Adding and Managing Products

Before you can sell anything you need something to sell, which is why adding and managing products is one of the most important elements of setting up your shop.

How to add a WooCommerce product

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Start adding products with as little as a product name and a price. The more product info you add, the more enticing products are for customers and the more likely your products are to position better in search engines. The process soon reveals there is more to think about.  

Which categories will you organize your products in? Will you charge tax? How will you track stock? Do you offer shipping that would require product dimensions and weight? How will you offer variable products (e.g. the same shirt that comes in various colors)? What attributes will you need for such products? And will you allow and encourage reviews site wide, per product, or not at all? 

These are all considerations that if thought about upfront, will simplify the process of adding and managing products.

Continue below to get acquainted with each setting, or click here for a how-to guide outlining steps for common product configurations.

What are the settings in the WooCommerce Product Editor

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The Product Editor can be accessed directly from the WordPress admin dashboard under Products > Add New, or via Products > All Products > select a product to edit an existing product. The image below shows the Edit product screen as it appears with a standard theme active (in this example it’s Storefront). 

• At the top of the page is the Product name field. 
• Below it is the largest input field, the Product description. 
• Next is Product data. 
• Then Product short description. 
• At the bottom is Reviews. 
• In the column on the right, at the top, is Publish. 
• Below that is Product image. 
• Then Product gallery. 
• Followed by Product categories. 
• And lastly, Product tags. 
• There are two additional panels hidden by default, which are Custom Fields and Slug. 

The order of settings panels can be changed (except for Product name and Product Description), and the visibility of some can be toggled on or off via the Screen Options tab at the top right for the screen. Remember that some themes and page builders override the default appearance of the Edit product screen entirely.

Let’s take a closer look at the settings.

Product name

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The Product name field is for the name of your product.

This field is also used to auto-generate a slug for new products, which is the last bit of a product’s URL. The field accepts letters, numbers, special characters, emojis, and even HTML. Editing the title of an existing product does not change the slug (it can be changed via the Edit button that appears next to the URL below the Product name field after the product is first saved, or via the Slug panel.

Product description

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The Product description is for the detailed description of your product. It will accept just about any type of content including text, image and video embeds, tables, or whatever you may need to convey the value and benefits of a product to your customers. 

Product data

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The Product Data panel is where to add the majority of important data about your products. 

At the top of the box is Product type which always defaults to Simple product. Next to it are 2 checkboxes, Virtual and Downloadable. The state of these 3 together influences the visibility and content of each of the sections in this panel. The default sections are General, Inventory, Shipping, Linked Products, Attributes, Advanced, and Get more options.

Product Type

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Some product types may require different treatment and show more settings than others, so it’s vital to decide which type the product you’re adding. WooCommerce includes the following default product types:

• Simple – covers the vast majority of products you may sell. A simple product requires no consideration from the customer’s point of view beyond buying it or not. It defaults to being a physical product, which means shipping applies. 
• Grouped – a container to which other products are added, creating a collection of products to purchase together.
• External or Affiliate – for listing and describing products on your website that are sold elsewhere. 
• Variable – a product with variations, each of which may have a different SKU, price, stock options, and shipping settings. For example, a t-shirt available in different colors and sizes.
• Other extensions may add additional product types here which should be covered in their documentation.

The Virtual and Downloadable settings are available for Simple products and the variations of Variable products.

• Virtual – a virtual product (e.g. a service) doesn’t require shipping. When checked, this option disables the Shipping section. A virtual product by itself does not trigger the shipping calculator in cart and checkout (although any physical products purchased in the same order still have shipping applied). 
• Downloadable – checking this option activates additional fields where you can provide a downloadable file. After a successful purchase, customers are sent a download link in the order notification email. This option suits products that are, for example, a digital album, a PDF, or a photo. It relies on Downloadable products settings.

General section

The General section is where essential product data is configured. It’s visible for Simple, External/Affiliate, and Variable product types, but contains more or fewer settings depending on the selected product type. Grouped products get the info from the products included in the group. 

Simple and External/Affiliate include the following settings. For Variable products settings are attached to each variation rather than appearing in the General sections. [LINK](https://woo.com/document/variable-product/#adding-variation-data). 

