Articles About Variations

If a product has variations with different prices then WooCommerce always displays the price as a range. This could be losing you sales. That's why you need the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin.

Imagine that a product has variations that are priced between $10 and $25. WooCommerce will display the price as $10.00 – $25.00 throughout your store. The problem is that this often isn’t the best way to sell your products and can put customers off, resulting in lost sales.

Keep reading to discover the easy way to take control over how variation prices are displayed in your store. You'll learn how to list all variation prices separately, replace the price range with a "From" or "To" price, or even create your custom variation price format.

What's the best way to set different prices for product variations in WooCommerce?

Out of the box, if a product has variations that have different prices then WooCommerce will always display the price as a range. There's absolutely nothing you can do to change this, short of writing custom PHP code. It doesn't matter that displaying a price range might not be the best way to attract customers - that's the only option.

Fortunately, you can easily fix this by installing the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin. This lets you replace the default variation price range with an alternate price format of your choosing.

You can choose to display the minimum variation price only, maximum variation price only, list all variation prices, or choose a custom format. Here's a list of all the different variation price formats that you can choose from:

• Price range e.g. $50 - $100.
• Starting price (long) e.g. From $50.
• Starting price (short) e.g. $50+.
• Maximum price e.g. Up to $100.
• List all variation prices at once.
• Hide the price at the top of the product page until a variation is selected.
• Create your own custom variation price display format, with whatever wording you choose. As part of this, you can also change the price range separator from a dash to anything else, such as colon or other symbol.

As you can see, this variation price plugin for WooCommerce gives online store owners complete flexibility in how to display variable prices. You can even hide the price for variable products on the front-end. It also has extras such as automatically updating the main product price when the customer selects a variation.

Further reading: How to Edit Variation Prices in Bulk

Step-by-step: How to set up variable prices in WooCommerce

In this tutorial, I'm going to show you exactly how to change how your variable product prices are displayed. The new price format will be used wherever WooCommerce normally displays the default price range. This includes on your main Shop page, category pages, related products, and on individual product pages.

1. Set up the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin

To start using WooCommerce Variation Prices straight away, watch the video at the start of this article. Alternatively, follow the step-by-step instructions below:

1. Get the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin. You’ll receive the plugin files and license key in a confirmation email. Install the plugin on your WordPress website and activate it.
2. Once that’s done, the plugin setup wizard will open automatically. Activate your license key on the first page.
3. Next, you can start changing the format for your variation prices. You can do this in the setup wizard, or do it later on the settings page at WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Variation prices.

2. Set the price display format

Use the Options dropdown to select a price format. The available options include:

• Price range
• Starting price (short)
• Starting price (long)
• Maximum price
• List all variation prices
• Hide the price until a variation is selected
• Custom

If you choose the Price range option, you'll see the Price range separator field.

Here, you can enter a character to use as the price range separator. By default, this is set to a hyphen/dash character.

And, if you choose the Custom option, you'll see a Custom format field.

You can add any text you'd like to display here. It supports %min% and %max% tags. For example, from %min% to %max% + VAT would display the price as: "from $50 to $100 + VAT".

3. Choose product types

The option lets you choose the products types you want to apply the variation price format to.

You can choose to apply it to variable products, grouped products, or both.

4. Show selected variation price

Normally, the price range at the top of the WooCommerce product page remains visible even after the customer selects a variation. That's pretty limited, so you can use the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin to change this.

When the Show selected variation price option is enabled, it changes the product price to show the cost of the selected variation. This is much more user-friendly than always showing the low and high prices.

5. Bonus: Change the variation price format in the WordPress admin

So far, we've only looked at how to change the variation price format in the front end of your e-commerce store. You can also choose to show the modified variation price formats in the WordPress admin dashboard. This option is enabled by default, but you can disable it if you prefer.

When is it a good idea to change the variation price format?

To help you decide whether you need the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin, let’s take a look at some use case scenarios. These are examples of products that can benefit from displaying variation prices in a different type of price format:

Show the lowest variation price instead of the range

Online courses and other subscription products that have plenty of add-on option fields might want to show the lowest price (the base cost) only on the front-end. This is especially useful for anyone that has add-ons that significantly increase the cost of the base product.

For example, if the online course costs $99 and you give customers several add-ons such as:

• A one-on-one session for $39 per month.
• Access to the Discord community for $9.99 per month.

Then you wouldn’t want to display the online course’s price in a range like $99 – $147.99. That’s a huge difference. Potential learners might be put off by the highest price thinking they can’t afford the online course.

Using a WooCommerce variation prices plugin, you can instead use wording like ‘Starting at $99’ or ‘Starts from $99’.

Show the highest variation price instead of the range

Restaurants might want to display the highest price instead of the range for each item. This is particularly useful for pizzerias that sell single slices, half pies, and full pies as options. This way, the customer won’t be led to believe that a full pizza pie costs $5 when that’s the price of a single slice.

In this sort of scenario, you’d be better of displaying the prices using a separator like ‘$5 / $11.99 / $23’ to display the prices of single slices, half pies, and full pies.

Sell variations by weight

Stores that sell products by weight might want to list all variation prices or choose a custom format depending on the product. For example, meat shops that sell meat in pre-packaged variations might want to display the cost of each variation.

You can list prices on the front-end:

• 500 grams - $5.40
• 1 kilogram - $10.20
• 1.5 kilogram - $15.99
• 2.0 kilograms - $20.00

You can list the prices of all variations on the single product page.

This is particularly useful if you want to sell product variations at different prices or offer a discount on specific variations.

Display the maximum price

Some stores might want to display the maximum price because the lowest variation price might be the price of a sample rather than the actual, full-size product. In this scenario, only the highest price matters.

For example, bakeries that sell cookies by the dozen might want to display the price of a full dozen instead of a price range that shows the price of one cookie and a dozen cookies. You could show the price as ‘Up to $25’ indicating that lower price options are also available.

Hide the WooCommerce variation price display

Other store owners want to hide or remove the WooCommerce variation price display from the product page. For example, maybe you want to hide the variation price range when customers first visit the product page. The price of the selected variation then appears when they choose a variation.

WooCommerce variable price FAQs

What's a WooCommerce variable product?

So far in this article, I've assumed you already know what is a product variation. Sorry about that!

In case you don't already know, WooCommerce comes with a choice of product types. One of these is called 'Variable product'. It allows you to create two or more options for customers to choose from.

WooCommerce product variations are useful for any type of product that is sold with a defined list of choices. For example, a t-shirt might be sold in a range of sizes and colors - so you would create a variation for each combination.

Further reading: Complete guide to WooCommerce product variations.

What’s wrong with the way WooCommerce normally displays variation prices?

As I mentioned earlier, WooCommerce displays product variation prices in a range that lists the lowest and the highest price. Here’s what’s wrong with this:

Showing the highest possible price

The problem with showing a range that includes the highest possible price is that it can be bad for buyer psychology. This is because you’re drawing attention to the highest possible price.

As a result, it can lose you sales and reduce your conversion rate – a disaster for any store owner!

Think of it this way: if the top of the range is above budget, the customer is likely to leave your store. Unless they select a variation with a lower price, they’ll never know which options are within their budget.

The solution is to use the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin to change the variation price format into something more buyer-friendly.

Select a variation to see the actual price

WooCommerce requires customers to select a variation to see the actual price. If you sell products that have lots of variations, customers might be clicking around for a long time to find one with a price they’re happy with.

The solution is to use WooCommerce Variation Prices to list all variation prices at once.

Not suitable for all types of products

The default way WooCommerce displays variable product prices may simply not fit with the nature of the products you sell. For example, the lowest or highest price may be the norm and you only want to display this. Or, you might sell products by weight and need to add a ‘per KG’ price or something similar.

In this case, you’re better off using the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin to create a custom price format that meets your exact requirements.

How many variations are allowed in WooCommerce?

WooCommerce works with unlimited numbers of variations. Once you get above a certain number of variations, they are loaded using AJAX to ensure fast load times regardless of the number.

However, I find that variations can be a pain to work with if you have a lot per product. That's because to create variations, you need to add your product attributes first (e.g. size and color). Next, you create a separate variation for every possible combination of attributes, and add a price, image, stock level etc. for each one. The number of variations quickly multiplies up exponentially if you have lots of attributes and variations.

In some cases, it's easier to use the WooCommerce Product Options option instead of variations. This provides an alternative way of adding options to products, and is much simpler than working with variations. It's also more flexible because instead of just displaying the options as dropdowns, you can choose from a wide range of styles such as checkboxes, file upload fields and clickable image buttons.

How to set different prices for product variations in WooCommerce?

When you create a variation for a WooCommerce product, it will have its own price field. Use this to add a different price for each product variation.

If you have lots of variations, then consider using the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin to bulk-select variations and set the price in bulk. For example, you can select all products with a 'Large' size attribute and set the price for all the large variations at once.

Next steps: Take your WooCommerce variation pricing to the next level

WooCommerce Variation Prices is perfect for store owners that don’t want to display variable product prices in the default range. It lets you choose from different options including displaying the minimum (or maximum) price only, listing all variation prices, and choosing a custom format.

Like all Barn2 plugins, WooCommerce Variation Prices comes with a full 30-day money back guarantee. This lets you try it risk-free on your store and get a refund if you're not happy for any reason.

This super-simple plugin only takes a few minutes to set up. Install it on your WordPress site and follow the simple instructions in the setup wizard to improve the way variable product prices are displayed in your store. It's a simple but important change that will change how customers perceive your pricing, helping to generate more sales for you 🔥

By the end of this article, you will have a clear understanding of how to create product bundles for your WooCommerce store, using the Woocommerce product bundles feature.

When using WooCommerce for your online store, you may have noticed that each product is treated individually by default, with no built-in option for customers to purchase multiple products together as a bundle. This can be a major issue if you want to offer product bundles in your store.

However, there is no need to worry! In this comprehensive guide, we'll show you how to create WooCommerce product bundles for your store using three different methods. By the end of this guide, you'll have a good understanding of the various methods available to bundle your products, and you'll be able to choose the one that works best for your store.

Creating WooCommerce product bundles might seem overwhelming, but with our guidance and professional advice, you can create attractive bundles that enhance your customers' shopping experience. Crafting WooCommerce product bundles is a great way that can aid in achieving your business goals.

