How to Add Product Variations in Woocommerce?

Woocommerce has been a trusted open-source plugin for WordPress users. The woocommerce came into being on 27th September 2011 by Mike Jolley and James Koster when they used to work for Woothemes. 

In May 2015 both Woothemes and Woocommerce were acquired by Automattic. Woocommerce is normally used by a lot of high trafficking websites; since the acquisition by Automattic, Woocommerce gained a lot of market’s share and has become one of the top ECommerce platforms worldwide. 

A study shows that in 2017 alone Woocommerce was involved in 10 billion dollars worth of product sales which is really huge. Written in PHP language, woo commerce is free and has more than 1000 extensions themselves. 

There are some paid extensions as well along with some free and some paid for Themes. Some of their popular extensions are “Woocommerce Bookings” and “Woocommerce Memberships”. 

Through the first appointment can be booked or sold; the second one provides access to certain restricted sections of a website in exchange for money.

Nowadays selling through woo-commerce has become very profitable because of the eCommerce site’s popularity with internet users. Products get a high amount of highlights. The listing of a product can be done in simple steps. 

In case a product has more than one variant, those variants need to be added separately. For example, if a shirt is available in many colours and many sizes or furniture is available in different materials or sizes.

Steps to Add Product Variants

• Open Woocommerce and go to Products.
• The Add Product Button needs to be selected in case of a New Product. Or if an existing Product needs to be edited, click on the Edit Button.
• On the left bottom side, there is an option to choose Product Data. Select Variable Product using the dropdown menu.
• From the Product Data dropdown menu, select Variable Product.
• First, the Attributes need to be created for the Variations to work. There are two types of Attributes i.e. Global and Customized.
• For creating Global Attribute, select the Attribute and add it or in case all of the variants are required, choose Select All.
• The Used for Variations box needs to be checked next. Then Save the Attribute to set the Variation.
• To create Custom Attributes select Custom Product Attribute and press Add Button.
• Define the name of the Attribute manually.
• Set the values of the Custom Attribute and separate them by | symbol.
• The Used for Variations box needs to be checked next. Then Save the Attribute to set the Variation.
• Now that Attributes are set, go to Variation Tab, click on Add Variation.
• Select the Attribute you want from the Dropdown consisting of both Global and Customized Attributes.
• Set the Regular Price of the Variation.
• Save the Changes.
• You can create Variations using all available Attributes as well so that the Customers can choose from all possible combinations.

For example, a T-Shirt can be sold in many colours or many sizes. Both can be combined with the same or different prices using the Variation option.

• For all the Variants you have added, images need to be uploaded for the purpose of Customer’s View.
• Images need to be uploaded separately for all the Variants. From the dropdown on the top right, select each variant and upload necessary photos. Then move on to the next Variant. When all Variants have the Images Uploaded, Save the Changes.
• Then click on Update or Publish button (Whichever is applicable in current scenario).

Now there are some Default settings that could be applied in the Variants. For Example, in the case of a Polo T-Shirt, a Particular Colour (Red) and a particular Size (Large) has been selected as default. 

In that case, when a Customer opens the Product, it will by default show the Large Red Polo. However, the customer can choose other combinations as well. But keeping a Default Setting on Variants helps with the Visual Appeal of the Product. 

The Great thing about Woocommerce is its Flexibility and the simplicity in its design. One can create a Product Page easily whether it’s simple or complex. You can sell a Basic Product as well as a Product with lots of variants with the same ease. This is what keeps Woocommerce apart from others.