Can attribute-based pricing increase your WooCommerce profits?
Pricing products by attribute is a great way to cover additional operating costs and increase profits in your WooCommerce store. But what is the quickest and most efficient way to set attribute-based pricing?
If you're looking for a quick and easy way to set up attribute prices in WooCommerce, this tutorial has your back. Here, I'll:
- Discuss the limitations of WooCommerce's default system for adding and updating attribute prices.
- Introduce you to 2 simple methods to set attribute pricing in WooCommerce.
- Walk you through step-by-step instructions for each method.
- Demonstrate how to display WooCommerce product attributes and variations in a more user-friendly way.
The best part? The entire process takes less than ten minutes from beginning to end. It's easy to follow along even if you're a complete WooCommerce beginner.
Plugin used in this guide
- WooCommerce Bulk Variations lets you set product attribute prices in bulk, instead of having to edit the price of each variation manually. It can also display attributes and variations in a quick order form on the product page, replacing the usual dropdowns.
- WooCommerce Product Options provides an alternative way to set pricing based on the options that the customer chooses. Instead of creating actual attributes, you set up product options directly in the plugin. This lets you configure a wide range of pricing types for your product options, and display them in user-friendly styles on the front end such as checkboxes, drodowns, or even clickable images and color swatches.
Let's jump right in.
Why automate WooCommerce attribute pricing updates?
"WooCommerce attribute pricing allows you to tap into the diverse preferences of your customers by offering tailored pricing options based on specific product features. It’s a powerful way to increase profits by personalizing the shopping experience, maximizing perceived value, and driving higher conversions."
Jessica MalnikContent Strategist
WooCommerce’s default process for adding and updating prices for each product attribute is as follows:
You set up attributes globally or directly within the individual product page. Once attributes are created, you can assign them to variable products. You need to generate combinations of attributes to create product variations and then manually update each attribute's price, stock quantity, and weight.
WooCommerce's built-in system forces you to create individual records for every possible combination of options. So, a single product with five attributes available in three options will require that you manage 243 separate variations per product 😓
Plus, with WooCommerce's built-in variation system, if there's a change in the cost of product materials and prices need to change across attributes, then you must update each variation manually!
Limitations
This approach might work for stores with a few products or a handful of variation options. But, for others, it can be quite limiting. Here's why:
- Adding and updating prices individually is time-consuming, especially for stores whose products have many attributes and variants.
- Manually entering prices one by one increases the risk of making errors. This can negatively impact sales (if you set prices too high), profits (if you set prices too low), and customer satisfaction (if customers feel like they are being charged unfairly for their desired product configurations or if you cancel their order after discovering the pricing error later).
Clearly, this is not ideal. Using a dedicated WooCommerce attribute pricing plugin allows you to automate the drudgery of the process so you can get back to other activities that can boost sales in your online store. And in the next section, I'll introduce you to the best plugin for this task.
Which WooCommerce attribute pricing plugin should I use?
There's a choice of 2 excellent plugins for quickly setting attribute-based pricing in WooCommerce. Read through the following questions, and then skip to the plugin that best meets your needs.
Plugin 1: WooCommerce Bulk Variations
Do you want to:
- Bulk update prices across all variations of a particular product that share a specific attribute?
- (Optional) Display attributes and variations in a quick grid-based order form on your product pages, replacing the default variation dropdowns?
If so, then you need WooCommerce Bulk Variations. To learn how to use it to set attribute prices, skip to the instructions.

Plugin 2: WooCommerce Product Options
Alternatively, would you prefer to:
- Automatically add $X to the product's base price when customers select specific attributes?
- Apply percentage-based price increases when the customer selects certain options?
- (Optional) Display product options in a wide range of styles such as checkboxes, radio buttons, image buttons, and color swatches?
If so, then you need WooCommerce Product Options. Instead of using actual product attributes, it lets you create product options using its own interface. This adds much more flexibility, as well as being easier to use than variations. To learn how to use it to set attribute prices, skip to the instructions.