• Regular price – the regular price of the item.
• Sale price – the discounted price for the item that will show as long as it’s entered. If the Scheduled link is clicked, 2 additional fields are added:
  • Sale price dates – from: the date on which the sale price should start displaying.
  • Sale price dates – to: the date on which the sale price should stop displaying (expires at 11:59pm).

Simple, External/Affiliate, and Variable product types include these settings. 

• Tax status – can be set to Taxable / Shipping only / None.
• Tax class – defaults to Standard but other tax classes can be assigned.

Refer to the Variable products documenation for a detailed look at variations specifically.

External/Affiliate product type also has these additional settings: 

• Product URL – the external URL where the product can be purchased. 
• Button text – the text entered here will be shown on the button linking to the external product.

Inventory section

The Inventory section allows you to manage stock settings related to an individual product and override some of the site-wide settings (configured under Products > Inventory > Manage stock). 

Grouped and External/Affiliate show only the SKU option, while the Single product type includes all the options. The Variable type shows all options unless otherwise stated.

• SKU (optional) – the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) is a unique reference that identifies individual items. It accepts alphanumeric values and some special characters explained in more detail here.

• Stock management – only visible if Products > Inventory > Manage stock is checked.
  • If Stock management is unchecked, a product’s stock status is based on the next setting, Stock status. Or, when working with a Variable product, the variation-level setting is used instead. 
  • If Stock management is checked, the Quantity setting below is used instead.
• Stock status – visible if Stock management is not checked. Options include:
  • In Stock – sales can continue indefinitely.
  • Out of stock – the item is out of stock and can’t be purchased.  
  • On backorder – product can be purchased, but a notice states it’s on backorder, implying a delay as it needs time to get in stock. 
• Quantity – only visible when Stock management is checked. Add the specific availability of an item, so WooCommerce can keep track and automatically set the item as out of stock when depleted. On a variable product, this quantity includes all variations. 

• Allow backorders? – only visible when Stock  management is checked. Options include:
  • Do not allow – backorders are not allowed.
  • Allow, but notify customer – backorders are allowed and a notice to inform customers is displayed.
  • Allow – backorders are allowed and to customers it appears no different than an in-stock item. 
• Low stock threshold – only visible when Stock management is checked. The stock level at which the store manager is notified via email. It displays the store-wide level by default and can be overridden on the product or variation level. 

Sold individually – when checked, this option allows customers to only purchase 1 of this item per order. Useful for items that have limited quantities. However, it does not prevent customers from making multiple orders and purchasing the item again.

Shipping section

The Shipping section is where to add data relevant to the shipping of a product. The Shipping section is only visible on Simple and Variable product types that are not marked as Virtual. For Variable product types this section’s settings apply to all variations, unless specific, variation-level settings are added. 

• Weight – weight of the item (units can be configured under WooCommerce > Settings > Products > General). 
• Dimensions – length, width and height for the item.
• Shipping Class – shipping classes are used by certain shipping methods to group similar products.

Linked Products section

In the Linked Products section products for cross promotion can be added as upsells (a product that is more beneficial for you or your customer) or cross-sells (a complementary product). Add products by clicking in the respective field, searching, and selecting a result. This section is available for all product types.

Up-sells are displayed on the product details page. These are products you want to encourage customers to upgrade to, based on the product they are currently viewing. 

For example, if a customer is interested in office chairs and views the Comfy Chair 3000, the Comfy Chair 4000 can be offered as an up-sell. It has a cupholder! (It also has better margins making it a more beneficial sale for you too). 

Cross-sells are products that are displayed with the cart and related to the user’s cart contents, suggesting additional products that may complement or be related to the items the customer is considering can help raise your average order value. This could include accessories or related products that enhance the main product’s value.

To extend our above example, if the customer opted to purchase the Comfy Chair 4000 for its cup holder, we suspect they value having a drink nearby. Based on that we can present a vacuum flask as a cross-sell, because it’s custom-made for the chair’s cup holder and the perfect complement. Cross sells show on the cart page

Attributes section

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The Attributes section is for adding structured details to a product. All default product types show this section from where to add either pre-configured Global attributes (see Managing Product Categories, Tags and Attributes) or new attributes (which would be available to the particular product only). 

