WooCommerce: How to effectively use the additional information tab
Discover how to use the Additional Information tab on WooCommerce product pages more effectively, and how to create your own custom tabs containing extra information.
WooCommerce product pages come with several built-in tabs of information. This includes the WooCommerce additional information tab. These tabs are designed to help customers make informed purchase decisions and enhance the shopping experience.
However, the downside of using the built-in product tabs is that they are quite limited and offer very few to no customization options when it comes to adding extra content to them.
WooCommerce store owners often end up displaying product specifications and details like the weight, dimensions, and product attributes in the main product short or long description. While this might work for some products, it’s not the ideal way to display extra information for most WooCommerce products.
Keep reading to learn how far you can customize the WooCommerce Additional Information tab, and how to get even more flexibility by adding your own custom tabs containing whatever information you need!
What is the WooCommerce Additional Information tab?
The default WooCommerce Additional Information tab is primarily used to display extra details about products such as the weight, dimensions, and other custom product attributes. This way, if you sell products that require you to display additional information such as furniture or hardware goods, you can let customers make informed purchase decisions.
The default WooCommerce additional information tab also lets you display custom product attributes. For example, for a t-shirt product, you might want to mention its material as a custom attribute on the single product page. Maybe you want to add an enquiry form, display a size chart, list other products from the same collection, or your terms and conditions.
By default, WooCommerce displays the weight and sizing, and any custom attribute of the product, in the Additional Information tab. You can change this information on the 'Edit Product' page and the tab content will adjust automatically.
Click on the Shipping and Inventory tabs to add even more additional information to your products before clicking on the Update button to continue.
Additionally, when you create attributes for your products, you can check the Visible on the product page checkbox to show the information to your customers in the Additional Information tab. You can add as many product attributes as you like to each WooCommerce product.
How to hide or remove the WooCommerce Additional Information tab
While the default WooCommerce Additional Information tab is useful for many products, it’s not designed for all types of products such as downloadable products or digital goods. It's also not very flexible and you can't change how the information in it is presented. This is why some store owners might want to completely hide the Additional Information tab from single product pages to make it look less cluttered.
Other than decluttering the product page, store owners who want to display more custom information than what the default options offer will also want to hide or remove the default Additional Information tab. For instance, instead of just displaying product weight and dimensions, you might want to replace it with a custom “Sizing guide” tab on the product page.
There are two ways to hide the WooCommerce Additional Information tab. I'll tell you about them one at a time.
Method 1: Delete your product data
The only built-in way to completely hide the WooCommerce Additional Information tab is by not adding any information to the elements that appear on it such as the weight, sizing, or custom attributes.
However, this can be quite limiting because it forces you to remove additional information about a product that otherwise might be useful to your customers. However, it’s the only built-in way to remove the Additional Information tab from your single product pages in WooCommerce.
This technique isn’t convenient for store owners who want to remove the Additional Information tab, while find better ways to display data such as the product weight information or delivery fees. Instead, it's better to use a plugin to replace the WooCommerce Additional Information tab with something more flexible.
Method 2: Hide the Additional Information tab using a plugin
The Product Tabs provides a much better way to hide the WooCommerce Additional Information tab. You simply set the tab to be hidden. There's no need to delete important product information such as attributes and dimensions.
You can use the WooCommerce Product Tabs plugin to remove the Additional Information tab. In addition, you can hide the other default tabs such as the Description tab and Reviews. This is not only useful for removing clutter. It's also a great way to create unique-looking product pages with relevant product tabs and information.
- Install the Product Tabs plugin on your WordPress ecommerce site.
- Go to WooCommerce Product Tabs Pro → Settings from the WordPress dashboard.
- Use the 'Hide Additional Information' checkbox to remove this tab from product pages.
Once you've done that, the WooCommerce Additional Information tab will be hidden even if your products contain data that would normally appear here. This leaves you free to display them in other ways, for example in new custom tabs. (And I'll tell you how to create these in a minute.)
How to rename the WooCommerce Additional Information tab (& add an icon)
WooCommerce doesn’t let you rename labels or add extra content to the tabs it creates by default. However, you can use the Product Tabs plugin to customize WooCommerce tabs. This includes being able to rename the Additional Information tab and add an icon.
