With the help of WooCommerce plugins products can be added and maintained very well. It is now a matter of few mouse clicks and you can add as many products as you want to sell. At the end of this article you will learn how to add and manage products in your online store admin panel.

Adding a product

Before starting of my discussion with a brief introduction of how store owners can add new products to their online stores, let’s get familiar with how product categories, tags, and attributes work.

Product Categories & Tags

In WooCommerce Product categories and tags works the same as normal categories and tags works in any WordPress website. It is very simple to create, edit, and select them at any time. You can apply categories and tags before or during the creation of a product.

Attributes

You can add attributes as per product, or you can set up global attributes for the entire store to use (e.g., in layered navigation).

Product Types

When you are going to add a product, at first you have to decide what type of product it is. Products can be of the following types :

• A Simple product type covers the maximum area of any products you may sell. Simple products are shipped and have no options. For example, a book.
• A Grouped product is a group of related products that can be purchased individually and only consist of simple products. For example, a set of six plates.
• A Virtual product is that type of products which doesn’t require shipping. For example, a service.
• A Downloadable product behaves like a virtual product meaning all shipping options are disabled. Moreover, it activates additional fields where you can provide a downloadable file. After a successful transaction/purchase, customers are given a downloadable file link in the order notification email. For example for a digital album, PDF magazine, or photo.
• An External/Affiliated product is one which is displayed on your store but is originally sold on someone else’s website. The concept of Affiliate marketing is a smart strategy adopted by business people. It is same like promoting or advertising the products of other people on your website to earn a particular commission or fixed percentage per sale. This type of products are always linked to a URL of some other website.
• A Variable product has different types of variations, each of which may have a different SKU, price, stock option, etc. For example, a shirt available in different colors or sizes.
• Other types can often be added by extensions. For example, WooCommerce Subscriptions adds new product types as like WooCommerce Bookings.

Adding a simple product

Adding a simple product is similar to authoring a standard Word Press post.

First, Go to WooCommerce > Products > Add Product.

Enter a product Title and Description.

Under the main dialog box is the Product Data panel, define the product type (as outlined above) and whether it is a downloadable (digital) or virtual (service) product.

Product data

Majority of the important data is placed here.

General Tab

• SKU – Stock keep unit (SKU) tracks products. It should be unique give a name that does not clash with post IDs.
• Price
• Regular Price – The main price of the item.
• Sale Price – Discounted price of the item.

Inventory Tab

The inventory section allow you to manage stock for the product individually and define whether to allow back orders in the Inventory Tab. If you disable the stock management from the settings page, you will see only the ‘stock status’ option.

You will get the following options when stock management at product level is enabled.

• Enter the Stock Quantity, and WooCommerce auto-manages inventory and auto-updatesStock Status as Stock, Out of Stock or On Backorder.
• Select whether to Allow Backorders.
• Low stock threshold – Enter a number by which you are notified.
• Put tick mark on the Sold Individually box to limit the product to one per order.

Shipping Tab

• Weight – Weight of the item.
• Dimensions – Length, width and height of the item.
• Shipping Class – They used by certain shipping methods to group similar products.

Linked Products Tab

By using up-sells and cross-sells you can cross promote your products. They can also be added by searching for a particular product and selecting the product from the drop down list.

After adding them, they are listed in the input field just like the screenshot.

Up-sells are displayed on the product details page. By using this, products that you may wish to encourage users to upgrade, based on the product they are currently viewing. For example, if the user is viewing the pen product listing page, you may want to display pen holder on that same page as an up-sell.

Cross-sells products are displayed with the cart and related to the user’s cart contents. For example, if the user adds a mobile phone to their cart, you may want to suggest they purchase memory card, battery, mobile covers, charger, etc when they arrive at the cart page.

Grouping – By setting this option you can make a product part of a grouped product.

Attributes Tab

On the attributes tab you can assign details to a product. You will see a select box containing global attribute sets that you have created.

When you have chosen an attribute from the select box, click add and apply the terms attached to that attribute to the product. You can hide the attribute on the front end by leaving the Visible checkbox unchecked.

By choosing ‘Custom product attribute’ Custom attributes can also be applied from the select box. These products are added at the product level and won’t be available in layered navigation.