• Add new – adds a New Attribute section for entering new attributes for this product only, or an option can be selected from the Add existing dropdown to add an existing Global attribute instead.
• Add existing – a dropdown populated by the Global attributes configured under Products > Attributes. 
• New attribute
  • Name – the name of attribute, e.g. Color. 
  • Value(s) – the values of the attributes, e.g. Red | Blue | Yellow. 
  • Visible on the product page – if checked, attributes appear in the Additional Information section of the single product page (visibility depends on the design of your theme or page builder).
  • Used for variations – only applicable to Variable product types. If checked, the attribute is made available to be used in the Variable’s product’s Variations section.

Variations section

The Variations section is for creating variations for a Variable product and is discussed in detail here.

Advanced section

The Advanced section contains the following settings:

• Purchase note – only available for Simple and Variable products. It’s an optional note that appears below where the product is displayed on the order confirmation screen and in order-related emails. 
• Menu order – custom ordering position for this item. When displaying products in the shop, WooCommerce outputs products from lowest to highest menu order. Products that have the same menu order are output alphabetically. This setting is secondary when other sorting methods are used. (e.g. when sorting by popularity)
• Enable Reviews – enable/disable customer reviews for this item. Learn more about managing reviews.

Product short description

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The Product short description is a succinct summary long description. This typically appears next to product imagery on product listing pages. Video can also be embedded here.

Publish

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The Publish panel indicates the product’s published and visibility status. It can also be used for setting catalog visibility options and feature status. 

• Save Draft – save changes while in draft mode. The button disappears once the product is Published. 
• Preview – show a preview of the product’s current state. Especially useful to see what changes look like before saving. 
• Status – shows the published status of a product. Includes the following options:
  • Published – the product is accessible to customers. 
  • Pending review – the product is not visible to customers and requires a site admin’s approval to be published. 
  • Draft – not yet published.

• Visibility – allows a product’s content to be conditionally visible, based on these options:
  • Public – the default, means a page and all its content are accessible without restrictions. 
  • Password protected – the product shows in the catalog and the page is accessible to all, but a password is required to view the content. Useful to demo a product or give conditional access to a select few. 
  • Private – the product is published, but is only visible to site Admins and Editors only.

• Published on – appears after the product is published and shows the date and time it was published. Clicking the Edit link allows this details to be changed. 
• Catalog visibility – your Catalog is the list of all your products that are displayed in places like the Shop page, product collections, categories, etc. You can determine where and how Published products appear via the following options:
  • Shop and search – the default, visible everywhere, shop pages, category pages and search results.
  • Shop only – visible in shop pages and category pages, but not search results.
  • Search only – visible in search results, but not in the shop page or category pages.
  • Hidden – only visible on the single product page, and nowhere else.
  • This is a featured product – checking this option gives prominence to the product for promotions across various sections of the shop that promotes featured product. It’s equivalent to clicking the Star next to the product in the Product list view.

• Copy to a new draft – when clicked, the product and all its settings are copied as a new product with the addition of “(Copy)” to the Product name. Useful when adding products with similar settings. 
• Publish/Update button – the button shows as Publish while the product is Draft or Pending review (in which case the Save Draft button should be used to save changes). Once the product is published, it changes to Update.

Product images and Product gallery

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Adding a Product image shows prospective customers what they’re purchasing. It builds customer confidence, makes the product offer visually appealing, and adds an element that search engines and social media use to enhance offsite listings as well, increasing click-through rates to your site.

Adding additional images via the Product gallery multiplies that effect. 

Click here for a detailed guide on how to add a product image and product galler. 

Product categories

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Product categories and product tags are specific to Products, but work in much the same way as categories and tags do when for posts in WordPress. The Product categories panel contains the following: 

• All categories – a list of existing product categories. Check one or more categories to which you want to add this product. 
• Most used – a view that shows a selection of only the most frequently used product categories. 
• Add new category link – for adding new categories. Clicking it reveals:
  • a new field for adding new category name. 
  • Parent category – assign a parent for the new category to nest your new category inside an existing category. 
  • Add new category button – required to add the new category. 

