Adding Products
Product Types
With attributes and categories set up and stock management configured, we can begin adding products. When adding a product, the first thing to decide is what type of product it is.
Simple – covers the vast majority of any products you may sell. Simple products are shipped and have no options. For example, a book.
Grouped – a collection of related products that can be purchased individually and only consist of simple products. For example, a set of six drinking glasses.
Virtual – one that doesn’t require shipping. For example, a service. 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.
Downloadable – activates additional fields where you can provide a downloadable file. After a successful purchase, customers are given a downloadable file as a link in the order notification email. This is suitable, for example, for a digital album, PDF magazine, or photo.
External or Affiliate – one that you list and describe on your website but is sold elsewhere.
Variable – a product with variations, each of which may have a different SKU, price, stock option, etc. For example, a t-shirt available in different colors and/or sizes.
Other types are often added by extensions.
Adding a Simple product
Let’s start with adding the first product to your online store.
You need to visit Products » Add New page to add a new product.
First, provide a title for your product and then some detailed description.
On the right hand column, you will see the ‘Product Categories’ box. Click on the ‘+Add New Product Category’ to create a category for this product. This allows you and your customers to sort and browse products easily.
Scroll down a little and you will notice the Product Data box. This is where you will provide product related information like pricing, inventory, shipping etc.
Below product data box, you will see a box to add product short description. These product descriptions will be used when users are viewing multiple products on a page.
Lastly, on your right hand column you will see boxes to add a main product image and a product gallery.
Once you are satisfied with all the product information you have added, you can click on the Publish button to make it live on your website.
Repeat the process to add more products as needed.
Enable Stock Management
Must be selected in Products Inventory Settings; otherwise, only the ‘Stock status’ option is visible in the Product Data Inventory box.
Options when stock management at product level is disabled. You are responsible for updating the Stock Status.
Options when stock management at product level is enabled.
Enter the Stock Quantity, and WooCommerce auto-manages inventory and auto-updates Stock Status as Stock, Out of Stock or On Backorder.
Select whether to Allow Backorders.
Low stock threshold – Enter a number upon which you are notified.
Tick the Sold Individually box to limit the product to one per order.
Shipping section
Weight – Weight of the item.
Dimensions – Length, width and height for the item.
Shipping Class – Shipping classes are used by certain shipping methods to group similar products.
SKU
SKU, or Stock Keeping Unit number, is a unique number assigned to a product for, amongst other things, the purpose of keeping track of inventory.
The SKU field can accept up to 255 characters, which can include alphanumeric values and some special characters. The input is checked using the WordPress function santize_text_field, which means HTML, invalid UTF characters, and octets will be removed when saved (an octet is defined by % followed by 2 characters with a value in the range of a-f or 0-9).
Adding a grouped product
A grouped product is created in much the same way as a Simple product. Grouped products are like lists of other products in your shop, and as a result do not have prices or stock numbers of their own. To create one, select Grouped Product from the Product Type drop-down.
To create your parent product select ‘Grouped’ from the Product Type drop-down.
Create the Grouped product
Go to: WooCommerce > Products > Add New.
Enter a Title for the Grouped product, e.g., Back to School set
Scroll down to Product Data and select Grouped from the drop-down. 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.
Publish.
The Grouped product is still an empty group. To this Grouped product, you need to:
Create products and add them
Add existing child products
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 add Simple products to more than one Grouped product.
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 search for the product by typing
Click the products you wish to add.
Update
You can drag and drop to reorder the Grouped Products. Once you press Update, the new order will be shown on the product page.
Expand the variation.
Click the blue image placeholder (screenshot).
Select the image you wish to use.
Save.
Adding a Downloadable product
When adding a simple product, you can select the Downloadable checkbox box in the product type panel. This adds two new fields:
File path — Path or url to your downloadable file.
Download limit – Limit on number of times the customer can download file. Left blank for unlimited downloads.
For maximum flexibility, downloadable products also incur a shipping cost (if, for example, you were offering both a packaged and a downloadable version of a product, this would be ideal). You can also check the Virtual box if the downloadable product is not shippable.
Adding an external/affiliate product
Select ‘External/Affiliate’ from the product type drop-down. 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.
Deleting a product
To delete a product:
Go to: WooCommerce > Products.
Find the product you wish to delete.
Hover in the area under the Product name and click Trash.
Mark a product as Featured
To mark a product as featured, go to: Products > Products and select the Star in the featured column. Alternatively, select Quick Edit and then the Featured option.
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