Plugin 1 setup guide: WooCommerce Bulk Variations

The WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin makes is quick and easy to edit product attribute prices in bulk. While its most famous feature is the bulk variations grids that it adds to your product pages in the front end, you don't even have to use these if you don't want to. What most people don't realize is that it can also save you a huge amount of time in back end attribute pricing management.
Here's how to use it to edit attribute prices. I'm assuming that you have already set up your products, attributes and variations.
- Purchase, install and activate the plugin.
- Go to the 'Edit Product' screen for one of the products that you wish to edit the attribute pricing for.
- Scroll down to the 'Product data' section and open the 'Variations' tab.
- Use the 'Filters' dropdown shown in the above screenshot to select the attribute that you wish to edit the prices for. For example, select Blue in order to edit the prices for all variants with a blue attribute.
- Next, use the 'Add variation' dropdown above the filters to choose one of the pricing options. You can set a fixed price for all the selected attributes, increase/decrease prices by a fixed or percentage amount, or set sale prices.
And that's it! In a few clicks, you have set the WooCommerce attribute prices for multiple variations at once 🚀
Plugin 2 setup guide: WooCommerce Product Options

WooCommerce Product Options is a powerful plugin that takes a very different approach to setting attribute prices. Instead of using actual product attributes (although it can do that too), you don't use product attributes at all! Instead, you recreate your product attributes using the plugin's simple interface. This provides a much faster way to create product options, and offers more flexibility with pricing. Plus, it includes a ton of additional useful features that improve admins' user experience on the backend while boosting sales and shoppers' user experience on the front end.
Let's explore its top features.
Intuitive interface to add product attributes and variations
WooCommerce Product Options replaces WooCommerce's default, clunky, and somewhat cumbersome interface for adding attributes with a more intuitive, user-friendly admin interface:

Instead of creating individual records for every possible combination of options, you can simply create option groups, assign products to them, and then add and configure the desired options.
Similarly, changing attribute prices is straightforward. And you can modify the details of the attributes themselves or remove them with ease.
Diverse field types to showcase product variations on the front end
There are multiple options to present product variations as options to customers on the front end of your website: radio buttons, checkboxes, image swatches, date pickers, file upload fields, and much more.

This is unlike WooCommerce's default system which only allows you to present variations using basic dropdown lists.
Various pricing options
The steps to update attribute prices are much more straightforward than WooCommerce's default system. Not to mention, there are 8 different pricing options for product attributes, namely: flat fee, quantity-based fee, percentage increase, percentage decrease, character count, file count, customer-defined price, and custom pricing rules.
Conditional logic
Conditional logic allows you to show or hide product options shown to each customer based on what they select. This prevents customers from seeing irrelevant options (which can confuse them) and keeps the product page clutter-free and conversion-focused.

For example:
- If a customer selects “Gift Wrap”, you can show additional options for wrapping types with their associated costs.
- If a customer chooses “Leather”, you can display color options specific to leather, and hide irrelevant choices for other materials.
Upsells and cross-sells
This WooCommerce attribute pricing plugin makes it easy to present premium add-ons as extra product options. Also, you can showcase relevant, complementary products as optional upsells and cross-sells on product detail pages in a way that doesn't disrupt the buying process.