So, let's dive in and learn how to bundle your WooCommerce products using our tutorial.

How to create product bundles for your WooCommerce store

There are 3 different ways to create WooCommerce product bundles:

1. WooCommerce Product TableLet customers create their own bundle by listing products individually so that they can mix and match. Perfect for complete flexibility. Setup instructions →
2. WooCommerce Product BundlesSell fixed regular price product bundles. Perfect for pre-defined bundles. Setup instructions →
3. WooCommerce Bulk VariationsCreate one product for each bundle you want to upsell and add a range of variations so that customers can choose the items they require. Perfect for converting individual products into a create-your-own bundle. Setup instructions →

And the best part is that we’ll also show you how to set up each method step-by-step. It’s super quick and easy and there’s absolutely no technical knowledge needed to follow this tutorial. You can start selling WooCommerce product bundles today!

What are the benefits of a product bundle in WooCommerce?

WooCommerce product bundles offer several benefits for both online store owners and customers. Here are some of the advantages:

1. Increased sales: Bundling products together can encourage customers to purchase more items and cross-sells for the store.
2. Higher average order value: Since bundles typically offer a discount, customers may be more likely to spend more on the bundle than they would on individual items.
3. Improved customer experience: Bundles can provide a more convenient shopping experience for customers by grouping related products together and subscription products in one place.
4. Cost-effective marketing: Product bundles can be a cost-effective marketing tool for online stores by promoting products together instead of individually.
5. Greater flexibility: WooCommerce product bundles offer greater flexibility in terms of the types of products that can be bundled together, and the pricing, coupons, and discount options available.
6. Easy inventory management: By bundling products together, inventory management can be simplified and streamlined., reducing the likelihood of out-of-stock or overstocking.

What type of products can be bundled together?

The types of products that can be bundled together in WooCommerce are quite diverse and largely depend on the nature of the online store and the products it offers. Here are some examples of product bundles that are commonly used:

1. Complementary products: Products that are related to or complement each other, such as a coffee machine and a pack of coffee pods.
2. Accessories and main products: Accessories that are designed to be used with a main product, such as a phone case and a smartphone.
3. Multiple variations of the same product: Different variations of a product that are bundled together, such as a set of different colored markers.
4. Seasonal products: Products that are typically used during a specific season or event, such as a bundle of winter clothing or holiday decorations.
5. Products from the same brand: Products from the same brand can be bundled together to promote brand loyalty or encourage customers to try new products.
6. Starter kits: A bundle of products that provides customers with everything they need to get started with a particular hobby or activity, such as a yoga starter kit or a cooking bundle.

These are just a few examples of the types of products that can be bundled together in WooCommerce. The possibilities are virtually endless, and WooCommerce product bundles can be tailored to the specific needs and preferences of an online store's customer base.

WooCommerce product bundles use cases

As an online store owner, there are tons of ways you can benefit from creating WooCommerce product bundles plugin for your e-commerce store.

Here are some use-case scenarios for which you might consider creating bundles:

1. Artisan soaps, lotions, and balms.  With the WooCommerce Product Table plugin, handmade product sellers like those offering soaps, lotions, and balms can create a front-end table layout that lists all their products. For example, you can bundle three soaps and one lotion for $2.50 with a single artisan soap sold for $1, allowing customers to choose which ones to include in their custom product bundle before proceeding to the checkout page.
2. Sports gear. You can sell related products (like sports gear) in product kits or grouped products using the WooCommerce Product Bundles plugin. For example, you can create a fixed-price product bundle that contains two badminton rackets, two bags, and four nylon shuttlecocks sold at $55.99.
3. Candies, teas, and coffees. If you want to give customers the option to mix and match their own WooCommerce combo offers, you can use WooCommerce Bulk Variations to create a single product bundle and list the different items as product variations. For example, you can create a Bundle of Candies product and list a variety of candies as variations to let customers pick and choose the ones they want to purchase.

Of course, there are tons of different ways to use the WooCommerce product bundles plugin with variations depending on the product types you sell. For example, the WooCommerce Product Table plugin is perfect for selling downloadable products and composite products, as well.

By now, you know the 3 ways for creating WooCommerce product bundles and should have chosen which method is best for you. Next, here’s how you can set up each bundle type:

Method 1: Create 'Build Your Own' bundles with WooCommerce Product Table

If you sell a variety of products and want to give customers the option to choose which ones they’d like to add to their product bundle, we recommend using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.

This is the best option if you want a flexible way to suggest product bundlings while allowing customers to choose which products to order and in which quantities.

Setup instructions

1. Get the WooCommerce Product Table plugin and install and activate it on your WordPress site.
2. Head over to Products → Product Tables → Add New to create your first list of product bundles. I recommend the following configuration:
   • Select the option to "Add to a page using a block or shortcode".
     

     

   • Select which products to display in the bundle. For example, you can select individual products, or select them by category or tag. (Tip: If you'll be presenting the bundle options in multiple tables on the same page, then it's probably best to create a separate table listing products from each category. For now, just select the products that will appear in the first section of the bundle.)
     

     

   • On the 'Add to cart' page, I recommend using the checkbox add to cart button style. This lets customers multi-select products to build their bundle. If the bundle includes any variable products then you should either choose the 'Dropdown' style, or 'Show variations on their own row' if you want to list variations separately as if they were individual products.
     

     

   • The last page of the table builder provides a shortcode for inserting the table. Copy this if you're not using the Gutenberg block editor.
   • Repeat the above steps (selecting different products) if you will be listing the product bundle in multiple tables on the same page.
   • Now create a new page and either add all your product table shortcodes to it, or insert each one using a 'Product Table' Gutenberg block. Add a heading between each table as required. This should walk customers through a logical step-by-step process to creating WooCommerce product bundles.

Method 2: Sell fixed price bundles with WooCommerce Product Bundles

The Product Bundles WooCommerce add-on lets you display bundles of multiple WooCommerce product bundles with variations on a single product page.

There are two ways to sell product bundles: with one add-to-cart button for a fixed price or with separate prices and quantity boxes for each product in the bundle. The first option is recommended if you want to offer a fixed selection of products for a fixed price.

This is particularly useful for more expensive WooCommerce product bundles with variations like tech products (e.g. laptops with accessories), furniture (e.g. mattresses with bed sheets and pillows), or sports gear (e.g. ping pong table, rackets, and ping pong balls).

Setup instructions

1. Get the WooCommerce Product Bundles plugin and install it on your site.
2. Create a new product. This will be your product bundle.
3. Scroll down to the Product data section and use the dropdown to select the Product bundle option.
4. Click on the Bundled Products tab to configure the WooCommerce bundled product options.

Method 3: Let customers pick and choose product variations to create their own bundle

Method 3 uses the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin. It lets you create one product for each product bundle you want to sell. You can then add all the individual items that you want to allow users to bundle as variations. This is perfect for online stores that sell low-cost products like candies, sweets, teas, or coffees.

Using this plugin, you can display these variable products in a matrix on the single product page. You can also use the shortcode included in the plugin to show the product matrix on any page, such as a central Bundles page or in a widget. This allows customers to select the number of each variation they want to purchase and create their bundle.

Setup instructions

1. Get the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin and install and activate it on your WordPress site.
2. Go to Products → Attributes from the WordPress dashboard. Add attributes for the items you’d like to sell as bundle products. For example, if you’re selling candies you could add Flavor and Weight as attributes.
3. Create a new WooCommerce product. This will be the product bundle.
4. Scroll down to the Product data section and select Variable product using the dropdown.
5. Click on the Bulk Variations tab and configure the following settings:
   1. Tick the checkbox next to the Enable variations grid option.
   2. Set the Horizontal and Vertical attributes.
   3. Tick the checkbox next to the Display variation images option.
      

      

6. Click the Publish button.

On the product page, customers can choose how much of each variation they’d like to purchase. This lets them complete their WooCommerce product bundles with variations. The total price appears directly under the matrix before they add everything to the cart.

If you don't want to display your bundle on the single product page, then you can insert the variations matrix elsewhere using a shortcode.

Moreover, thanks to its deep integration with WooCommerce Subscriptions and the All Products for WooCommerce Subscriptions add-on, you can also use Product Bundles to offer personalized subscription boxes.

What is the difference between grouped products and bundled products in WooCommerce?

In WooCommerce, a grouped product and a bundle product are two different types of product options that allow you to offer related products to your customer. Here is the main difference between the two:

1. Grouped product: A grouped product is a collection of individual products that are sold separately, but grouped together on a single page. It allows customers to choose which individual products they want to buy and add them to their cart individually. For example, a camera, lenses, and accessories can be grouped together as a camera kit.
2. Bundle product: A bundle product is a set of products sold as a single unit. Customers cannot choose which individual products they want to purchase from the bundle but must buy the entire bundle altogether. For example, you can bundle a laptop, mouse, and keyboard together as a single laptop package.

How do I create a grouped product in WooCommerce?

Creating a grouped product in WooCommerce involves a few simple steps. Here's how to do it:

1. Log in to your WooCommerce account and navigate to the WordPress dashboard.
2. Click on the "Products" tab and then click "AddNew" to create a new product.
3. Choose "Grouped product" as the product type from the dropdown menu.
4. Give your grouped product a name and description, and set the price for the group (if applicable).
5. Under the "Grouped Products" table, click the "Add Products" button to add the individual products that make up the group.
6. Search for and select the products you want to include in the group. You can add as many products as you like.
7. Rearrange the order of the products if needed, using the drag-and-drop functionality.
8. Save your changes, and you can now publish your grouped product.

Customers can view a list of individual products included in the group with prices and buy buttons. This provides them with the flexibility to purchase multiple products at once while choosing which products they want to buy.

How do I create a product list in WooCommerce?

You can create a product list in WooCommerce by using the built-in functionality of the WooCommerce Product Table plugin. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Navigate to the Products → Product Tables section in the left-hand menu.
3. Click on the Add New button to create a new product list.
4. Copy the shortcode from the final page, and paste it into the page where you want to list products. Alternatively, if you're using the Gutenberg editor then you can add the 'Product Table' block and select your product list to insert it.

Quantity rules and discounts

Many WooCommerce websites set rules around their product bundles. For example, you might want to restrict how many items customers can order from a bundle. You might want to automatically apply a bulk bundle discount depending on the number of products or variations ordered.