Advanced Tab

• Purchase note – You can enter an optional note to send the customer after the  purchase
• Menu order – Custom ordering position for the item
• Enable Reviews – This option is to Enable/Disable customers reviews for the item

Product short description

Excerpt

Add a short product description. This will appears next to product imagery on the listing page, and the long description appears in the Product Description tab.

Taxonomies

On the right side of the Add New Product panel, there are product categories in which you can place your product, similar to a standard Word Press post. You can also assign product tags in the similar way.

Product images

You can add a main image and a gallery of images.

Setting catalog visibility and feature status

You can set catalog visibility for your product in the Publish panel.

• Shop and search – Visible everywhere
• Shop Only – Visible in catalog loops, but not search
• Search Only – Visible in search results, but not in the catalog (categories/shop page)
• Hidden – Only visible on the single product page, not in any product loops
• 

You can also set whether the product is promoted in product categories, up-sells, related products as a Featured Product. For example, you could tick the Featured box on all bundles you sell.

Adding a grouped product

A grouped product can be created in the same way as a simple product. The only difference is that you select Grouped from the Product Type drop down in the General product tab details:

When you will set the parent product as Grouped, the price and several other fields will disappear. You will add this information to individual child products. Once completed with the parent product, publish it and come back to the Add New Product page.

To create the grouped products:

Go to WooCommerce > Products > Add New.

Enter a Title for the Grouped product

Scroll down below to Product Data and select Grouped from the drop-down. The price and several other fields will disappear.

Then Publish.

Add products to the Group

Go to: WooCommerce > Products > Add New.

Select the Grouped product you wish to add products to.

Scroll down to Product Data and go to Linked Products.

Select Grouped Products, and type the product for searching.

Click the products you wish to add.

Update

You can drag and drop to re-order the Grouped Products. Once you click on Update, the new order will be shown on the product page.

Adding a virtual product

While adding a simple product you can check the Virtual box in the product type panel. This removes unnecessary fields, such as dimensions.

With the Variable products this checkbox is moved to each variation.

Adding a downloadable product

While adding a simple product you can check the downloadable box in the product type panel. This adds two new fields:

1. File path — Path or URL to your downloadable file.
2. Download limit – Limitation on number of times the customer can download file. Left blank for unlimited downloads.

Adding an external/affiliate product

Choose ‘External/Affiliate’ from the product type drop down. This will removes unnecessary tabs, such as tax and inventory, and inserts a new product URL field. This is the place where users can purchase the product. Instead of Add to Cart buttons, they will see a Read More button directing them to this URL.

Adding a variable product

Among the products types variable products are the most complex. They let you define variations of a single product where each variation may have a different SKU, price or stock level.

Duplicating a product

It’s possible to use a product and duplicate it to create similar products with variations and other qualities. This helps you save time.

To duplicate a product, go to  WooCommerce > Products and look through the list for a product you wish to replicate, then click Duplicate.

Deleting a product

To delete a product:

Go to WooCommerce > Products.

Find the product you wish to delete.

Click on the Product name and click Trash.

Mark a product as Featured

To mark a featured product, go to: Products > Products and select the Star in the featured column. Alternatively, you can select Quick Edit and then the Featured option.

Filter or sort products

Filtering products

Go to: WooCommerce > Products.

Select a Category, Product Type and/or Stock Status, or any combination of the three.

Click Filter.

Sorting products

Go to: WooCommerce > Products.

Select Sorting.

Select a Category, Product Type and/or Stock Status, or any combination of the three.

Click Filter.

Product ID

A Online Store Product ID is sometimes needed when using shortcodes, widgets and links.

Go to that product’s Edit screen via Products > (Choose the Product) > Edit and then look at the page URL to find the ID. You will then see a short multi-digit number which is the product ID.

Another way to find a Product ID is to float your cursor to the product in the Products admin menu:

You will also have the option of using a snippet of code that adds a new column to the Products edit screen and displays the Product ID for each.

Allow backorders

Mostly all payment gateway options will charge immediately if you are managing stock on an order and allowbackorders in your product inventory settings. You can use the Advanced Notifications extension to help notify someone other than the shop admin of backorders.

Related Article: Adding and Managing Products