The panel above is sufficient to quickly manage a store with just a few categories, but there is another way to manage a large amount of categories, which is explained in detail in the Managing Product Categories, Tags and Attributes documentation.

Product tags

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Similar to categories, Product tags function much like WordPress post tags do. Type a new tag into the field provided and click the Add button. The newly added tag appears below the field with an “x” which can be clicked to remove it. Once tags have been added and saved, they can be accessed by clicking Choose from the most used tags and selecting an option from the list that is revealed. 

There is another way to manage tags, which is explained in detail in the  Managing Product Categories, Tags and Attributes documentation.

Adding a simple product

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Let’s add a Simple product. The essentials you need are: 

• Product name
• Product’s regular price
• Product image (from your Media Library)

The outcome of this example is a basic product listing without a description that is assigned to the default Uncategorized product category. 

1. Go to WooCommerce > Products > Add Product. 
2. Enter a Product name. 
3. In the Product data > General section, Product type should default to Simple product. 
4. Enter a number in the Regular price field.
5. In the Product image panel, click the Set product image link. 
6. Select the image you want to use and click  the Set product image button.
7. In the Publish panel, click the Publish button.
8. Click the View product link at the top of the screen to view the newly created product.

Adding a grouped product

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Grouped products are used to list several different products together on one product page. From the grouped product page shoppers can add as many of the listed products as they like to their cart all at once.  Since grouped products are essentially lists of other products in your shop, they do not have their own prices or stock numbers. 

Adding a grouped products works in two steps:

1. Creating the grouped product.
2. Adding products to the group.

Create the Grouped product

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1. Go to: WooCommerce > Products > Add New.
2. Enter a Title for the Grouped product, e.g., Back to School set
3. Scroll down to Product Data and select Grouped from the dropdown. The price and several other fields disappear. This is normal because a Grouped Product is a collection of ‘child products’, which is where you add this information.
4. Publish. (Or move on to adding products to the group before publishing)

Add products to the Group

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After being created, until you add products to it the grouped product is just an empty group.

To complete the Grouped product, you need to:

• Create products to be added (if they don’t exist already).
• Add existing products to the group.

Having the choice to first create Simple products and add them to a Grouped product later; or first create a Grouped product and add Simple products later gives you flexibility to build in the order you like. You can add products to more than one Grouped product.

To add existing products to your grouped product:

1. Go to: WooCommerce > Products > All Products.
2. Edit the Grouped product you wish to add products to. (Or select Add New to create a new grouped product)
3. Scroll down to Product Data and click the Linked Products section.
4. Select Grouped Products field, and search for the product by typing.
5. Click the products you wish to add.
6. You can drag and drop to reorder the Grouped Products. Once you press Update, the new order will be shown on the product page.
7. Click the “Update” button in the publish panel. (or the “Publish” button if the grouped product hadn’t been published yet.)

Grouped products are just one of many ways to bundle products together for sale in WooCommerce. For more details about other options, see our documentation on How to Bundle Products with WooCommerce

Adding an external/affiliate product

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Select ‘External/Affiliate’ from the product type dropdown. This will change the Product data metabox a bit. It first removes the shipping section from the left side. It then adds two new fields in the General section, the Product URL and Button text fields. The Product URL field is the destination where users can purchase this product. Then the Button text lets you change the normal Add to cart button text to your preferred text.

Adding a variable product

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Variable products are one of the more complex of product types. They let you use product attributes to define different product variations. Each variation may have its own product data including SKU, image, price, stock level and more. See our Variable Product docs for a guide on creating a product with variations.

Making a product Virtual

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When adding a Simple product, you can tick the Virtual checkbox box in the product type panel.

With Variable products this checkbox is moved to each variation.

Enabling this, disables all shipping related fields such as shipping dimensions. A virtual product will also not trigger the shipping calculator in cart and checkout.

Making a product Downloadable

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When adding a simple product, you can select the Downloadable checkbox box in the product type panel. This adds additional fields in the General section of the Product data panel:

• Downloadable Files – Add file(s) for customers to download.
• Download Limit – Set how many times a customer can download the file(s). Leave blank for unlimited.
• Download Expiry – Set the number of days before a download expires after purchase.