You can add these features using some excellent WooCommerce plugins, which work with all the methods in this tutorial:

• WooCommerce Discount Manager - Add quantity-based bulk discounts for specific bundles (e.g. based on category or product).
• WooCommerce Quantity Manager - Set minimum and maximum quantity rules for your bundles. You can either set these rules globally, per category, per product, or per variation.

Want to create WooCommerce product bundles?

There are a number of user-friendly plugins to create and sell WooCommerce product bundles with variations. We encourage you to check each of them out:

1. To suggest product bundlings to customers and sell different products, you can use the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.
2. However, if you want to sell fixed product bundles at a fixed bundle price, check out the WooCommerce Product Bundles plugin.
3. And the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin is perfect for letting customers choose how much of each product to add to their product bundle.

Be sure to make your product bundles relevant and attractive to your target audience. Promote them efficiently across your website and marketing channels. Providing a personalized and convenient shopping experience with product bundles can increase your revenue and profit margins.

Ready to create and sell WooCommerce product bundles with variations? Choose a plugin from the list above, and set it up today! With the right tools and strategies in place, you can take your ecommerce business to the next level 💪

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 can work on either the front or back end of your website:

• A front end 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.
• A back end bulk variations form speeds up store management for the merchant. It does this by listing your products and variations in a bulk editing spreadsheet form. You can either update variations by clicking directly within the spreadsheet editor; or by using a bulk edit form to apply mass updates.

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, table or spreadsheet 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.

And there are benefit for store owners, too!

The above benefits all focus on the customer. If you use the other type of WooCommerce bulk variations form - the spreadsheet editor - then it saves time for store owners instead. It's much faster to edit variations via a single form interface instead of editing each product individually.

To fully combine the benefits for customers and store owners, I recommend using one of each type of bulk variation form.

4 ways to list WooCommerce product variations

Next, I'll introduce you to 4 different ways to list WooCommerce product variations in a user-friendly form:

1. Variations grid Lets customers quickly select multiple variations of a single product and add them to cart at once. [*For customers*]
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. [*For customers*]
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. [*For customers*]
4. Create variation forms for bulk editing Create a bulk editing spreadsheet with each variation listed on its own row. [*For store owners*]

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. Alternatively, it can assist store owners by making it much faster to edit variations in bulk. Both types are essential for online stores that sell variable products.

I'll tell you more about each type next. After that, I'll provide setup instructions for each one.

#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.

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.

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

#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 →

#4: List variations in a bulk editing spreadsheet

The first 3 types of bulk variation form make it easier for customers to select variations on the front end. Our 4th option - Setary - is different. Instead of benefitting customers, it saves time for store owners by displaying variations in a quick edit spreadsheet with bulk editing forms.

Setary is great because it makes it significantly faster to add, manage and delete variations in bulk. You can:

• View each product and variation in your store on a separate row of the spreadsheet.
• Add a row in order to quickly create a new product or variation.
• Use the advanced search and filters to select multiple products.
• Make inline changes directly in the spreadsheet form.
• Select multiple variations and use the Bulk Actions forms to apply mass changes. There are lots of options here, such as making price increases or decreases, changing variation names, managing stock, setting variation images, and more.

Here's how you can list variations in bulk editing spreadsheet →

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.

Option 4 instructions - Create variation forms for bulk editing

Our final WooCommerce bulk variation form is Setary, the bulk spreadsheet editor. This is the fastest and easiest way for store owners to add and manage variations. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up, so you can start saving time straight away:

1. Start by signing up for a free trial of your chosen Setary plan.
2. Next, you'll be prompted to install the free Setary helper plugin.
3. Your store's inventory will appear in the Setary bulk spreadsheet form, with each product and variation listed on its own row.
4. Click within the form to make quick edits. Alternatively, use the filters to narrow down the list and then select multiple products and use the Bulk Actions form.
5. Each cell that you've updated will appear with a blue dot alongside. Check you're happy with the changes in the bulk variations form, then click Save. This will instantly apply the changes to your live WooCommerce store.

Create your bulk variations form today

There are two types of WooCommerce bulk variations manager - one to help your customers, and one to help you:

• The WooCommerce Bulk Variations or WooCommerce Product Table plugins create public-facing bulk variations forms which make it easier for customers to add variations to their cart. [*Recommended for helping customers*]
• The Setary app provides a spreadsheet editor plus bulk edit forms for variations, making it easy to update your inventory from a single interface.[*Recommended for helping store owners*]

Both types of bulk variation forms can transform the experience for your customers and for you. For maximum results, use one of each type and start seeing the benefits straight away 🚀

As an online business owner, there are many scenarios where you might need to sell by weight in WooCommerce. For example, you might sell fruits and vegetables from your farm, purchase dry fruits and nuts in bulk for resale, or grow various herbs - all of which need WooCommerce weight-based pricing.

Lots of store owners wonder: "How do I sell a product by weight in WooCommerce?" That's because it’s not immediately obvious how to use WooCommerce to sell by weight. The good news is that, with the right WooCommerce plugins, you can easily start selling products by weight.

In this article, we’ll walk you through two different ways to use WooCommerce to list products in a way that allows you to sell by weight. The methods we cover in this tutorial work equally well if you’re selling by other types of measurement such as volume, size, width, length, or dimensions.

Let's get started ⚖️

Why you might need to sell by weight in WooCommerce

There are several different types of products that store owners typically sell by weight. Here are a few examples:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Dry fruits
• Nuts
• Flour, lentils, and beans
• Meat

Store owners set the products up in a way that each product has a price per unit weight. For example, this could be in grams, ounces, or pounds. Customers can simply select the number of, say, grams they’d like to purchase of the product and proceed to checkout to place their order.

As an e-commerce store owner, you can sell by weight in WooCommerce with the right combination of plugins.

Two ways to sell by weight in WooCommerce

There are two different ways to sell by weight in WooCommerce:

1. Allow customers to enter an exact weight to receive an exact weight-based price calculation.
2. Add pre-set weight options as product variations.

Choose Method 1 if you need WooCommerce weight-based pricing with more flexible options. For example, if you want to sell different types of flour by the kilogram, you could simply add your product prices by weight instead of selling by quantity.

Alternatively, you can go with Method 2 to keep things simple and add each weight option as a separate variation. This is particularly useful for store owners that sell items at different weight quantities. For example, if you have three different weight options – 500 grams, 1 kilogram, and 5 kilograms. You would add products as variable products in WooCommerce.

Keep reading to learn more about each method and how to set it up.

Method 1: Price products by weight

It's surprisingly easy to set up WooCommerce weight-based pricing. It works by replacing the standard quantity field with a weight input field. This lets you sell products by weight instead of quantity, like this:

The great thing about this method is that it also supports decimal quantities, and minimum and maximum quantities. For example, you can allow customers to order coffee in any decimal value between 1 and 10kg.

You can do this with the WooCommerce Product Options plugin, which lets you replace the standard quantity field with custom product options. These offer more flexibility, such as the ability to order decimal quantities and display the weight on the product page.

How to add a product weight field to the product page

Step 1: Set up the product

First, you need to disable the quantity field on the main page, and enter the price for one unit of weight:

1. Go to the 'Products' section of the WordPress admin and open the 'Edit product' page.
2. Find the 'Product data' section and enter the basic product price. For example, if you are selling by kg then you should enter the cost for 1kg.

3. Next, go to the 'Inventory' tab and tick the 'Limit purchases to 1 item per order' box. This hides the product quantity field. You need to do this because you'll be selling by weight rather than quantity. (We'll be adding a weight field in the next section.)

Step 2: Add a weight field to the product

1. Get the WooCommerce Product Options plugin and install it on your site.
2. Go to Products → Options.
3. Create a Options Group which you'll use to add the weight field, plus any other options you want to add to the product.
4. Choose which products/categories you want to display the weight field on, or leave it to appear globally on all products.
5. Click 'Add Option' and select the 'Number' field type.
6. Enter a name for the weight field (e.g. "Weight") and untick the 'Display' box next to it.
7. Underneath in the 'Choices' section, enter the label which will appear next to the weight field (e.g "Weight in kilograms"). Leave "No cost" selected for the price because we'll be a proper price formula in a minute, instead of adding a static price here.
8. Set the field to 'Required' to force customers to enter a weight.
9. Next, open the 'Advanced settings' to display some additional options:
   • If you want customers to be able to select partial weights (e.g. 1.5kg) then use the 'Decimal' number type to allow this.
   • Set a minimum and maximum weight that customers can enter, if needed.

9. Save the option group.

Step 3: Add the weight-based pricing to WooCommerce

Now you've added the weight field, you need to create a price formula which will calculate the weight-based pricing:

1. In the same Option Group that you created in Step 2, click 'Add option' again and select 'Price formula' this time.
2. Add a name for the option, such as "Weight calculation", and untick the 'Display' box again.
3. Select the Price Formula option type.
4. Create a price formula which will calculate the price based on the weight that the customer enters. To do this, click on the name of the number field which appears underneath the 'Formula' field, and also the 'Price' field which will retrieve the price for 1 unit of weight which you entered in Step 1. Enter the multiplication symbol between the two variables so that the formula looks something like: [Weight] * [product_price]. Use mathematical operators, brackets etc. to add extra complexity to the formula as needed.
   

   

5. Use the 'Price display suffix' field to enter some text to indicate that the main price you entered for the product is based on weight. For example, if you entered the price for 1kg on the 'Edit product' screen then you should enter "per kilogram" or "per kg" to make this clear to customers. This will appear after the price for 1kg at the top of the product page.
6. Finally, visit a product page and test the pricing by weight. Enter a number in the weight field and make sure the correct price is shown below. Keep making changes until you're completely happy.

Method 2: Add weight options as variations

You can use the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin to add each weight option as a product variation. This plugin lets you list all the variations in a matrix layout directly on the single product page.

Customers can enter the required quantity of each option and order the exact amount they want. They can mix and match multiple variations to reach the total weight volume they require.

For example, let’s say you’d like to sell sweets online. You might set up the following weight options as variations to sell by weight in WooCommerce:

• 500 grams
• 1 kilogram
• 2 kilograms

So, if a customer would like to purchase 1.5 kilograms of sweets, they could add the 500 grams variation and the 1-kilogram variation to their shopping cart at the same time and proceed to the checkout page. In this way, the plugin supports custom weight measurements. You just need to create a variation for each possible step within the price range.