For instance, a store that sells electronics can promote accessories like phone cases, earphones, memory cards, and charging kits as add-ons directly from the product page of a smartphone.
These features go a long way toward increasing your store's average order value and overall customer satisfaction rates.
Bonus: WooCommerce Product Options is capable of far more than simplifying the process of updating attribute pricing. For example, you can use it to add extra fees, set up dynamic pricing, create custom price calculators, enable live product previews, and more. Click here to learn more about this plugin.
Attribute pricing setup instructions
For this tutorial, we'll use the example of an online restaurant ordering website. We'll update attribute prices for their "Design-Your-Own Pizza" product that lets customers choose their desired crust, toppings, and dip to customize their pizzas.
The same process applies regardless of the product and attribute prices you wish to update. (A quick note: Some steps will vary slightly, depending on the product option and price type you choose. Don't worry, the knowledgebase documentation includes complete step-by-step instructions for all options).
Follow this step-by-step guide to update WooCommerce attribute prices.
Step 1: Create a new group of product attribute options
- Get WooCommerce Product Options.
- Access your website's admin panel, then install and activate it on your site.
- Go to Products → Product Options, and press "Add New" to create a new set of options for product attributes.
- Name this group. Keeping things simple, I named it "Pizza".
- In the "Inclusions" tab, decide which products this set of attributes and options should apply to: all products, specific products, or specific categories. You can then outline certain products or categories that you want to exclude in the "Exclusions" tab.
Step 2: Add product attributes and update their prices
- Press "Add option" to create a new set of attribute options. Name it, for example, "Crust style".
- Configure the field settings:
- Type: Choose the appropriate field type. Here, I'm choosing radio buttons for the crust style, checkboxes for the toppings, and dropdown menus for the dips.
- Choices: Click on the "+" button to add attributes. Here, I've added Italian, Deep pan, and Stuffed crust.
- Price Type: Specify how you want to charge for each option: no cost, flat fee, quantity-based, percentage increase, or percentage decrease. I chose "Flat fee".
- Pricing: Enter the appropriate attribute price in the "Pricing" field.
- Type: Choose the appropriate field type. Here, I'm choosing radio buttons for the crust style, checkboxes for the toppings, and dropdown menus for the dips.
- Description: Optionally, you can add a description that's displayed under each option.
- Tick the "Required" option if you'd like to make it mandatory.
- Optional: Expand the "Advanced settings" collapsible tray and configure conditional logic. Here are some examples of how to use conditional logic for various use cases:
- Furniture stores can display the option to add an "Oversized Packaging Protection" (+$15) handling fee to bulky products to ensure safe delivery.
- Custom shoe stores can show the "Leather Cleaning and Conditioning Kit" (+$20) add-on for customers who select "Leather" as a material option.
- Stores that sell electronic items can offer a "Professional Installation Service" (+$100) add-on for customers who select "Wall-Mounted" for a TV unit.
Here's the final version of the product detail page on the front end showing all the product attributes and their respective prices.

Setting up advanced WooCommerce attribute pricing rules
Another area where WooCommerce Product Options shines is that it provides you with eight different options to adjust attribute prices. You can combine them however you like to calculate product prices.
For example, if you sell clothes, you can charge for each attribute of a customizable t-shirt that starts with a base price of $15 as follows:
- Flat fee: Add a fixed +$3 fee for sizes XL+ and above.
- Percentage increase: Charge 10% more for premium materials.
- Character-based: Add a $0.30 fee per engraved letter.
All the calculations happen under the hood as soon as customers select each product option, and are then factored into the total product price.
For more advanced attribute pricing options, use the powerful price formula feature. It lets you create custom formulas to calculate product prices based on attributes and additional variables you define. For example, if you sell made-to-order curtains, you can set up formulas that take attributes like dimensions, material choices, and finishing options into account and automate attribute-based pricing calculations.
How to use attribute-based upsells and add-ons to maximize profits in WooCommerce
Upselling a customer means offering additional value at a slightly higher price. Here are some ideas to use WooCommerce Product Options to tie upsell opportunities to attributes shoppers select to give them clear reasons to "upgrade" their orders. You can offer add-ons in the form of:
- Exclusive color variants. Think: Premium or limited-edition colors, such as metallic finishes, gradient designs, or custom patterns.
- Enhanced features or tech upgrades. Think: Upgrading to a smart lock vs. a standard lock.
- A product maintenance or care package. Think: Cleaning tools, protective sprays, or refills for consumable components.
- Custom luxury packaging options. Think: Branded gift boxes, reusable bags, or eco-friendly packing materials.
- Personalized product consultations. Think: virtual or physical product setup assistance.
Supercharge profits with WooCommerce attribute pricing
As a store owner, you know firsthand that managing attribute pricing with WooCommerce's default setup alone is a lot of work. It takes an excruciating amount of time and leaves quite a lot of room for error.
We've looked at 2 ways to make it much easier to set WooCommerce attribute pricing:
- WooCommerce Bulk Variations lets you bulk-set prices for the selected attribute.
- WooCommerce Product Options provides an improved alternative to attributes, with much easier and more flexible pricing options.
Get whichever plugin you like the look of, and start managing your attribute prices today! They both come with a full 30-day money back guarantee so you can try them on your site risk-free 😀