As well as displaying variations, WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin makes it quicker and easier for store owners to manage variations in the WordPress admin.

Normally in WooCommerce, the only options are to edit each variation individually or apply the same changes to all of a product's variations at once. WooCommerce Bulk Variations adds a middle option, where you can select specific variations and edit them together without affecting your other variations. It also adds an option to add variation images in bulk.

This article explains how to use the variation management features in WooCommerce Bulk Variations.

How to select variations and edit them in bulk

1. Go to the 'Edit Product' screen for the variable product for which you want to edit the variations.
2. Scroll down to the 'Product Data' section and open the 'Variations' tab.
3. You will see a grey 'Filters' bar above the list of variations. Use this to select which variations you want to edit:
   • Use the main Filters bar to select attributes.
   • Use the 'Advanced' button to select variations based on other data, such as price or stock. This opens some additional options below. Click 'Add new filtering value' and choose the logic for each piece of data that you wish filter by. You can add as many criteria as you like. Once you have finished, use the 'Update' button to apply the filters.
4. Once you have filtered the list so that only the variations you wish to edit are visible, use the bulk actions dropdown (which is titled 'Add variation') to edit all the selected variations. Make sure the 'Bulk actions affect the filtered variations only' box is ticked.

Use the 'Reset' button to remove a filter so that you can view all variations again.

Note: The ‘Bulk actions affect the filtered variations only’ checkbox doesn’t affect the first two options in the dropdown, which are 'Add variation' and 'Create variations from all attributes'. That is because by definition, these options an only affect one variation at a time.

What data can I filter the variations by?

You can filter the list of variations using any of the data that WooCommerce stores about each variation. This is:

• Attribute - Filter by any of the attributes which are used for variations.
• Regular price  or Sale price - View variations with a specific price value or range. Use any of the following logical expressions:
  • = - Price is equal to
  • != - Price is not equal to
  • > - Price is greater than but not equal to
  • >= - Price is greater than or equal to
  • < - Price is less than but not equal to
  • <= - Price is less than or equal to
  • is between - Price is between the two values entered
  • is not between - Price is not between the two values entered
• Enabled - Yes/No - Is the variation enabled or disabled?
• Downloadable - Yes/No - Is the 'Downloadable' checkbox ticked?
• Virtual - Yes/No - Is the 'Virtual' checkbox ticked?
• Manage stock - Yes/No - Is the 'Manage stock' checkbox ticked?
• Stock status - Select whether the variation "is one of" or "is not one of" the selected stock statuses. The stock status field allows you to select all of the stock statuses in your store. This is normally 'In stock', 'Out of stock' and 'On backorder'. If you are using additional stock status plugins such as WooCommerce Discontinued Products then the extra stock statuses will appear too.
• Stock - Edit variations based on the number of items in stock. Use the same logical expressions as 'Regular price' and 'Sale price', which are documented above.
• Low stock threshold - Select variations based on the quantity remaining in stock which triggers an email to the administrator. Use the same logical expressions as 'Regular price' and 'Sale price', which are documented above.
• Sale schedule - Select the conditions and date for any scheduled sales that you have added for the variations.
• SKU - To filter variations by SKU, enter a partial or complete SKU and select one of the following criteria:
  • contains - filter variations whose SKU contains a certain value. For example, entering '123' will find variations whose SKU's could be 'A123r', '123456', and so on.
  • doesn't contain - view variations whose SKU does NOT contain a certain value. For example, entering '123' will exclude variations which do have 123 in their SKU and display all other variations.

Which bulk actions can I use on my variations?

You can perform the following bulk actions on your variations. If you have previously filtered the variations and ticked the 'Bulk actions affect the filtered variations only' box then only the selected variations will be affected, otherwise the change will affect all variations for the product.

• Delete all variations/Delete all filtered variations - The wording of this option changes depending on whether the action will affect all the variations or just the filtered ones. A warning will appear to confirm that you really want to delete the variations, as there is no going back!
• Status:
  • Toggle "Enabled" - Either ticks or unticks the 'Enabled' checkbox for each variation, depending on whether or not it was previously ticked.
  • Toggle "Downloadable" - Either ticks or unticks the 'Downloadable' checkbox for each variation, depending on whether or not it was previously ticked.
  • Toggle "Virtual" - Either ticks or unticks the 'Virtual' checkbox for each variation, depending on whether or not it was previously ticked.
• Pricing: 
  • Set regular prices - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter a new main price for each variation.
  • Increase regular prices (fixed amount or percentage) - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter a fixed amount or a percentage (e.g. '50' for $50, or '50%' to indicate a percentage) which all variation prices will be increased by.
  • Decrease regular prices (fixed amount or percentage) - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter a fixed amount or a percentage (e.g. '50' for $50, or '50%' to indicate a percentage) which all variation prices will be decreased by.
  • Set sale prices - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter a sale price for each variation.
  • Increase sale prices (fixed amount or percentage) - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter a fixed amount or a percentage (e.g. '50' for $50, or '50%' to indicate a percentage) which all variation sale prices will be increased by.
  • Decrease sale prices (fixed amount or percentage) - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter a fixed amount or a percentage (e.g. '50' for $50, or '50%' to indicate a percentage) which all variation sale prices will be decreased by.
  • Set scheduled sale dates - When you click 'Go', a window will appear:
    1. In the first window, enter the date when the sale will start in the format YYYY-MM-DD (e.g. '2022-03-18'). If you leave this blank then the variations will go on sale immediately.
    2. A second window will then appear, where you should enter the date when the sale will end. If you leave this field blank then the sale will continue running indefinitely.
  • Inventory:
    • Toggle "Manage stock" - Either ticks or unticks the 'Managed stock' checkbox for each variation, depending on whether or not it was previously ticked.
    • Stock - Enter the stock quantity for the variations. This will only be used for variations where 'Manage stock' is enabled.
    • Set Status - In stock - Change all of the variations to 'In stock'. This will only be used for variations that do NOT have 'Manage stock' enabled.
    • Set Status - Out of stock - Change all of the variations to 'Out of stock'. This will only be used for variations that do NOT have 'Manage stock' enabled.
    • Set Status - On backorder - Change all of the variations to 'On backorder'. This will only be used for variations that do NOT have 'Manage stock' enabled.
    • Set Status - Discontinued - Change all of the variations to 'Discontinued'. This option only appears if the WooCommerce Discontinued Products plugin is installed.
    • Low stock threshold - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter the stock quantity (e.g. 5) that should trigged the low stock email to the administrator.
  • Shipping:
    • Length - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter the length of the variation.
    • Width - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter the width of the variation.
    • Height - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter the height of the variation.
    • Weight - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter the weight of the variation.
  • Downloadable products: 
    • Download limit - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter the number of times that each customer can download their purchase.
    • Download expiry - When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Enter the number of days before the customer's download link will expire.
  • Thumbnails:
    • Set thumbnail - Assign the same variation image to all the selected variations. When you click 'Go', a window will appear. Select an image from the Media Library or upload a new one, and it will be used for all the variations.
    • Remove thumbnail - Remove the image from the selected variations. As a result, these variations will use the main product image instead.

How to add images to the selected variations only

The bulk options dropdown in WooCommerce doesn't include an option to set variation images in bulk. When WooCommerce Bulk Variations is installed, you will see a new 'Thumbnails' section in the dropdown.

Follow the instructions above to select which variations you wish to bulk-add images for, and then select the 'Set thumbnails' option from the dropdown. This will add an image to all the selected variations.

Related Articles

• 1. Installing WooCommerce Bulk Variations
• 2. Bulk Variations settings page
• 3. Creating variation grids