Setup instructions

1. Get the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin and install it on your WordPress site.
2. Activate your license key in the plugin setup wizard, which will open automatically.
3. Next, go to Products → Add New and create a WooCommerce product which you will sell by weight.
4. Go to Product Data → Attributes and add all the attributes that you would like customers to select from. For example, in the case of sweets, this may be flavor and weight. Enter all the possible options for each attribute, such as all the different weights that you sell in. Tick the 'Use for variations' box for each attribute, then click 'Save attributes'.
   

   

5. Open the 'Variations' tab underneath and click 'Generate variations'. This will create a variation for each combination of attributes. Go through each one and enter a price, add an image, and so on. (Tip: Use the filters above the list of variations to quickly select multiple variations and apply the same changes to each one.)
   

   

6. Now open the 'Bulk Variations' tab and configure the following settings:
   • Make sure the Enable variations grid checkbox is ticked.
   • Set the Horizontal option to the attribute you want to display in columns for the variations grid.
   • Set the Vertical option to the attribute you want to display in rows for the variations grid.
   • Make sure the Display variation images checkbox is ticked.

   

7. Click the Publish button to add the product to your store.

On the front-end, the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin will display the variations along two dimensions in a grid with all the weight options.

Bonus: Selling by weight on the main Shop page

Both methods for selling WooCommerce products by weight focus on what it looks like on the single product page. For even more convenience, you can use WooCommerce Bulk Variations or WooCommerce Product Options with our other plugin, WooCommerce Product Table. This displays products in a much clearer layout on the main Shop page, like this:

This makes it very clear to customers that the products are priced by weight. That's because we have renamed the 'Price' column in the table to clearly show that each price is based on weight, rather than by quantity.

Be sure to check out the How to sell by weight guidelines in the WooCommerce Product Table plugin documentation.

Case study: Provenance Meat

Selling by weight is particularly useful if you’re selling meat. It gives customers full flexibility to place orders based on the exact amount they’d like to purchase whether it’s 1.5 kilograms or 1.675 kilograms. Here's an example of how Provenance Meat uses WooCommerce Product Table:

Start selling WooCommerce products by weight

In this tutorial, we've looked at several methods for selling by weight in WooCommerce. Read about each one, and choose the combination of plugins that best suits your needs:

• WooCommerce Product Options - Replace the standard WooCommerce quantity field with a purpose-built weight field. It supports decimal quantities, min/max quantities and more, making it ideal for selling by weight.
• WooCommerce Bulk Variations - Create a variation for each weight option, and display them in a user-friendly order form on the single product page.

Both plugins come with a full 30-day money back guarantee. Try out your chosen plugin and start selling by weight today!

Discover everything you need to know about WooCommerce product variations. Learn how to set them up, manage them more easily, and maximize your sales of variable products.

WooCommerce product variations let online store owners sell items with multiple choices for the customer to select from. For example, you can use variations to sell t-shirts in different colors, pizza in different sizes, or subscription boxes with different capacities. This way, customers can choose whichever version or variation of the product they want.

In this ultimate guide to creating and using WooCommerce variations, we’ll explain what product variations are and how to use the product variations that come with WooCommerce. We’ll also share some fantastic plugins you can use to display your WooCommerce product variations in more effective ways, manage them easily, and ultimately sell more of each variation:

1. WooCommerce Bulk Variations - Bulk edit variations on the Edit Product screen; and display them in a quick order form on your product pages.
2. Setary - Add and edit variations across your entire store from a single bulk editing spreadsheet.
3. WooCommerce Product Options - Display variations in more interesting ways, for example as checkboxes, radio buttons and clickable images.
4. WooCommerce Product Filters - Let customers find products by filtering for their chosen variation attributes.
5. Product Table - List products in a one-page order form, so that customers can quickly select variations and add to the cart.
6. WooCommerce Quick View - Sell variations from a quick view lightbox.
7. WooCommerce Variation Prices - Take control over how variation prices are displayed.

What are WooCommerce product variations?

Most online stores sell at least a few products that are available in different variations. For example:

• Apparel that comes in different colors or sizes (like t-shirts, trousers, or shoes).
• Food items that have different sizes (for example coffee cup sizes or pizza base diameters).
• Subscription boxes or build-your-own products that are available in different sizes (for example small, medium, and large).

As an online store owner, you should use WooCommerce product variations when selling products that have different choices you want to let customers select from. For example, if you were Starbucks, you would offer coffee cup sizes (Short, Tall, Grande, Venti Hot, Venti Cold, and Trenta) as variations.

Out of the box, the free WooCommerce plugin lets you add as many “options” (i.e. variations) as you’d like to each WooCommerce product. Customers can select the variation they’d like to purchase from the single product page and add it to their cart.

Further reading: How To Bulk Edit Prices of Variable Products

How to create and manage variations using WooCommerce

In WooCommerce, the product variations feature comprises of two aspects – attributes and variations.

• Attributes. These are product descriptors like color, size, material, and capacity.
• Variations. These are the variants available for each attribute. For example, the color attribute might have Red, Blue, and Gray variations or the size attribute might have Small, Medium, and Large variations for customers to choose from.

Here, we’ll show you how to create and manage variations using WooCommerce.

Step 1: Create attributes

To create WooCommerce product variations, you need to first create attributes and then create variations for each attribute.

Here’s how:

1. Navigate to Products → Attributes from the WordPress admin panel.
2. Enter a name and slug for the attribute and click the Add attribute button.
3. Click the Configure terms link from the list of attributes on the right.
4. Add as many values as you’d like for the attribute.

Related: How to add custom fields to WooCommerce product variations.

Step 2: Assign attributes to WooCommerce products

By now, we’ve created attributes for the product variations we want to offer through the online store. Next, we’ll set products up as variable products (i.e. products that have variations) and assign attributes to them.

1. Open up a WooCommerce product that you’d like to add variations to and scroll down to the Product data section.
2. Select the Variable product option using the dropdown.
3. Click on the Attributes tab and use the dropdown to select the attribute you’d like to assign to this product. Click Add.
4. Choose all the values that apply to the product.
5. Tick the checkboxes next to the Visible on the product page and Used for variations settings.
6. Click the Save attributes button to proceed.

Step 3: Add WooCommerce variations to products

The final step is to add WooCommerce variations to the product. These will be the product variations that appear on your site’s front-end.

1. Go to the Variations tab, use the dropdown to select the Add variation option, and click on the Go button.
2. Select whichever attribute values apply to the product.
3. Customize the settings for each variation you created. You can:
   1. Upload a separate image for each variation.
   2. Set the product SKU, regular price, sale price, and stock status.
   3. Set the weight and dimensions of the product.
4. Click the Save changes button.

Repeat these steps to add as many WooCommerce product variations as you’d like.

You may also like: How to make WooCommerce variations optional.

How to add variations in bulk

The above steps let you add each variation individually. But what if you want to add lots of variations at once? It would take forever to do it individually for each one.

To save time, you can install the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin. This adds the following features to let you add and edit variations more easily:

• A set of filters which you can use to narrow down the list of variations. You can then use the bulk actions dropdown (which appears above the filters bar) to apply the same changes to all the filtered variations. For example, you could filter for all the variations with a 'Large' attribute and set the price of them all together.
• An extra option letting you set variation images in bulk. For example, if all your variations with a particular color attribute need the same image, then you can set the images together. This is much faster than setting images for each variation individually.

Once you've finished setting up the product variations, click the Save changes button. It will look something like this on your site’s front-end:

Create quick variation order forms

We've already seen how to use the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin to add and edit variations in bulk. But that's not its main feature!

The most important part of the plugin is the way it displays WooCommerce product variations on the front end of your website. Yep - it also provides a quick way for customers to buy product variations in bulk.

WooCommerce Bulk Variations does this by letting store owners list products in a WooCommerce variations grid layout. It also adds a quantity picker for each variation and a bulk add to cart button, like this:

Allowing bulk variation purchases is particularly useful for e-commerce stores that sell to wholesale buyers. Customers can simply use the WooCommerce variations grid layout to enter how many units of each variation they’d like to purchase and click the Add to Cart button to add all selected variations (in the correct quantities) to their shopping cart at once. This is also the easiest way to showcase variable products with two attributes.

Check out the full tutorial on how to let customers buy WooCommerce product variations in bulk.

Add and manage product variations from a time-saving bulk edit spreadsheet

The Setary app will save you a huge amount of time in adding and managing variations. Above, we looked at how to use WooCommerce Bulk Variations to add bulk editing features to the Add/Edit product screen. That's useful, but it still only lets you edit the variations for one product at a time.

Setary is different because it displays all your products and variations in a time-saving bulk editing spreadsheet. Each variation is listed on its own row of the spreadsheet, with separate columns for the different types of variation data.

You can create new product variations simply by adding a row to the spreadsheet and entering all the data. Alternatively, you can duplicate or clone an existing variation.

For the bulk editing, you can use the search box and advanced filters to narrow down the list to the exact variations you want to edit. After that, you can either:

• Click any cell of the spreadsheet to make inline changes to variations.
• Select multiple variations and use the Bulk Actions button to make a wide range of advanced edits. For example, you can make various changes to the variation prices, update the variation names, set variation images, and more.

Replace variation dropdowns with checkboxes, image buttons, and more

WooCommerce can only display product variations as a dropdown list. For example, you might have a dropdown for the size attribute and another dropdown for color. That's pretty limited 🥱

The WooCommerce Product Options plugin can make your variations stand out by replacing the dropdowns with a wide range of other styles:

With this plugin, you add your product variations as usual. You then go to Products → Product Options and create product options by selecting the variations you already created. Select an alternative style for them, such as checkboxes, radio buttons, clickable images, text labels, and so on.

Another benefit of this plugin is that you can use conditional logic to show/hide variations depending on the customer's other selections. For example, if you want to add gift wrap options to a product then you could add a "This is a gift" checkbox which customers can click to reveal the hidden gift wrapping options. The customer can then choose a wrapping paper variation by clicking on a picture of their preferred design.

Product variations vs. add-ons

While the WooCommerce Product Options plugin can display product variations in more interesting ways, that's not all it can do. This product add-ons plugin provides a way of creating product options without using variations at all.

