How to create WooCommerce Bulk Variations Forms (3 easy ways)

One of the most effective ways to boost sales on your e-commerce store is by making it easy for customers to browse products, select a variation, and add it to the cart. For this, you need a WooCommerce bulk variations form. This acts as a quick order form, allowing people to buy variations more easily.

A WooCommerce bulk variations form allows customers to choose quantities and add multiple variations to their shopping cart at once. This way, they don't have to spend time adding each WooCommerce variation one at a time or searching for the precise combination they want: every option is easily visible at a glance. For this reason, using a WooCommerce bulk variations plugin is a better way to sell variation products.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create three different types of bulk variations forms for your WooCommerce store without any complicated messing around with PHP code. You'll learn how to list WooCommerce product variations in either a variations grid or table layout, depending on your requirements.

The benefits of using WooCommerce bulk variations forms

Some online stores sell multiple variations of the same product. For example, clothing stores generally sell items in more than one size. Color and material are two other common variations. You might even consider offering e-books, albums, games, or movies as variations on a generic product.

By default, WooCommerce forces you to select each variation individually. This takes ages for customers wanting to buy variations in bulk!

For example, imagine you wanted to buy lots of different sizes and colors of a t-shirt. Would you rather add each variation individually by using the size and color dropdowns and clicking the 'Add to cart' button lots of times? Or would you rather enter the required quantity for each variation from a bulk variations form and click the 'Add to cart' button once?

As you can see, the default variation dropdowns provided by WooCommerce can make the process long and complicated for customers buying lots of variations.

Displaying product variations in a WooCommerce bulk variations form offers many benefits to both you and your customers. As well as being able to buy variations in bulk more quickly, they can see all the variations at once and bulk edit their orders.

This way, customers can still see all the available variations in the order form and quickly add the ones they want to their cart in bulk from a single page.

3 ways to list WooCommerce product variations

We'll explain three different ways to list WooCommerce product variations so that customers can select quantities and buy them quickly and easily:

1. Variations grid Lets customers quickly select multiple variations of a single product and add them to cart at once.
2. List variations in a table List product variations for one or more products on separate rows in an order form layout. This is great for SEO.
3. List variable products in a table with dropdowns List product variations in dropdowns in a table layout, with a different product on each row.

Jump straight to whichever method you'd like to implement, or keep reading to learn more about each one.

Types of bulk variations forms

Creating a user-friendly WooCommerce bulk variations form allows customers to view and select the product variations they’d like to purchase. This is essential for online stores that sell variable products.

Here are a few different types of bulk variations forms that you might consider creating for your WooCommerce store:

#1: Variations grid

You need a variations grid if you want to enable customers to quickly enter quantities for multiple variations of a single item and add them to cart all at once. This is a must-have if you sell variable products to wholesale buyers, such as t-shirts. It's also useful if you sell by weight, with each weight option as a variation.

For this, you will need the WooCommerce plugin and the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin. It lets you list the variations for a specific product in a matrix-style grid layout. Each variation has a quantity box and price. It works for variable products with either 1 or 2 product attribute terms, which are used for variations.

In this way, the WordPress plugin works as a WooCommerce bulk variations manager. Customers can simply:

1. Enter the quantity they’d like to purchase of each variation.
2. Click a single Add to Cart button to add the selected WooCommerce product variations (in the correct quantities) to their shopping cart.
3. Proceed to the checkout page.

Here's how you can set up a bulk variations grid in WooCommerce.

A WooCommerce bulk variations form created in a matrix-style layout simplifies the purchasing user flow and can help you boost sales. It also lets you bulk add variations to your WooCommerce store. Setting up WooCommerce bulk variations forms is the easiest way to implement differential pricing.

#2: List variations in a table

Another way to list WooCommerce product variations on the front-end is by listing them in a table layout with each variation on a separate row. The easiest way to create this sort of layout is by using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.

Whereas the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin is designed to list the variations for one product in each order form, this is the best option for you if you’re looking for a way to create an order form containing variations for multiple variable products. Customers can browse through all the product or variation images, filter products according to their needs, and then simply tick the checkbox next to the product variation they’d like to purchase, set the quantity, and add it to their shopping cart.

Another key benefit of using this approach is that it gives you the flexibility to display extra information about each product variation (such as the SKU and variation description). With WooCommerce Product Table, you can choose which columns to include in the table.

Here's how you can list product variations in a table layout.

#3: List variable products in a table with dropdowns

If you sell both variable products and simple products, you might consider listing them in a table layout with dropdowns. This is also ideal if you want the compatibility to sell the variations for multiple products in the same table - this time, each product takes up one row in the table regardless of the number of variations or extra product add-ons.

You can do this using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin. It's an easy way to list more than one variable product in the same order form with a single row per variable product.

This method also makes it easy for customers to identify variable product types as they’re the only ones with dropdowns next to them. Customers can browse the products, use the dropdown to select the variation they’d like to purchase, set the quantity, and add the variation to their shopping cart. When you add new products to your WooCommerce store, update products, or update prices, they will automatically appear in the product table.

Here's how you can list product variations in a table layout with dropdowns.

Option 1 instructions - How to create a WooCommerce bulk variations grid

Creating a WooCommerce bulk variations grid makes it quick and easy for customers to:

• See the different variations available for a variable product.
• View the regular price of the variation.
• Enter the quantity they’d like to purchase of each variation.
• Add multiple variations to the cart at once.

To get started, get the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin. Once you have it installed and activated on your WordPress website, head over to the variable product you’d like to enable bulk purchasing for. Or, to do it globally for all your variable products, enable it on the plugin settings page.

Scroll down to the Product data section on the Edit Product screen and click on the Bulk Variations tab. Tick the checkbox next to the Enable bulk variations grid option, as shown in the screenshot below.

Next, select the variation attributes you’d like to display in the Columns and Rows of the price matrix using the dropdowns.

Finally, tick the checkbox next to the Display variation images option if you’d like to have product variation images appear in the matrix layout.

That’s it! When you preview the single product page on the front-end, it should look something like this:

Option 2 & 3 instructions - How to list variations in a table layout

Using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin, you can list variable products in two different ways in a front-end table layout with search, sort, and filter options. You can either list each variation on a separate row or list variable products in the table with dropdowns.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WooCommerce Product Table plugin to your WordPress website. Once that’s done, Products → Product Tables to create a table.

Use the Columns page to select the columns you’d like to include in the table layout.

Scroll down till you reach the Variations option and select the:

• Separate rows in table (one per variation) option using the dropdown if you want to list each variation on a separate row.
• Show as dropdown lists using the dropdown to display a dropdown menu for variable products.

Finally, add a 'Product Table' block to a page and select the table you just created. Alternatively, add the shortcode from the final page of the table builder.

For details, be sure to check out this in-depth tutorial on how to create a WooCommerce product variations table using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.

Create your bulk variations form today

A WooCommerce bulk variations manager makes it easy for online store owners to display WooCommerce variable products on the front-end in an intuitive way. It also makes it easy for customers to:

• View product prices and details of variations.
• Enter the quantity they'd like to purchase.
• Quickly add variations to their shopping cart.

This is a simple way to encourage customers to buy more, increase your average order value, and boost sales. And with no coding required, you don't have to mess around with PHP files - the plugin will create the table automatically for you.

Need to list WooCommerce product variations in an intuitive way? Get the WooCommerce Bulk Variations or WooCommerce Product Table plugin today!