Introducing version 2.4: Transform variations into product options
Have you ever wanted to display WooCommerce product variations in more interesting ways, such as checkboxes, radio buttons, color swatches, or clickable images or labels? You're in luck!
We’re excited to announce the release of version 2.4 of our WooCommerce Product Options plugin. This update introduces a game-changing new feature: the ability to display your existing WooCommerce variations as product options.
Let’s dive into what this means and why it’s a must-have for your store.
Why this update matters
Previously, WooCommerce Product Options provided an interface for creating custom options. These could then be displayed in various formats such as checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns, image buttons, color swatches, or text labels.
While powerful, these options were separate from WooCommerce’s native variations. This means that it wasn't possible to use product options with features of WooCommerce that work with variations but not product options created using a plugin, such as:
- Stock management for WooCommerce variations - Normal variations work with WooCommerce's built-in inventory and stock control system, but product options don't.
- Order management - Some order management features only work with standard WooCommerce product data such as variations. For example, if you're creating or editing manual orders via the WordPress admin.
- Shipping and fulfillment options - Assign custom shipping classes or rules to specific variations, enabling tailored delivery costs or methods.
- Detailed reporting - Sales reports in WooCommerce can break down performance by variation.
- Attribute-specific SEO - Variations enable unique URLs for each combination, improving search engine optimization for specific attributes (e.g. 'Red T-Shirt Size Medium').
Extending variations with third party plugins
Similarly, if you create options directly in the plugin then you can't use them with third party integrations that work with variations, such as:
- Dropshipping and print-on-demand plugins - If you need to send data about the variations in each order to a third party who will then fulfil the order, then they expect normal WooCommerce variations.
- Bulk management - There are lots of bulk variation management plugins like our own WooCommerce Bulk Variations or Setary. These work with variations but not standalone product options.
- Dynamic pricing and discounts - You can use variations to implement tiered pricing, volume discounts, or dynamic pricing strategies with plugins like WooCommerce Discount Manager.
- Product filtering - Plugins like WooCommerce Product Filters allow customers to filter by variation attributes, but not product options.
- Stock alerts - Allow customers to sign up for back-in-stock notifications for specific variations, boosting conversions for out-of-stock items.
- Inventory synchronization - Sync variation-level stock with external systems like ERPs, POS systems, or warehouses.
- Accounting integrations - Many WooCommerce stores sync orders with their accounting platform, such as Xero or QuickBooks. These provide bridging plugins that can handle variation data, but not product options created using other methods.
The solution - Display variations as product options
With version 2.4 of WooCommerce Product Options, we’ve bridged the gap. Now, you can take advantage of the variations you’ve already set up in WooCommerce and display them using the more visual and flexible styles provided by our plugin.
This means that you can use WooCommerce Product Options with all of the built-in features for WooCommerce product variations, PLUS all the third party integrations listed above 🚀
Displaying variations in a more visual way also brings lots of other benefits:
- A more engaging and intuitive shopping experience for your customers.
- Faster customer decision-making, as customers can quickly identify the option they want, which reduces friction during the buying process.
- Options like color swatches and image buttons create a more polished, professional appearance for your product pages, which can improve brand perception.
- Improved mobile usability, as visual options like image buttons and swatches are more user-friendly on small screens than variation dropdowns.
Practical use cases
Here are some examples of stores that can benefit from displaying variations options:
- Fashion stores - Display the 'Color' variation as color swatches to make it easier for customers to choose a color.
- Art shops - Use image buttons to showcase different designs or patterns for custom prints. This is much more user-friendly than using standard variation dropdowns, where customers have to select from a text-only dropdown to view the image of each variant.
- Electronics retailers - Present technical specifications as text labels or dropdowns for easy selection.
How it works
It's easy to use the new feature to display variations as product options. Here’s how:
- Install WooCommerce Product Options on your WordPress website.
- Go to Products → Product Options → Add New to create a new group of options.
- Next, choose the style that you want to display your product variations in. Choose either checkbox, radio button, dropdown, image button, color swatch, or text label. (There are other options such as file upload, but these aren't relevant for displaying variations.)
- For 'Choice type', select 'Create choices using existing variation attributes'. This is the new feature added in version 2.4.
- Now a field will appear underneath where you can select which attribute you wish to display. For example, select 'Color'.
- This will pre-populate the table of choices with the terms for your chosen attribute (e.g. all the color options). Depending on which style option you selected, there may be some options to customize these (e.g. to select a color for each color swatch).
- Configure any other settings as needed, such as pre-selecting certain options, or setting up conditional logic for variations in the Advanced section.
- To display multiple attributes as options, click 'Add new' to add further options as required. For example, if you're selling t-shirts with color and size variations then you might create color swatches for the 'Color' attribute first, and then text labels or radio buttons for the 'Size' attribute.
Related: How to price by attribute in WooCommerce.
What the customer sees
Once you've done this, all products that use these attributes will display the variations using the new styles. Customers can select variations using the new styles, and add them to the cart.
In the cart, the variations look and behave exactly like any other WooCommerce variable product. It will display correctly in the cart, checkout, emails, and order details. This ensures that your variations are not just visually appealing, but also fully functional within your WooCommerce store.
Get started
If you already use WooCommerce Product Options, then simply update to version 2.4 from the WordPress Dashboard. Otherwise, install the plugin today and start displaying your existing product variations in new and exciting ways!