When you create options using this method, instead of using variations, you create the options directly in the plugin. This can be more flexible and easier to use than the interface for creating variations. It also gives you, a wider range of display styles, such as text fields, date fields and file upload fields, which aren't possible with actual variations.

This opens the door to selling types of variant which simply aren't possible using WooCommerce product variations. Let's go back to our gift wrap example - you could add a text field allowing customers to type a message to be printed on the gift label.

Product add-ons also bring lots of other types of flexibility that you don't get with WooCommerce variations:

• Assign a much wider range of price settings - e.g. flat fee, percentage increase or decrease, and so on.
• Set minimum and maximum quantities.
• Create advanced price formulas, for example, to build a WooCommerce measurement price calculator.

How to filter by product variation

When it comes to WooCommerce product variations, filtering by specific attributes can greatly enhance the shopping experience for your customers. By using the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin, you can easily add attribute filters to your store, allowing customers to quickly find products that match their preferences.

The WooCommerce Product Filters plugin offers a wide range of product filters, including categories, attributes, color, tags, custom taxonomy, price, ratings, and stock status. With the ability to display filters such as dropdown lists, checkboxes, radio buttons, labels/tag clouds, images, or color swatches, you can create a user-friendly shopping experience that increases the time customers spend in your store. Ultimately, this leads to increased conversion rates and customer loyalty.

Here's how you can filter by product variation using the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin:

1. Purchase and install the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin: First, buy the plugin and install it on WordPress.
2. Create attribute filters: After installing the plugin, navigate to Products → Filters and click on the default filter group or create a new one. Use the "Add new filter" form to enter your filter's information, and repeat as many times as needed. You can choose the filter type, such as dropdown lists, checkboxes, or color swatches, to create a user-friendly shopping experience.
3. Select the product variation attribute: In the filter settings, choose the attribute you want to filter by, such as color or size. This will allow customers to filter products based on their specific preferences.
4. Place the product filters on your site: Finally, place your product filters anywhere on your site using the automatic display option, sidebar widget, or shortcode placement. This will allow customers to quickly find products that match their preferences and increase conversion rates.

Looking to learn more about how the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin can help you filter by product variation? Check out this helpful article on How to filter by variation using different methods. Here, you'll find detailed instructions on how to use the plugin to filter by variation, along with other useful information on this powerful tool.

Display WooCommerce product variations in a table

By default, WooCommerce product variations only appear on the single product page. What this means is that customers have to click through to the single product page from the main shop page to view and select variations. This makes the main purchasing user flow unnecessarily long.

The good news is that the WooCommerce Product Table plugin provides superior ways to display product variations on the front-end. This way, you can allow customers to select and add variations to their shopping carts from just about anywhere in your store, not just on the single product page.

More specifically, you can choose to list variations in two different ways:

• As WooCommerce variation dropdowns in the front-end product table layout.
• List each variation as a separate product with each one on a separate row of the table. Each variation has its own add to cart button or multi-select checkbox, depending on your preference.

Let customers select variations from a quick view lightbox

Another way to let customers select product variations away from the single product page is by displaying them as dropdowns in a quick view lightbox. This is possible with the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin.

You can use the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin together with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin to add quick view buttons directly to the table layout. The key benefit of this is that you can display additional product details in the table layout while giving customers the option to use the quick view lightbox to select variations.

In addition, you can use the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin to add quick view buttons directly to your main shop page. This way, instead of navigating to the single product page to select and add variations to the cart, customers can simply use the quick view lightbox. The key benefit of this approach is that they can continue where they left off once they’ve added a variation to their shopping cart.

Change the variation price format

Have you noticed that if a product's variations are different prices, then WooCommerce displays them as a range? (E.g. $50 - $100.) This is ok for some products, but can lose you sales by putting customers off. For example, showing the top and bottom price makes it difficult for customers to predict what they will pay, and can make the product look more expensive.

The solution is to install the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin. This easy-to-use plugin lets you change the variation price format to anything you like. This might be "From $50", "Up to $100", or replacing the dash between the low-high price with another word or symbol. You can list the price of each variation individually. Maybe you need to create a completely bespoke variation price format with your own format, such as "$10 per kg".

As well as replacing the variation price range, there are further settings for changing how prices are displayed:

• Hide the main price for the variable product until the customer selects an option.
• Update the main price on the WooCommerce product page when a variation is selected.

Variation Prices is a very simple plugin, but it adds a very important feature to your WooCommerce product variations. The ability to control how variable product prices are displayed can make a big difference to your sales. After all, customers are more likely to buy products when the prices are displayed in a way that emphasizes what good value they are.

Set up WooCommerce product variations and start selling!

WooCommerce product variations make it easier for online store owners to sell different versions of the same product without having to add it as a separate product. It also makes it easier for customers to make purchases.

To take things to the next level, you can use different WooCommerce plugins to make your WooCommerce product variations sell better:

• Manage and display variations in bulk with WooCommerce Bulk Variations.
• Add and edit variations across multiple products with Setary's lightning fast spreadsheet-style editor.
• Use WooCommerce Product Filters to let customers filter by variation.
• List product variations as dropdowns or on individual rows using Product Table to improve visibility and simplify the purchasing user flow.
• Use the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin to let customers add variations to their cart without navigating to the single product page.
• Change how variation prices are displayed with Variation Prices.
• Or if you still don't like variations then use WooCommerce Product Options to create add-ons instead!

Ready to maximize WooCommerce product variation sales on your e-commerce store? Choose your plugins and get started today!

WooCommerce product variations can be a pain to set up. However, you can make your life much easier by installing the best WooCommerce product variations plugins. We've tried and tested the best so that you don't have to!

As an online store owner, you might want to offer multiple variations of the same product. For example, you might want to sell a notebook in different colors, a cake with toppings of your choosing, a table in different types of wood etc.

In this article, we’re going to learn how to set up product variations, understand the limitations of WooCommerce, and explore a viable way to:

We will also explore the best WooCommerce product variations plugins and understand what each one has to offer.

But first, I'll show you how to set up product variations in the first place.

How to set up product variations in WooCommerce

You probably already know that WooCommerce is one of the best (and easiest) ways to create an e-commerce site using WordPress. It lets you add all of your products to your store and creates an individual product page for each of them.

For each product you add to your online store, WooCommerce gives you the option to add product variations. WooCommerce products have variations whenever they come in multiple options. For example, this may include, sizes, colors, patterns, flavors, toppings, or materials – depending on the types of products you’re selling.

In order to set this up, we’ll be using attributes and variations. Let's first understand the difference between them. 

Product attributes vs variations

• Product attributes are essentially details about the product like weight, size, color etc. They give the customer a better understanding of the product before purchase.
• Product variations on the other hand are actual choices that you’re offering the customer between variations of the same product. 

Let’s understand with an example:

Here, the product variations are the color and size that a customer can choose. The product attributes are details like the category, description, SKU etc. 

With that in mind, let’s look at how to set up product variations in WooCommerce using the example of a stationery store.

Step 1: Create your product attributes

1. The easiest way to create product attributes is by navigating to Products → Attributes and adding an attribute. Let’s say you’re selling a notebook in multiple colors and with ruled/unruled options. You could set up attributes with the name “Color” and “Line” and then click “Add Attribute”.
2. Next you’ll need to click on “Configure Terms” to add details about the variations. You could add terms like “yellow”, “green” and “black” for the Color attribute and terms like “ruled” and “unruled” for the Line attribute.
3. You can set up as many attributes as you’d like in the same way.

Step 2: Assign attributes to your products

Once your attributes are created, you need to allot them to their respective products. Open your Product and navigate to “Product Data”. Click on the drop down menu next to it (it is set to “simple product” by default). Here you need to choose “Variable product”.

Now click on “Attributes” from the right side menu and add your attributes one by one.

You can see the terms that you added in the previous step listed under “Values”. Make sure to select both “Visible on the product page” and “Used for variations”.

Step 3: Create your variations

1. Now click on “Variation” from the left side menu. Select “Add Variation” from the dropdown menu and click on “Go”.
2. Now all you have to do is choose your attributes and configure settings like price, size, weight, SKU etc - as per your preference.
3. Hit “Save Changes” once you’re done. You can then create as many variations as you’d like.

2 problems with product variations

Problem #1: Difficult to edit multiple variations at once

If you follow the instructions above, you'll see that the process is absolutely fine for adding one variation.

But what if you want to add lots of variations to a product? That's when it starts to get really time-consuming.

Problem #2: Limit ways to display variations to customers

Although WooCommerce lets customers view and select product variations on the single product page, that's the only place you can display them. And the only option is to display them as variation dropdown lists (e.g. one dropdown for Size and one for Color). This isn’t the best possible solution for most store owners.

Here are a few reasons why:

The good news is that you can easily address these problems by adding a WooCommerce product variations display plugin. Keep reading for our selection of the best.

The best WooCommerce plugins to display product variations

As we saw earlier, the other problem with WooCommerce product variations is the limited way in which they are displayed.

Unfortunately, WooCommerce's default single product page isn't always the best option for displaying product variations. Let's explore the best WooCommerce product variations plugins to present product variations to customers.

Manage variations more easily and display them in a bulk variation order form

To speed up the process of creating multiple variations, simply install the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin. This handy plugin adds some extra features which allow you to filter the list of variations and apply bulk actions to them:

1. Install WooCommerce Bulk Variations.
2. Open the 'Variations' tab on the 'Edit Product' screen.
3. You will see a new 'Filters' bar above the list of variations. Use this to select all the variations that you want to edit at once.
4. Next, use the bulk actions dropdown above the filter bar (which normally says 'Add variation') to select a bulk action. For example, you can bulk-edit variation prices or set the same image for all the selected variations.

In this screenshot, we have used WooCommerce Bulk Variations to select all variations with a 'Blue' attribute. We have then quickly changed the variation price for all the blue items only.

This is much faster than setting prices and other data for each variation individually. You can do the same with other types of variation data, such as adding variation images in bulk.

Why WooCommerce Bulk Variations is perfect for displaying product variations

The WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin is great for displaying product variations for clothing and apparel, wholesale products, and products that are typically sold in large volumes. It’s also the perfect choice for products that don’t require images but may have several variations such as sweets and candies.

