Woocommerce How To Add Selectable Attribute Option Product

WooCommerce: Mastering Selectable Attribute Options for Your Products (A Beginner’s Guide)

Want to give your customers more choices and make your WooCommerce store shine? Learning how to add selectable attribute options to your products is a game-changer. This isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about making your products easier to find, easier to understand, and ultimately, easier to sell.

Think about it: If you’re selling a t-shirt, wouldn’t you want customers to easily choose their size (S, M, L) and color (Red, Blue, Green) without having to guess or contact you? That’s exactly what we’ll achieve!

This guide will walk you through the process step-by-step, even if you’re a complete WooCommerce newbie. Let’s get started!

Why Use Selectable Attribute Options?

Before diving in, let’s quickly understand the benefits:

Improved User Experience: Customers can easily find the exact product variation they need.
Increased Conversions: Clear choices lead to fewer abandoned carts. A customer is much more likely to buy if they see their size and color *in stock*.
Better Product Organization: Attributes help organize your product catalog, making it easier to manage.
Enhanced SEO: Attributes are often used as search filters, improving your product’s visibility in search results. For example, Google might understand that someone searching for “red small t-shirt” could find your product because of these attributes.
Simplified Inventory Management: You can track stock levels for each variation (e.g., “Small Red T-Shirt” separately from “Large Blue T-Shirt”).

Step 1: Creating Global Attributes

Global attributes are attributes you can reuse across multiple products. They’re perfect for things like sizes, colors, materials, etc. Let’s create a “Size” attribute as an example.

1. Go to Products > Attributes: In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Products and then click on “Attributes”.

2. Add a New Attribute: In the “Add new attribute” section, enter the following:

Name: Size
Slug: (Leave blank – WooCommerce will automatically generate one. Slugs are URL-friendly versions of the name, usually lowercase and using hyphens).
Enable archives?: Consider enabling this if you want a dedicated page for each size (e.g., a page listing all products available in “Small”). This can be helpful for SEO.
Default sort order: Choose how the values (e.g., S, M, L) should be sorted. “Name” is generally a good choice.

3. Click “Add attribute”: The “Size” attribute is now created.

4. Configure Terms: Click on “Configure terms” under the “Size” attribute. This is where you define the specific values for your attribute (e.g., Small, Medium, Large).

5. Add Terms (Values): For each size, enter:

Name: Small
Slug: (Leave blank – WooCommerce will generate it)
Description: (Optional, but can be helpful for internal documentation).
Click “Add new Size”. Repeat for Medium and Large.

Now you have a “Size” attribute with three terms: Small, Medium, and Large.

Step 2: Adding the Attribute to a Variable Product

Now, let’s create a variable product and add the “Size” attribute to it.

1. Go to Products > Add New: Create a new product or edit an existing one.

2. Product Data: In the “Product data” dropdown (usually found below the product title and description), select “Variable product”.

3. Attributes Tab: Click on the “Attributes” tab.

4. Add Existing Attribute: In the “Add attribute” dropdown, choose “Size” (the attribute you created earlier) and click “Add”.

5. Configure the Attribute:

Select Values: Select the sizes you want to offer for this particular product. You can select all of them (“Select all”) or pick specific ones. For example, maybe you only have Small and Medium in stock for this product.
Used for variations: This is crucial! Check the “Used for variations” box. This tells WooCommerce that these size options will be used to create different product variations.

6. Save Attribute: Click “Save attributes”.

Step 3: Creating Variations

Now that you’ve added the attribute and marked it for variations, you need to create the actual variations.

1. Variations Tab: Click on the “Variations” tab.

2. Create Variations: Use the “Add variation” dropdown. You have several options:

Create variations from all attributes: This is the easiest option if you want to create a variation for every possible combination of your attributes (e.g., Small, Medium, Large). If you have multiple attributes (like Size and Color), this will create *all* combinations (Small Red, Small Blue, Medium Red, etc.). This is often the best choice if you offer all possible combinations.
Create variation: This allows you to manually create each variation. This is useful if you only offer a specific combination (e.g., only Small Red and Large Blue).

3. Example using “Create variations from all attributes”:

Select “Create variations from all attributes” and click “Go”.
WooCommerce will generate a message saying how many variations were created. Click “OK”.

4. Configure Each Variation: For each variation that’s created (e.g., “Small”), click on the dropdown arrow to expand it. You *must* configure the following:

Image: Upload an image specific to that variation (e.g., a picture of the Small size). This is *highly* recommended.
SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): A unique identifier for this variation. Helps with inventory management.
Manage stock?: Tick this box if you want to track the inventory levels for this specific size.
Stock quantity: The initial quantity of this size you have in stock.
Price: The price for this specific size. The price could be different for each variation.
Sale price: Optionally, set a sale price for this variation.
Weight/Dimensions: If the size significantly affects the shipping cost, set the weight and dimensions.

5. Repeat for Each Variation: Configure all the necessary details for each variation (Medium, Large, etc.).

6. Save Changes: Click “Save changes” at the bottom of the “Variations” tab.

Step 4: Update and Preview Your Product

1. Publish/Update Product: Click the “Publish” or “Update” button on the right-hand side of the screen to save all your changes.

2. Preview Product: Click “Preview Changes” to see how your product looks on the front end of your website. You should now see a dropdown menu allowing customers to select their desired size.

Example: Selling T-Shirts

Let’s say you’re selling t-shirts. You want to offer them in different sizes (S, M, L, XL) and colors (Red, Blue, Green).

1. You would create two global attributes: “Size” and “Color”.

2. For the “Size” attribute, you would create the terms: Small, Medium, Large, X-Large.

3. For the “Color” attribute, you would create the terms: Red, Blue, Green.

4. You would then create a variable product Check out this post: How To Add Meta Field In Woocommerce Product called “Awesome T-Shirt”.

5. You would add both the “Size” and “Color” attributes to the product, marking them as “Used for variations”.

6. You would use “Create variations from all attributes” to generate all possible combinations (Small Red, Small Blue, Small Green, Medium Red, etc.).

7. For each variation, you would:

Upload an image of the t-shirt in that specific size and color.
Set the SKU.
Set the price.
Set the stock quantity.

The result would be a product page where customers can easily select their desired size and color from dropdown menus, see a picture of the selected variation, and add it to their cart!

Local Attributes

Sometimes, you only need an attribute for a *single* product. In this case, you can create a local attribute directly within the product’s edit screen. Instead of choosing from the “Add attribute” dropdown, select “Custom product attribute” and click “Add”. This works the same way as global attributes, but the attribute is only available for that specific product.

Troubleshooting

Variations not showing up: Make sure you’ve checked the “Used for variations” box for the attribute. Also, ensure you’ve saved the attribute Learn more about How To Speed Up WordPress Woocommerce Website and the product.
Images not changing: Ensure you’ve uploaded an image for each variation.
Out of stock issues: Double-check your stock quantities for each variation in the “Variations” tab. WooCommerce relies on this data to determine if a product is available.

Conclusion

Adding selectable attribute options to your WooCommerce products is essential for providing a better user experience, improving your product organization, and boosting your sales. By following the steps in this guide, you can easily master this technique and take your WooCommerce store to the next level. Remember to regularly update your inventory and product information to keep your store accurate and engaging. Good luck!