Create an archive listing 'Sold Out' products in WooCommerce

Some e-commerce websites sell the same products to multiple customers, while others sell one-of-a-kind products that can only be bought by one customer. If you're in the second category, then what happens after a product has been purchased and is no longer available?

There are lots of products that can only be sold once. It could be anything unique, ranging from used products such as cars or designer handbags; to original handmade products such as art or jewellery.

Read this article if you sell one-off products and want to learn how to:

• Remove each product from sale once it has been bought - this prevents accidents and automates your stock control.
• Create an archive of sold out products in your WooCommerce store - this can boost your search engine position by adding extra keyword-rich content to your site, as well as your credibility by showing all the amazing products you have sold in the past.

How to prevent products from being purchased more than once

It's surprisingly easy to set up your WooCommerce store so that each product can only be bought once:

1. WooCommerce settings:
   1. Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products→ Inventory.
   2. Tick 'Enable Stock Management'.
   3. Disable the low and out of stock notification emails, as if you sell one-time-only products then you don't need to know when something goes out of stock.
   4. Do NOT enable the 'Hide out of stock items from the catalog' option.
   5. Save the page.
2. Product settings:
   1. Go to the 'Edit Product' screen for each product.
   2. Scroll down to the 'Product Data' section and open the 'Inventory' tab.
   3. Tick 'Manage Stock' and set the stock quantity to 1. Do not allow back orders.
   4. Save the product.

Once you have done this, each product can only be purchased once. The product page will show an 'Add to cart' button with no quantity picker because only one is in stock. After a customer has bought the product, the add to cart button will disappear and no one else will be able to buy it.

How to list previously sold products in WooCommerce

Most stores selling one-off products want to list the available products in their main shop, and the sold out products on a separate archive page. I'll tell you how to do both of these things next.

You'll need the WooCommerce Product Table plugin for both of these. You can use it to list products in different parts of your store, based on their stock status.

List available products

First, I'll show you how to list 'In stock' WooCommerce products.

Once you've installed WooCommerce Product Table, the table wizard will open. To open it later instead, go to Products → Product Tables → Add New.

The wizard will walk you through the process of listing in stock products:

1. On the first page, select the option to insert the product table manually to a page.
   

   

2. Use the 'Select products' page to tick the 'Stock status' checkbox and then select 'In stock'. This tells the product table to list product which are in stock and hide other stock statuses.
3. To add the table to a page, either use the 'Product Table' block or insert the shortcode fro the final page of the table builder. (You'll need to use the shortcode if you're not using the WordPress block editor.)

Create a sold out products archive in WooCommerce

The process for creating an archive of sold out products is similar to listing in stock products. However, this time we're listing products which you have previously sold but are no longer available.

To do this, simply go to Products → Product Tables → Add New. This time, tick the 'Stock status' box again on the 'Select products' page - but select the 'Out of stock' status.

You can make this as simple or as complex as you wish. For example, you could also use the 'Category' option to list sold out products by category.

Troubleshooting tip: If no products are listed, go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Inventory and make sure your store isn't set to hide out of stock products.

Choosing your table columns

The sold out products will be listed with whichever columns you choose on the 'Columns' page of the table builder. By default, this will include an add to cart column, which was perfect when you listed your In Stock products. However, that may not be appropriate now you're listing sold out products. After all, the products are no longer available - so no one can buy them 🙃

At this point, your table won't look broken because WooCommerce Product Table cleverly transforms the 'Add to Cart' button into a 'Read More' button for sold out products. The button links to the single product page, where people can see more images and learn more about the previously sold product.

If you don't want to include a 'Buy' column for your sold out products, then remove it from the list of columns.

Where to get the plugin

As you can see, WooCommerce Product Table makes it super-simple to list your previously available 'sold out' products separately from your main shop. If you sell one-of-a-kind products that are different each time, this is a great way to show customers what to expect from your store, even if they want isn't available right now.

Test the plugin risk-free today - it only takes a few minutes to set up!