Using the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin, you can replace the single product page with either a bulk ordering grid or a simple price matrix. This is a great way to boost product variation visibility in your online store and make it easier for customers to buy more from you.

Instead of using dropdowns to select the correct product variation and adding items to their cart one at a time, customers can simply choose how much of each product variation they’d like to purchase, set the quantity, and add them to their cart in one go.

The key benefit here is that customers don’t have to spend time adding variations to their shopping cart one at a time. This is the most intuitive way to sell variable products in WooCommerce.

Bonus: WooCommerce Bulk Variations is the only plugin in the market that enables you to display bulk variations with 3+ attributes in the grid, instead of just 2!

Replace the variation dropdown with checkboxes, color/image swatches, and more

If you're looking for a complete alternative to WooCommerce product variations, then it's worth considering a totally different way to set them up. The WooCommerce Product Options plugin offers an interesting alternative.

Instead of using variable products, you add the choices as product options. These are managed using a completely different interface, which is much faster to use than variations. That's because you don't to enter prices, images etc. for every possible combination of options (as you do with variations). Instead, you add each option individually and the plugin calculates the pricing etc.

To help you to visualize this, here's a screenshot of adding product options in the WordPress admin:

You can add a wide range of option styles, different price calculation options, and even use conditional logic to show and hide options depending on the user's selections. That's a real bonus because WooCommerce doesn't offer conditional logic for variations.

And in the front end, you can choose many more ways to display options than you get with variants. As well as dropdowns, you can display options as checkboxes, clickable images, text fields, file uploads, and more.

List variations in a product table on your main shop pages

WooCommerce Product Table lets you list variable products in a searchable, sortable, and filterable table layout.

Customers are able to view and select the exact product and variations they’re looking for using its extensive filtering options. In this way, it can be used as a WooCommerce product variations plugin.

The WooCommerce Product Table plugin enables you to:

1. List variable products on your main shop page, category pages or any other page in your online store.
   
2. List variable products in two different formats in your table layout. You can choose to display them as either:
   • Dropdowns in the Add to Cart column (perfect for businesses that sell clothes, shoes, or food)

• • Separate rows in the product table layout (perfect for businesses selling spare parts or large products like furniture or mattresses)

Creating product tables with proper variable products enables customers to view and select variations from any of the pages you choose to display the variation on instead of having to navigate to the individual product pages. This significantly improves the user experience your site delivers.

WooCommerce Product Table an ideal solution for creating product catalogs, restaurant menus, order forms, and wholesale stores.

Save time by bulk editing product variations

The Setary bulk editing app can save you a huge amount of time if you have large numbers of variations to update. Normally in WooCommerce, you have to edit each product separately in order to add or edit variations. The WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin which I mentioned above adds better bulk editing to the 'Edit Product' screen, but you can still only edit variations for one product at a time. Setary takes this a step further.

It works by displaying all your products and variations in a spreadsheet. You can quickly filter the variations and update them, either inline or using a bulk edit form.

Let customers select variations from a quick view lightbox

WooCommerce Quick View Pro is a different type of WooCommerce variations plugin. It lets you present product variations in a lightbox view. In addition to the variations, you can also display product images and galleries, details, and purchasing options.

Customers are able to open the lightbox either by clicking on the product's name (or image) or by using the Quick View button. If you choose to enable the option to launch the lightbox by clicking on the product name or image, links to the single product page will automatically be disabled.

The WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin is ideal for variable products that are best presented with images and galleries e.g. fashion items, food, and tech products. It's also perfect for products that don't require images, but have multiple variations.

Either way, the plugin lets you replace the single product page with a lightbox. What this means is that you can display the information customers need to make a buying decision and choose variations directly in the quick view lightbox. So, instead of clicking through to the single product page, customers can select product variations and make a purchase directly from the main shop page or category pages. There's no need to visit a separate page for each product.

What information can I display about my variations?

With the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin, you can display the following information in the lightbox:

• Product name
• Product image (and full gallery)
• Reviews
• Price
• Quantity selector
• Product variation dropdowns
• Add to cart button (including variation dropdowns and quantity picker)
• Product details (such as SKUs and categories)

Change the variation price format

Another limitation of WooCommerce product variations is that if your variations have different prices, then they are always displayed as a range. For example: "$50 - $100."

That's pretty basic and doesn't give you any flexibility. The solution is to install the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin. This gives you total control over how to display and format variable product prices in your store. For example, you might set the price to display as "From $50" or list all the individual variation prices.

Alternative WooCommerce product variation plugins

Now you know how to add product variations in WooCommerce. You've learned how to choose the best WooCommerce variation product plugins to manage and display your variable products. You also know how to add variations in the WordPress admin, with bulk actions to save you time.

Of course, there are other ways to customize WooCommerce product variations too. Here's a selection of some other options that are worth looking at.

Other plugins to consider

1. Variation Swatches for WooCommerce: This plugin is dedicated to making attributes and variations easy to use and customize. It can be used to display products with multiple variations using neat, professional color swatches, instead of the regular dropdown box. This significantly improves the UI experience for your customers and reduces the amount of effort needed to place an order.
2. YITH Woocommerce Color And Label Variations: Similar to the previous plugin, YITHs Woocommerce Color And Label Variations plugin enables you to display icons, labels and images instead of the default product variation dropboxes. The free version lets you customize the color, label and image product attributes whereas the premium version gives you further options like customizing entrance animation, creating individual image galleries for product attributes etc.
3. WooCommerce Better Variations: This plugin aims at making ordering (especially in bulk) easier for customers by displaying product variations in a grid. It particularly focuses on making sure out-of-stock products are styled optimally and accurately.
   
4. Product Variations Swatches for WooCommerce: Using this plugin, you can display product attributes in different types of swatches - Colors, Buttons, Images, Variation Images or Radio. You can even customize the details of the swatch design like the name, height, width, font size, padding, mobile mode size color, box-shadow effect, hover style etc.
5. Variation Images Gallery for WooCommerce: This plugin allows users to showcase unlimited additionalimages as galleries for each product variation. It is particularly useful for stores which are selling apparel or food. It allows your site visitors to zoom into images and enables them to visualize your variation product easily. 

The best WooCommerce product variation plugins

In conclusion, it's a shame that WooCommerce on its own doesn't do a better job of managing and displaying variations. Fortunately, there are lots of fantastic WooCommerce variation plugins which can solve this. Use the one that fixes your specific pain-points with variations:

• Bulk Variations - For adding and editing variations more easily.
• Product Options - Display variations in a wide range of flexible styles such as checkboxes, color swatches and clickable images.
• Setary - For bulk editing variations across multiple products from a time-saving spreadsheet.
• Product Table and Quick View - For displaying variations away from the single product page.
• Variation Prices - To customize the way that variation prices are displayed.

What else would you like to be able to do with your variable products? Let us know in the comments below.

Today, I'm going to tell you how to add variation swatches to your WooCommerce product tables and quick view lightboxes.

Our WooCommerce Product Table plugin offers a choice of ways to list product variations. You can list product variation swatches for WooCommerce as dropdowns in the add to cart column, or you can list each variation on a separate row in the table. It lets you do all of this without having to use HTML or CSS code.

On the other hand, our WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin adds user-friendly buttons to your e-commerce store so that customers can read more and add to the cart from a quick view lightbox instead of having to go to the single product page. This prevents them from needing to visit a separate page for each product and simplifies the user flow.

You can use it with the default WooCommerce store layouts, or with customizable product tables.

But what if you want to make your variations more visual, so that customers can select variations by clicking on different swatch types, for example, a color swatch or image swatch? Now you can do this by using our plugins with the fabulous free WooCommerce Variation Swatches plugin.

What does the WooCommerce Variation Swatches plugin do?

WooCommerce Variation Swatches offers an image swatch-based way to select product variations. It makes the WooCommerce product variations more eye-catching, so that customers can see exactly what they're getting when they click on a variation.

This free WordPress plugin comes with a choice of options for adding different variation swatch types:

• You can use it as a WooCommerce color variation plugin, with each option listed as a color swatch for customers to click on.
• Create unique variation selectors by uploading your own product image or variation image for each variable product. For example, you can upload photos or other variation images to represent each product attribute.
• Alternatively, you can list each available variation option as a button swatch. The attribute name appears as the button text.

If you're looking for WooCommerce color and label swatches, then this is the perfect WP plugin for you.

How does the variation color picker work in WooCommerce Product Table?

When you list variations using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin, there's an option to list variations as a dropdown in the add to cart column. If you use WooCommerce Product Table with the WooCommerce Variation Swatches plugin, then the color swatches, custom images, or buttons will appear underneath the dropdown for each variation in the table.

Create a product table at Products → Product Tables. Make sure you include a 'Buy' column in the table, as this will list the variation color picker.

You can then insert the table onto a page using the shortcode or Gutenberg block provided. Alternatively, enable the option to enable the table layout on your main shop pages.

The finished table will look something like this on the front-end:

In this screenshot, you can see a WC product with 2 global attributes - the Color attribute and the Size attribute:

• The 'color' dropdown has variation color swatches underneath so that customers can click a color instead of using the dropdown.
• The 'size' dropdown has buttons underneath, making it easier for customers to choose their size.

When you click on a color or size swatch of a variable product, the correct variation is instantly selected in the dropdown i.e. it's an AJAX variation. It works beautifully with the built-in Woo stock control and inventory management. Plus, customers don't have to hover over the image to see the available variations. Out of stock variations are visually crosses out (e.g. 'Large' in the screenshot above), so you can instantly see which combinations are available. The stock indicators update as soon as you select a variation, for example if you select 'Pink' in the above example then Large might be shown as available even though it's out of stock in 'White'.

Once you have selected a variation that is in stock from the shop page, you can add it to the cart and purchase using the WooCommerce checkout.

Does it work with separate variations in the product table?

WooCommerce Product Table also comes with an option to list each variation on its own row in the table. This doesn't work with the variation color swatches plugin because each variation is already separated out onto individual rows. The customer simply needs to use the add to cart buttons to add each variation to the cart, and they don't need to use color swatches or buttons.

How do variation swatches work in WooCommerce Quick View?

When you use variation swatches and WooCommerce Quick View Pro together, the swatches automatically appear in the quick view lightbox. This replaces the default variation dropdowns, so the customer must click on a swatch button, color or image in order to select the variation. They can click the add to cart button as usual.

