How To Hide Products In Woocommerce Thats Out Of Stock

How to Hide Out-of-Stock Products in WooCommerce: A Beginner’s Guide

Selling online with WooCommerce is exciting, but managing inventory can be tricky. One common issue is dealing with out-of-stock products that still show up on your website. This can be frustrating for customers and damage your brand reputation. Luckily, WooCommerce offers several ways to hide out-of-stock products, improving the user experience and streamlining Discover insights on Mailchimp For Woocommerce How To Add To Group In List your store. This article will guide you through simple and effective methods, even if you’re new to WooCommerce.

Why Hide Out-of-Stock Products?

Before diving into the “how,” let’s understand the “why.” Showing out-of-stock items can lead to:

• Frustrated Customers: Customers clicking on a product only to find it unavailable is a major turn-off. It leads to a negative shopping experience and potentially lost sales.
• Damaged Brand Image: A disorganized store with outdated inventory information reflects poorly on your professionalism.
• Wasted Resources: Customers searching for unavailable items waste their time and yours. A cleaner product catalog focuses attention on what you *can* offer.

Imagine Explore this article on How To Add And Edit Branches & Woocommerce a bookstore website showing a book listed as “in stock” but it’s actually sold out. This causes disappointment and may lead customers to seek that book elsewhere, impacting your sales. Hiding such items creates a more streamlined and positive experience.

Methods to Hide Out-of-Stock Products

Here are several ways to effectively remove those unavailable products from your WooCommerce store’s visibility:

#### 1. Using WooCommerce’s Built-in Settings (Easiest Method)

The simplest solution is often the best. WooCommerce itself offers a setting to control the display of out-of-stock items.

• Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Inventory.
• Find the option “Out of stock visibility“.
• Select “Hide out of stock items from the catalog page”.
• Save your changes.

This method effectively removes out-of-stock products from your shop’s main product pages. They will remain in your admin panel for management but won’t clutter the customer’s view.

#### 2. Using a Plugin (More Control and Features)

For advanced control or additional features, consider a plugin. Many plugins offer more sophisticated ways to manage out-of-stock items, including:

• Customizing the message displayed to customers: Some plugins let you display a message like “Coming soon!” instead of just indicating an item is out of stock.
• Adding back-in-stock notifications: Notify customers via email when an item becomes available.
• Managing different out-of-stock statuses: Perhaps you want to differentiate between “temporarily out of stock” and “discontinued.” Plugins can help with this granular control.

Popular plugins for this include (but are not limited to):

• Product Availability Management: This is often already included in larger theme bundles.
• Advanced Inventory Management: Offer more advanced settings to manage stock and product visibility.
• YITH WooCommerce Out of Stock Management: A free plugin that can help you manage your inventory.

Remember to research and choose a plugin that suits your needs and is compatible with your WooCommerce version.

#### 3. Custom Code (For Developers)

For developers or those comfortable with PHP, you can customize this functionality directly within your theme’s functions.php file (Proceed with caution! Always back up your files before making code changes). This allows highly tailored control, but requires coding knowledge.

For example, you can add the following code to hide out-of-stock products from the shop page:

 add_filter( 'woocommerce_product_is_visible', 'hide_out_of_stock_products', 10, 2 ); function hide_out_of_stock_products( $visible, $product ) { if ( ! $product->is_in_stock() ) { $visible = false; } return $visible; } 

This code snippet directly modifies the visibility of products based on their stock status.

Conclusion

Hiding out-of-stock products in WooCommerce is vital for maintaining a professional and efficient online store. Whether you use the built-in settings, a plugin, or custom code, the method you choose will depend on your technical skills and desired level of control. Prioritize a clean and user-friendly shopping experience to keep your customers happy and coming back for more!