How to Make a Product a Featured Product in WooCommerce: A Beginner’s Guide
Want to shine a spotlight on your best-selling items? Or maybe you have a new product launch you want everyone to see first? WooCommerce makes it easy to highlight specific products as “featured products,” drawing customer attention and potentially boosting sales. This guide will walk you through the simple steps, even if you’re new to WooCommerce.
Think of it like this: imagine a grocery store. They strategically place popular items like milk and bread at the back, forcing you to walk past other products you might buy on impulse. Featured products are like the strategically placed end-cap displays or the “product of the month” right at the entrance – designed to grab your attention.
Why Feature Products in WooCommerce?
Before we dive in, let’s quickly touch on why marking a product as featured is beneficial:
- Increase Visibility: Featured products are often displayed prominently on your homepage, in product category pages, or through specific WooCommerce widgets. This immediately draws attention to them.
- Boost Sales: Higher visibility leads to increased clicks and, hopefully, conversions! Highlighting items you want to move quickly or that are especially profitable can be a real sales driver.
- Promote New Arrivals: Want to make a splash with a new product? Featuring it guarantees more eyes on it from the get-go. Think of it as your digital launch party!
- Clearance Items: Struggling to shift older stock? Highlight those clearance lines as featured and catch your visitors attention by showcasing the discounted offers.
- Hover over the product you want to edit.
- Click on the “Quick Edit” link that appears.
- In the Quick Edit panel, you’ll see a checkbox labeled “Featured”.
- Check the “Featured” box. This is the key!
- Click on the Product title or “Edit” link below the title.
- In the “Publish” metabox at the top right hand corner, in the “Catalog visibility” field click “Edit”
- Check the “Featured Product” checkbox and then click “ok”
- Click on the “Update” button to save your changes.
- Using the WooCommerce Featured Products Shortcode: You can embed featured products directly into any page or post using the `[featured_products]` shortcode. You can also specify the number of products to display using the `limit` attribute.
- WooCommerce Featured Products Block (for Gutenberg): If you’re using the Gutenberg block editor, you can easily add a “WooCommerce Featured Product” block to any page. This offers a visual way to select which products to display.
- WooCommerce Widgets: WooCommerce also offers widgets like “WooCommerce Featured Products” that you can add to your sidebar or other widget areas. Go to Appearance > Widgets to manage your widgets.
- Don’t Overdo It: Featuring *everything* will dilute the effect. Choose products strategically.
- Update Regularly: Keep your featured products fresh. Rotate them every week or month to keep things interesting and promote different items.
- Analyze Performance: Track which featured products are performing well and adjust your strategy accordingly. Google Analytics can provide valuable insights.
How to Mark a Product as Featured in WooCommerce
Here’s the step-by-step process to mark a product as featured:
1. Login to your WordPress Admin Dashboard: Access your WordPress backend by going to `yourdomain.com/wp-admin`.
2. Navigate to Products: In the left-hand menu, find and click on “Products”.
3. Find the Product You Want to Feature: Browse the list of your products or use the search bar to quickly locate the product you want to feature.
4. Edit the Product (Quick Edit Method):
5. Mark as Featured:
[ ] Featured <– Check this box!
6. Update the Product: Click the “Update” button to save your changes.
7. Edit the Product (Full Edit Method):
That’s it! You’ve successfully marked the product as featured.
Displaying Featured Products on Your Site
Marking a product as featured is only half the battle. Now you need to display them on your website so customers can actually see them! WooCommerce provides several ways to do this:
For example, to display 4 featured products, you would use:
[featured_products limit=”4″ columns=”4″]
The `columns` attribute specifies how many products should be displayed per row.
Example: Featuring a Spring Collection
Let’s say you run an online clothing store. You’re launching a new “Spring Collection.” To make it a success, you would:
1. Mark each item in the Spring Collection as “Featured” using the steps above.
2. Create a dedicated landing page for the Spring Collection.
3. Add the `[featured_products limit=”8″ columns=”4″]` shortcode to that landing page to showcase 8 key items from the collection.
4. Place a banner on your homepage linking directly to the Spring Collection landing page.
This ensures that visitors immediately see your new products, increasing the likelihood of sales.
Things to Keep in Mind
By following these steps, you can effectively use WooCommerce’s featured product functionality to boost sales and highlight your most important items. Good luck!