Do product tables and quick view work with other variation swatches for WooCommerce plugins?

We have tested with Woo Product Table and Quick View with a few other WooCommerce variation swatches plugins and this is the only one that we have found to work nicely in the product table – no HTML code or CSS styling needed.

We therefore recommend using WooCommerce Product Table with the free or premium versions of WooCommerce Variation Swatches, and not similar plugins from other companies. It's incredibly easy to configure the plugin's global settings and get started with.

It's compatible with WooCommerce themes (like Storefront, Divi, and Flatsome) as well as page builders like Elementor. Plus, your product tables will look great on mobile devices.

WooCommerce Quick View Pro also works with the WooCommerce Variation Swatches plugin by Get Woo Plugins, so you can use it with either of these.

A WooCommerce variations table makes it easier for your customers to view and select variations. Discover 2 easy ways to list variations in a table or matrix layout - no coding needed!

Typically, WooCommerce stores offer limited variation dropdowns which only appear on the single product page. This is fine for many startups and basic online stores. However, listing variations as dropdowns can make you lose sales:

Fortunately, there's an easy solution. Simply install a WooCommerce variations table plugin and instantly solve all of these problems.

Why a WooCommerce variations table plugin can improve your conversions

As you can see, the default WooCommerce variation dropdowns aren't ideal - especially if you sell the type of products where customers buy several variations at once.

The best WooCommerce variations table plugins make it much easier to view variations and add them to the cart. They list variations as products in a table or grid layout. Customers can see all the variations at once, and enter the quantity they require of each one. Then, they simply click 'Add to cart' to add all the selected variations together.

Letting customers select variations on the WooCommerce shop page or category pages can really speed up the buying process. By using a WooCommerce variations table plugin to list product variations, customers can easily compare them alongside one another.

2 ways to list WooCommerce variations as products in a table

In this tutorial, I'm going to give you a choice of 2 ways to create a product variation table for WooCommerce. First, I'll tell you about them both so that you can make a decision. Then, you can skip to the setup instructions and start setting it up!

This is what the 2 types of WooCommerce variations table look like:

As you can see, WooCommerce Bulk Variations lists the variations for a specific product in a grid or matrix. In contrast, WooCommerce Product Table creates a variations table of multiple products.

Here's a comparison of the WooCommerce variation table plugins so that you can decide which one is best for your store:

 

	WooCommerce Bulk Variations	WooCommerce Product Table
Number of products	1 product per variations table	Unlimited products per table
Number of attributes	1 or 2 (e.g. color and size)	Unlimited
Layout	Each attribute is listed as either rows or columns of the WooCommerce variation table, with a box for each variation	Each variation takes up 1 row of the table
Data displayed	Enable or disable the image, price, quantity box, and stock information for each variation	Choose which columns to include including image, name, product description, stock, price, quantity box, and buy button and/or checkbox
Location	Enable the variations grid on the single product page, or use a shortcode to list variations for a specific product on any page or post. You can also use it with a quick view plugin to list variations in a lightbox on the WooCommerce shop/category pages.	Enable the table layout on shop/category pages, or use a shortcode to insert variable product tables into any page or post
Bulk editing	Edit variations in bulk	Not included, but you can achieve this by using both plugins together

What type of WooCommerce variable products table will you choose?

Made a decision? Now it's time to skip to the setup instructions for your chosen WooCommerce variations table plugin:

• WooCommerce Bulk Variations - skip to instructions.
• WooCommerce Product Table - skip to instructions.

Option 1: WooCommerce Bulk Variations

Bulk Variations creates a WooCommerce product variations table listing variations for a specific product. For example, it's perfect for displaying the price of all the variations in a WooCommerce variable product price table. Customers don't need to click on a variation to see the price! They can also add multiple products to the cart directly from the pricing table.

WooCommerce variations table - Setup instructions

1. Get WooCommerce Bulk Variations and install them on your WordPress site.
2. Head to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Bulk variations and enter the license key from your order confirmation email.
3. Use one (or all!) of the following options to set up your WooCommerce product variation tables:
   • Configure everything centrally on the plugin settings page, which will automatically enable it on the single product page for all eligible products.
   • Enable the WooCommerce variation table for each product individually on the 'Edit Product' screen.
   • Use a shortcode to manually insert product variation table for WooCommerce into other pages and posts.
   • Install the WooCommerce Quick View plugin so that customers can open a lightbox containing the product variations table from the shop and category pages. This is important if you want to truly speed up the buying process, as customers don't need to visit a separate page to choose their variations.

Option 2: WooCommerce Product Table

This variable Product Table plugin provides a different way to create a WooCommerce variations table. While you can use it to list variations on the single product page, that's not its main purpose. Instead, it actually changes how your products are listed on the main shop and category pages.

WooCommerce Product Table lets you list WooCommerce variations as a table on any page of your website. Conveniently, this can be used for either specific products or for multiple products, whole categories, and more. You might:

• Enable it on the shop and category pages so that customers can select variations without leaving the page.
• WooCommerce display variations as list of products in a table on the product detail page, replacing the default dropdown lists.
• Add WooCommerce variation tables listing specific products on normal pages, or even within blog posts.

How does it work?

The plugin lists variations as products, with each one having its own row in the table. That way, you can list the variations for multiple products in the same table, alongside other types of products.

The table has multiple columns of information about each product or variation. Customers can instantly see all the information about each option and make quick buying decisions. They can then choose quantities and use the buy buttons or checkboxes. This is a great way to change the variation dropdown to a checkbox so that customers can select multiple variations and add them to the cart in a single click.

You can use the product table variations plugin to list variations anywhere on your site. This gives e-commerce stores an excellent way to list variations as products and make shopping easier for their customers.

Find variations more easily

WooCommerce Product Table comes with extra features to help customers to find what they want. As well as an instant search box, you can display filter dropdowns above the table. For example, if you've created a WooCommerce variation table with different options for color and size then you can add them as filters. Customers select their size and color, and the table updates to show variations with these product attributes. Neat!

WooCommerce Product Table can display product variations as a table or dropdowns

Before we start setting it up, it's worth mentioning that the plugin provides two ways to create WooCommerce variable product tables. These are:

1. Separate variations - list variations as products on their own row of the table.
2. Variation dropdowns - list products in a table (1 product per row), with variation dropdowns next to the buy buttons.

The benefit of WooCommerce variation dropdowns is that they're compact. You can list large numbers of product options in a small amount of space. As I mentioned earlier, it's a shame that WooCommerce only lets you display variation dropdowns on a single product page. With WooCommerce Product Table, you can add WooCommerce variation dropdowns as part of a product table anywhere on your site.

Which should I use?

For some stores, there are downsides to listing variations as a dropdown - even within a variable product table:

• Customers can only see 1 variation at a time. They have to select each variation option individually to see the variation price, description, stock, and image. This makes it hard to compare variations and make buying decisions.
• The buying process is slower, as customers have to select a variation (often from multiple options), then click add to cart. They must repeat the process to buy multiple variations. There's no way to select multiple variations in one go.

This is fine for many stores but causes problems for others. If you have large ranges of product sizes, different colors, weights, or other options, then a WooCommerce variations table with each option on its own row can massively benefit your store. Displaying variations in a table makes it easier for your customers to find and understand the necessary information. They can see all the available variations at once instead of having to select from dropdowns.

How to create a WooCommerce product variations table

Watch this video to discover how to create a WooCommerce variations table with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin:

1. Install the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.
2. The table builder will open, or you can open it at Products → Product Tables → Add New.
3. First, choose where to display the product variation table for WooCommerce. The options are:
   1. Add tables to any page using a Gutenberg block or shortcode. (E.g. do this if you want to add variations table to a normal page or the single product page.) You will then be able to either list all products, or select specific products whose variations you wish to list.
   2. Shop pages - Alternatively, you can enable the variations table layout on your main shop pages such as the Shop page or category templates.
      

      

4. Choose all the settings for your WooCommerce variation tables. In particular, pay attention to:
   • Columns - this controls what information is displayed about your product variations. The plugin supports individual variation descriptions, product images, prices, and stock statuses. If this data is available, then it will display in the relevant columns of the table. If you haven't added this data for each variation, then the information for the overall product will be used instead. (This avoids any gaps in your variations table.)
   • Variations - choose 'Dropdown' or 'Separate', as we discussed above.
     

     

   • Add to cart button - choose 'Button' or 'Button and Checkbox' to allow customers to add multiple variations to the cart at once. Customers can tick the options they require and click a single 'Add Selected to Cart' button above or below the table of variations as products.
   • Filters - Add all the filters that you wish to display above the WooCommerce product variations table. For example, you might add attribute filters to let customers filter by color and size.
     

     

Check out the full list of features that come with the Product Table plugin. You can then start planning which ones to use for your WooCommerce variations tables.

Can I automatically add a table of variations to the product page?

The variable product table shortcode lets you list variations anywhere on your site, including in the short or long description on the single product page. However, this won't hide the default variation dropdown menus. This is a bit more technical so we've provided code snippets that developers can use to achieve this.

Alternatively, use the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin (see Option 1, above) to automatically replace the dropdowns with a variations table.

Case studies - WooCommerce variations table in action

Before we finish, let's look at some real-life WooCommerce stores that use variations tables instead of dropdowns.

Many store owners use the plugin to list WooCommerce product variations on individual product pages. They do this as an alternative to built-in variations, to make purchasing technical or bulk items more straightforward.

A WooCommerce variation table layout is particularly suited to e-commerce sites that sell equipment and custom machinery, tools, or supplies. It's also ideal for bespoke kitchens, bathrooms, or furniture online stores. This is because customers can configure products to suit their needs, combining multiple choices as needed.

For example, First Kitchens use WooCommerce Product Table on the single product page for this purpose:

Similarly, Mechanical Air Supplies uses the code snippets in the plugin knowledge base to automatically add WooCommerce variations tables to the single product pages:

Edit multiple variations more easily

Have you ever noticed how long it takes to edit your variations? For example, if you want to add the same image to multiple variations at once, or set the same price for all variations with particular attribute values?

