation shows how your WooCommerce store speaks about variety, brand loyalty, stock inventory, and fulfilling customer needs.
How To Add Variations in WooCommerce?
Now we’ve explained the basics of WooCommerce variable products and attributes, it’s time to put some knowledge into action.
The following step-by-step instructions will help you in adding WooCommerce variations to your WooCommerce store.
Let’s get started!
Step 1: Setting Up Attributes for WooCommerce Products
The variations for WooCommerce depend entirely on attributes. Therefore, to set up variation, you’ll need to create a corresponding attribute.
You can create attributes on individual product pages. Let’s see how.
It’s easy to set them up under the Products > Attributes section.
This is the place where you can create a new attribute.
For instance, let’s say you sell clothes in different materials. So, you can name your attribute “Material” and assign the slug with the same word. The name and slug can be anything you like. The important part is to check they’re easy and descriptive to remember.
Now click on the “Add attribute” button, and your new attribute will display in the menu to the right:
Let’s say you added a new attribute, “material.” It will look like as:
Now, to add different types of materials, say cotton, wool, etc., select “Configure terms.” This screen helps you add a new entry for each version of the attribute.
After you’re done setting up the first product attribute, you can add multiple attributes as required. For example, for the clothing section, we can add materials, colors, or sizes as shown.
You can always edit the product attributes and add as many attributes as you need or make additional changes.
Step 2: Assigning Attributes to Products
Now that you have created attributes for your products, it’s time to use them. You can implement this functionality on new products or existing ones.
Open a product and scroll down to the “Product data” section.
Now select the “Variable product” from the drop-down menu right next to the Product data heading. This is done to inform WooCommerce that you want to create a product with multiple attribute options and change the settings anytime you need.
Then click on the “Attributes” tab in the “Product Data” section. Select the attributes you created (Material), and click on Add button:
Now, click the “Value(s)” menu and select any attributes that describe the product you’re currently editing. Select any value from the drop-down.
You can also select multiple value options, for example, if the item comes in both cotton and wool material.
Ensure that the “Visible on the product page” and “Used for variations” are both checked. Now click the “Saves attributes” button.
You can anytime go back to the product page to add or remove the attributes to the items.
Now let’s see how you can add and display WooCommerce Variations to your product(s).
Step 3: Adding WooCommerce Variations to Your Product
Remember that you can only add variations to the product if at least one attribute is selected.
You can add variations to a new product or an existing one.
Click on the “Variations” tab under the “Product data” section.
Click on the “Go” button, and you will get a drop-down menu to select an attribute for your product (for example, a particular material).
Select the required attribute and customize the other settings accordingly.
Setting the variation price is necessary as variations and attributes without prices will not be displayed in your store. However, you can also add an item’s weight, stock status, dimensions, etc.
Thus, you can add different details for each variation.
Save the changes once you’re done, or click the “Go” button to add more variations. Click “Update” for an existing product and “Publish” if the new product wasn’t already published. This is to make sure that all of your data is saved.
Let’s preview and see how the variations look like on your site.
When a customer selects the material, they’ll see an updated photo and pricing. If you see a message like “This product is currently out of stock and unavailable,” then you might have forgotten to set a price for each product variation.
You can also select new attributes here, such as sizes, color, etc., and customize its details as described above.
Similarly, repeat this process multiple times if you want to add more WooCommerce variations to your store. Just remember to save your changes for each variation and its product when you’re done.
Tips To Enhance Product Variations for Your WooCommerce Store
Now that you know how to add product variations to your WooCommerce store, it’s time to accomplish all the above objectives through your product variations.
To improve and optimize product variations for your online store’s sales and customer experience, make sure that:
- Add a variation swatches instead of the default dropdown to enhance the user experience.
- Attributes should be crisp, clear, and easily understandable, irrespective of the variation’s complexity.
- Take the help of images for a better understanding of each product variation.
- Add color pickers to represent different color options. For example, if a customer selects a red T-shirt, an image reflecting the color will help more than just writing a color name.
Hence, adding product variations is crucial as the customers find it easier to search and buy the products if they have enough information to evaluate them.
Conclusion
This guide has helped you learn and understand the WooCommerce variable product, its attributes, and step-by-step instructions to set up WooCommerce Variations.
WooCommerce variable products are easy to use and set up; you will know about it once you get used to it. I hope this guide has helped you get to grips with them.