For maximum flexibility, unless also marked as virtual, downloadable products have fields for shipping information, and incur shipping calculations at checkout. This allows you to offer physical products that include a download. For example, to digitally deliver the user manual for a smart device instead of including a printed one in the box. 

You can check the Virtual box if the downloadable product is not shippable. 

Adding a Simple Downloadable Product

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To get started:

1. Go to: WooCommerce > Products > Add Product to add a new Simple product.
2. Tick the Downloadable checkbox:
3. After ticking this box, other options appear:
   • Downloadable Files – Add file(s) for customers to download.
   • Download Limit – Set how many times a customer can download the file(s). Leave blank for unlimited.
   • Download Expiry – Set the number of days before a download expires after purchase.
4. Select the Add file button, and then name the file. Enter the downloadable URL if it’s hosted elsewhere, or select the Choose file button to either insert an existing file from your Media Library or to Upload a new file. Upload the file and click Insert to set up each downloadable file URL.
5. Enter “Download limit” (optional). Once a user hits this limit, they can no longer download the file.
6. Enter “Download expiry” (optional). If you define a number of days, download links expire after that.
7. Once you’ve completed this edit to the product, press Publish or Update as usual.

Downloadable Variable Products

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Making a variable product downloadable is very similar to making a simple product downloadable. For details on the process, check our Variable product documentation

Duplicating a product

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To save time, it’s possible to duplicate existing products. This way you can use an existing product as a template or a base to create similar products with variations and other qualities.

1. Go to WooCommerce > Products and look through the list for a product you wish to replicate.
2. Hover your mouse over the product’s line in the product table. You’ll see several options appear.
3. From the list of options, click “Duplicate”.

Deleting a product

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To delete a product:

1. Go to: WooCommerce > Products.
2. Find the product you wish to delete.
3. Hover in the area under the Product name and click “Trash”.

After moving a product to the trash, from the trash it can be restored or permanently deleted:

1. Go to the product table at WooCommerce > Products.
2. Click the “Trash” subheading at the top of the table to see all trashed products.
3. From here you can:
   • Restore trashed products individually or several at a time using the bulk actions dropdown.
   • Permanently Delete trashed products individually or several at a time using the bulk actions dropdown, or;
   • Empty Trash using the “Empty Trash” button, to permanently delete all trashed products.

Mark a product as Featured

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

Filter or sort products

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In addition to the options below, WooCommerce Customizer gives you the ability to customize your Product Catalog. Go to WooCommerce Customizer – Product Catalog.

Filtering products

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Use the Filter function to get a product count, view products by type, or see which products are On Backorder or Out of Stock.

1. Go to: WooCommerce > Products.
2. Select a Category, Product Type and/or Stock Status, or any combination of the three.
3. Click Filter.

Filter by category

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Use the category filter function to filter products by category. Note: When the site has fewer than 100 categories, the category filter field will appear as a dropdown. When the number of categories reaches 100, an input search will be used instead of a dropdown.And unlike dropdown, input search will not show all categories, only categories that are tied to some product.

Sorting products

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Sorting is different than Filtering, in that you can drag and drop products to re-order them.

1. Go to: WooCommerce > Products.
2. Select Sorting.
3. Select a Category, Product Type and/or Stock Status, or any combination of the three.
4. Click Filter.

You can now drag and drop products in an order to your liking.

Product ID

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A WooCommerce Product ID is sometimes needed when using shortcodes, widgets, and links.To find the ID, go to Products and hover over the product you need the ID for. The product ID number is displayed.

Is it possible to edit several products at the same time?

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Yes. Refer to Bulk Editing Products.

Questions and Support

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Do you still have questions and need assistance? 

• If you’re looking to extend the core functionality shown here, we recommend reviewing available extensions in the Woo Marketplace.
• Need ongoing advanced support, or a customization built for WooCommerce? Hire a WooExpert agency.
• Are you a developer building your own WooCommerce integration or extension? Check our Developer Resources.

If you weren’t able to find the information you need, please use the feedback thumbs below to let us know! 🙏