# How to Hide Products in WooCommerce: A Complete Guide
Want to keep certain products out of sight but still accessible within your WooCommerce store? Whether you’re prepping for a launch, managing inventory, or dealing with seasonal items, knowing how to hide products effectively is crucial. This comprehensive guide will walk you through several methods to hide products from your customers while maintaining easy access for yourself.
Introduction: Why Hide WooCommerce Products?
There are numerous reasons why you might want to hide products in WooCommerce. These include:
- Managing Inventory: Hiding out-of-stock items prevents customer frustration and unnecessary inquiries.
- Preparing for Launches: Hide upcoming products until they’re ready to be officially released.
- Seasonal Items: Easily hide products that aren’t relevant to the current season.
- Internal Use Only: Keep certain products (e.g., wholesale items) hidden from the general public.
- Testing and Development: Hide products during testing phases to avoid customer confusion.
- Navigate to Products > All Products.
- Select the product you want to hide.
- Edit the product.
- Go to the Inventory tab.
- Set the Stock quantity to 0.
- Save the changes.
- Navigate to Products > All Products.
- Select the product you want to hide.
- Edit the product.
- Go to the Product Data tab.
- Under Inventory, you’ll find the Visibility setting.
- Change it from “Visible” to “Hidden”. You can also choose “Catalog visibility” if you want to show it in the catalog but not allow purchase.
- Save the changes.
- Advanced Custom Fields (ACF): This allows for creating custom fields to control product visibility based on your own logic.
- Product Visibility by User Role: Allows you to restrict product visibility based on user roles (administrator, customer, etc.).
Main Part: Methods to Hide WooCommerce Products
There are Discover insights on How To Set Up Payments In Woocommerce several ways to effectively hide products in WooCommerce, each with its advantages and disadvantages. Let’s explore the most common techniques:
1. Using WooCommerce’s Built-in “Inventory” Feature
This is the simplest method for hiding out-of-stock items. By default, WooCommerce typically hides products when their stock is set to zero.
This method is quick and efficient, but remember, customers might still see the product if you have plugins that override this default behavior.
2. Changing Product Visibility Settings
WooCommerce offers granular control over product visibility. You can choose to make a product completely invisible or only visible to specific user roles (e.g., administrators).
This method provides more control over visibility, allowing you to keep products hidden even if stock is available.
3. Utilizing WooCommerce Plugins for Advanced Hiding
For more sophisticated control, several plugins offer advanced features to manage Explore this article on How To Skip Payment Processing On Woocommerce product visibility. These plugins often allow you to hide products based on custom rules, dates, or user roles. Some popular Learn more about How To Upload Folders Of Images To Woocommerce Media Library options include:
Learn more about How To Configure A Woocommerce Store With A Bazillion Attributes
4. Using Custom PHP Code (Advanced Users Only)
For the most advanced users, you can use custom PHP code to hide products based on specific criteria. Use this approach cautiously, as incorrect code can break your website. Here’s a simple example that hides products Learn more about How To Connect My Woocommerce Store To Etsy based on a custom field:
add_filter( 'woocommerce_product_is_visible', 'hide_products_by_custom_field', 10, 2 ); function hide_products_by_custom_field( $visible, $product ) { if ( $product->get_meta( 'hide_product' ) == 'yes' ) { $visible = false; } return $visible; }
This code checks for a custom field named “hide_product” with a value of “yes”. If found, the product will be hidden. Remember to add this code to your theme’s `functions.php` file or a custom plugin.
Conclusion: Choosing the Right Method
The best method for hiding WooCommerce products depends on your specific needs and technical skills. For simple inventory management, the built-in inventory feature is sufficient. For more nuanced control, adjusting product visibility settings or using a plugin offers greater flexibility. Only experienced developers should attempt modifying core WooCommerce functionality with custom PHP code. Remember to always back up your website before making any significant changes. By understanding these methods, you can effectively manage your product catalog and create a smoother shopping experience for your customers.