In WooCommerce itself, you have to do this manually. You can save yourself a lot of time by installing WooCommerce Bulk Variations. As well as displaying variations in a grid (which we discussed earlier), it lets you filter variations on the 'Edit Product' screen and edit the selected variations in bulk. Even if you're using WooCommerce Product Table to list variations in the front end, you can still use WooCommerce Bulk Variations for the bulk management features in the back end.

Alternatively, if you want to edit variations across multiple products at once then you might also like the Setary bulk editing app. Setary lets you bulk edit variations from a central spreadsheet-style interface and can save a lot of time:

Final thoughts on listing WooCommerce variations

Both the Bulk Variations and Product Table plugins are ideal for creating a WooCommerce variations table. Choose whichever plugin best meets your requirements.

By giving customers extra choice and flexibility in how WooCommerce display variations as list, you can encourage multiple or bulk sales for your WooCommerce variable product table. Customers are no longer limited to a single page for choosing product variations. Instead, they can add different variations to the checkout cart directly from other areas such as product category pages, your main shop, and also any other page on your WordPress site. This reduces the number of clicks - vital for improving your WooCommerce store's conversion rate.

This can have a hugely positive impact on purchasing behavior and increase your sales. The best WooCommerce variations plugin makes it easy to list variations as a table, which isn't normally possible with WooCommerce.

Buy Bulk Variations Buy Product Table

In this tutorial, I'll show you two ways to display a WooCommerce variations dropdown on the shop page and category pages. This makes it much faster for customers to add products to their cart, helping to grow your conversion rate.

By default, WooCommerce only shows a variations dropdown menu on the single product page. It's the standard way to choose different options for variable products. But what if your customers need to select variation options from other parts of your shop - such as the main shop page, product category pages, or any other page on your WordPress website? There's where a WooCommerce variations dropdown plugin comes in.

Keep reading to discover two easy ways to add WooCommerce variations dropdowns to other parts of your site.

After that, you'll learn how to add WooCommerce product dropdown options to your shop and category pages like this:

First, I'll tell you how to take this a step further by displaying your products in a one-page order form complete with variation dropdown menus, like this:

We'll do this with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.

We'll do this with the WooCommerce Express Shop Page plugin.

Both plugins are excellent ways to add a WooCommerce product drop down list of variations directly to the WooCommerce shop page. Customers can view products, choose variations from a dropdown, and add to the cart without visiting the single product page.

How does WooCommerce display variations?

Before we start, let's look at what you can do with WooCommerce variation dropdowns without any extra plugins. The free WooCommerce plugin comes complete with a variable product type. You can add a choice of options for each product.

For example, you might want to create a WooCommerce variations dropdown for color and another for size.

This type of WooCommerce dropdown menu is listed as product attributes dropdowns on the product detail page. Customers can select any combination of the variation options from the dropdowns before adding the product to the cart. Their choices will add to the cost of the product, and added to the cart with the correct totals.

This is all built into the WooCommerce core, without needing any extra plugins.

So why do I need a WooCommerce variations dropdown plugin?

Now it's time for the bad news. The built-in WooCommerce variations dropdown is perfect if customers only need to select variations from the single product page. The limitation is that the product options dropdown doesn't appear anywhere else on your WooCommerce store.

The variations dropdown menu doesn't appear in the list of products on the shop or category pages. Instead, the usual add to cart button (which appears for simple products without variation) is replaced with a 'Select options' button linking to the single product page.

This means that customers have to click through to the product details page to buy variable products. They can't view the variation options or prices on the product listings pages at all. This adds an extra click to the process and lengthens the buying process.

No one wants that, as customers are more likely to get frustrated and give up!

It's better to list WooCommerce variations dropdown wherever your products are displayed. You'll get more sales if customers can view all the options and buy straight away, without having to click through to another page.

Related tutorial: How to let customers select product variations on the WooCommerce Shop Page

Case study – variation dropdown menus on OrderAmysFood.com

OrderAmysFood.com have a food ordering service on their website. Customers can order a whole meal along with entrees, side dishes, drinks and dessert.

OrderAmysFood.com want to accommodate everyone, so there are variations to most menu items. A customer can choose a larger portion size, or ask for their curry to be extra spicy, or even ask that it’s made vegan-friendly. To make this happen, they’ve created WooCommerce dropdown menus for variations using the Woo Product Table plugin.

The order form includes at least one dropdown for each dish. Each time a customer selects a dropdown variation, the cost of the product is recalculated to show how much it’ll cost exactly. It’s extra convenient for the customer to be able make these selections right there and then. And seeing the price change instantly means there’s no surprises around the corner.

Carry on reading to find out how to add your own WooCommerce variation dropdown menus using either the Express Shop Page or Product Table plugins.

You may also like: The best WooCommerce product filter plugins and how to use them.

Method 1: How to list attribute options in a table with WooCommerce variations dropdown lists

Method 1 takes a unique approach to showing variations on the shop page. Instead of just adding the product dropdown options to your existing store layout, it actually improves the display of your products.

It does this by creating a fast one-page ordering experience.

The Product Table plugin is the perfect way to create quick order forms complete with WooCommerce variation dropdowns and add to cart buttons.

It's much more flexible than the default Woo shop and category page layouts. You have full control over what's displayed in the table. This includes several ways to list variation options including WooCommerce product dropdown lists. You can choose your columns, show or hide the images, choose the type of add to cart buttons, and much more.

While you can't use it to show the variation price in a dropdown, the price of each variation is clearly displayed when the customer selects a variation. Or to make the variation price even more visible, you can display each variation on its own row in the table instead of as product dropdown options. This keeps the price and other variation data visible all the time.

See the WooCommerce variation dropdowns in action on our demo page.

There's plenty you can do with product tables. But for the purposes of this tutorial, we're looking at how to add the WooCommerce variations dropdown lists for variable products. Now we'll get started!

Set up Product Table with WooCommerce variation dropdown menus

Before you start, I expect you to have a WordPress website with WooCommerce installed and some variable products added. If you don't know how to do this, then the official WooCommerce documentation will walk you through it.

Then, follow these easy steps to list variation dropdowns on the shop page and other parts of your store:

1. Get WooCommerce Product Table.
2. Install and activate the plugin.
3. Go to Products → Product Tables. This will launch the table builder (which also opens automatically on activation).
4. Enter your license key and choose the options for your first product table.
5. On the 'Select products' page, either select which of your default shop pages to display the table on; or opt to add it manually to a page later. If you choose the latter then you can then select which products/categories/etc. to display.
6. Make sure you include the 'Buy' column in the 'Columns' section.
7. Select the variations dropdown option under 'Variations'. This will show your WooCommerce variations as dropdown lists in the add to cart column.
8. Use the other pages to add filters, change the default sort order, etc.

After this, if you selected to display the table automatically on your shop page templates then it will start appearing on your site immediately. If you selected to add it manually then you need to create a page and either add the 'Product Table' Gutenberg block - or the shortcode from the last page of the table builder.

Either way, once you've finished you'll see a WooCommerce table with variations dropdowns.

Method 2: Add WooCommerce variation dropdowns to the shop page

Our second method for creating shop page variation dropdowns is super-simple. After all, the WooCommerce Express Shop Page plugin was designed exactly for this purpose!

This simple plugin takes the variation dropdowns from the single product page, and displays them on the main shop page and category pages. It does the same for quantity boxes. That's why it's the perfect WooCommerce select variation on shop page plugin - customers use the variation dropdowns and quantity fields directly on the main shop and category pages.

Unlike method 1, the overall layout of your shop pages won't change. The only difference is that after installing the plugin, you will have variation dropdowns and quantity fields on these pages - keeping your existing store layout.

Setup instructions

1. Install the WooCommerce Express Shop Page plugin on your WordPress site.
2. A quick setup wizard will open when you first activate the plugin.
3. Use the setup wizard to choose whether you want the WooCommerce product dropdown options and/or quantity fields to appear on your shop and/or category pages.

And that's it! An incredibly simple way to show WooCommerce variation dropdown lists on your main shop pages.

Can I create dropdown lists of other types of product option?

So far, we've just talked about how to create WooCommerce variation dropdown lists for your variable products. Everything in this tutorial equally applies to the extra product add-on fields that you can create with the WooCommerce Product Options plugin.

This plugin adds extra options for your products including more flexible dropdown lists, checkboxes, radio buttons, text entry fields for custom messages, and more. You can use it with either the WooCommerce Express Shop Page or WooCommerce Product Table plugin to show the extra product options on the shop page. Here's an example of what it looks like with the Express Shop Page plugin:

That way, you can show all sorts of product options on the shop page - not just WooCommerce variation dropdowns.

Related tutorial: How to add conditional variations to WooCommerce. 

How to display WooCommerce variation buttons instead of dropdown

While we're talking about the WooCommerce Product Options plugin, I'll tell you one more thing it can do.

Some store owners don't like the style of the WooCommerce dropdown menu for variations. Instead, they would prefer to display variation buttons instead of a dropdown.

You can do this by using the WooCommerce Product Options plugin to set up your options instead of using variations. This gives you extra styling options instead of just drop down lists. For example, this screenshot shows a charity donation product with the options added using different types of button instead of dropdowns. The "How much do you want to donate?" option displays text buttons for the customer to click on. The "Which charity are you donating to?" option has image buttons. As you can see, these are much more visual than using WooCommerce variation dropdowns:

Bonus tip - Show WooCommerce variation dropdowns in a quick view lightbox

So far, you've learned how to display WooCommerce variation dropdowns within a product table layout. You can also list variations as dropdowns in a quick view lightbox. To do this, you need the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin.

The quick view plugin is super-flexible. Here are some suggestions of how you can use it for your product variation dropdown lists:

Related tutorial: How to add category dropdown filters to your WooCommerce store.

Now you're ready to create variation dropdowns in WooCommerce

That wraps up our guide on 2 easy ways to add WooCommerce product variation dropdowns to the shop page:

• Either create quick order forms with variation dropdowns using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin, or;
• Add variation dropdowns to your usual store layout with the WooCommerce Express Shop Page plugin.

Either way, this is a great way to improve the shopping experience for your customers. Both options make it easy for customers to select variations on the shop page in WooCommerce - a faster way to shop. Customers no longer have to click to the product detail page to view variation attributes and pricing.

By saving your customers time and making it easier to buy from you, displaying product variation dropdown menus in this way can have a big impact on sales. Get your favorite plugin today, and make life easier for your customers!