In fact, you can rename any or all of the default tabs and also add icons next to the name. For instance, you might want to change the default “Additional Information” tab to “More Details” or change the “Reviews” tab to “Customer Feedback”.
- Install the WooCommerce Product Tabs plugin.
- Go to WooCommerce Product Tabs Pro → Settings in the WordPress admin panel.
- Use the Description, Additional Information, and Review custom fields let you change the default name or label that appears on product pages.
- Use the 'Select Icons' section to choose an icon which appears next to the title of each tab on single product pages. Choose suitable icons that will make the Additional Information, the Product Description, and the Product Reviews tab look more visually appealing.
And this is what a renamed WooCommerce Additional Information tab with icons looks like on the product page:
How to add extra product information tabs to the WooCommerce product page
While you can’t add extra tab content to the default WooCommerce Additional Information tab, you can replace it completely with your own custom tabs. To do this, you need to use the WooCommerce Product Tabs plugin. This lets you hide the Additional Information tab and create new tab to replace it.
By creating your own custom tabs of product information, you get full flexibility over the content. This allows you to create custom-looking product pages with additional information that is relevant to your product. Customers can find the information they're looking for, make an informed purchase decision. They can then proceed to the WooCommerce checkout page to place their order.
The WooCommerce Product Tabs plugin offers the best and easiest way to add extra tabs to product pages.
Example 1
Here are some screenshots of a product page where I replaced the WooCommerce Additional Information tab with custom tabs for Ingredients, FAQ, Sustainability, Charitable Causes, and Our Story:
This gives you much more scope to add custom information than the default Additional Information tab in WooCommerce. This helps customers make informed purchase decisions. It also encourages them to continue with their purchase once you answer important questions for them directly on the product page.
Example 2
Imagine that you’re selling gym or sports equipment such as treadmills on your WooCommerce site. If so, then you will need to add extra tabs to showcase product specifications properly:
You can display the product dimensions as well as details about the product’s internal motors in a separate tab to share all information in an organized way:
The WooCommerce Product Tabs plugin also lets you create custom product tabs. For example, you might create video tabs or product inquiry form tabs. This can be useful to demonstrate how well the product works in real life. Alternatively, you can use tabs to let customers ask questions directly from product pages. You then receive notifications of their question and can provide vital pre-sales support to close the sale.
This WooCommerce tab manager plugin offers an easy way to add extra tabs and replace the default WooCommerce information tab completely. You can create custom-looking product tabs within a few minutes, even if you’re not very tech-savvy. This allows you to display custom information for your WooCommerce products before they add to cart.
Let's walk through a quick tutorial:
Step #1: Create a new product tab
- Install and activate the WooCommerce Product Tabs plugin on your WordPress site.
- Go to Products → Product Tabs.
- Click on the Add New button to create a new custom product page tab.
Now, give your custom product tab a new title or label and start adding your own content to it. For instance, adding a “Washing Guide” tab can be useful for products in the 'Clothing' category.
Step #2: Select product categories
You can select which products the custom tab appears on. There's also a global option to display it on all single product pages throughout your store.
You can also add an icon to make your custom product tab more visually appealing on the front-end.
Once you’re ready, make sure to click on the Publish button to continue.
Step #3: Organize product tabs
Additionally, you can create as many product tabs as you like and arrange them in any order. This is how to reorder product tabs, including the default tabs:
- Navigate to WooCommerce Product Tabs Pro → Settings.
- Click on the Reorder tab at the top of the page.
- Use drag and drop to choose the order that the tabs will appear on product pages.
You can drag and drop and rearrange additional product tabs as needed. Once you’re done, the changes are saved automatically. This way, you can display important product tabs at the top. Other product tabs, like the Product Inquiry tab, can be displayed at the bottom.
Take the WooCommerce Additional Information Tab to the next level 🚀
While the default WooCommerce Additional Information tab works great for displaying product weight and dimensions, it’s not very flexible.
Fortunately, the WooCommerce Product Tabs plugin makes it easy to:
- Hide the WooCommerce Additional Information tab.
- Rename all your product page tabs and add an icon.
- Create your own custom tabs containing whatever information you want.
Ready to start using the WooCommerce product additional information tab more effectively on your store? Get WooCommerce Product Tabs today!