How to Add a Price Range Attribute in WooCommerce: A Beginner’s Guide
Want to offer your customers a way to filter products based on price ranges in your WooCommerce store? You’re in the right place! While WooCommerce doesn’t have a built-in price range attribute, we can easily create one using custom attributes and some clever techniques. This article will guide you through the process step-by-step, even if you’re a WooCommerce newbie.
Why Use a Price Range Attribute?
Think about shopping for a new laptop. You probably have a budget in mind. You wouldn’t want to scroll through laptops costing $2000 if your maximum budget is $1000. That’s precisely why a price range filter is so useful!
Here’s why adding a price range attribute can significantly improve your customer’s experience and boost sales:
- Improved User Experience: Customers can quickly find products within their budget, making it easier to browse and purchase.
- Increased Conversions: By narrowing down the options, users are more likely to find what they’re looking for and complete a purchase.
- Better Search Functionality: Allows customers to refine their search based on price, leading to more relevant results.
- Competitive Advantage: Many successful e-commerce sites offer price filtering; keeping up with these features helps you stay competitive.
- Under $25
- $25 – $50
- $50 – $100
- $100 – $200
- Over $200
- Title: Set a title like “Price Range” or “Filter by Price”.
- Attribute: Select the “Price Range” attribute you created.
- Display type: Choose “List” or “Dropdown” based on your preference. A “List” displays the price ranges as checkboxes, while a “Dropdown” presents them in a select menu.
- Leave the “Query type” as the default (“AND” is usually what you want).
- WooCommerce Plugins: Numerous plugins offer advanced filtering capabilities, including price range sliders and custom filter layouts. Search the WordPress plugin repository for terms like “WooCommerce filter” or “WooCommerce price range”. Examples include “Product Filter by WooBeWoo” and “WOOF – WooCommerce Products Filter”.
- Custom Coding: For complete control, you can hire a developer or write custom code to create a bespoke price range filtering solution. This allows you to integrate the filter seamlessly into your theme and add advanced features. This typically involves using WooCommerce hooks and filters.
Step 1: Planning Your Price Ranges
Before diving into the technical stuff, let’s plan your price ranges. Think about the price points of your products and create logical groupings.
Example:
Let’s say you’re selling clothing:
These are just examples; tailor them to your specific product catalog. Consider using data from your sales reports to see what price points are most popular.
Step 2: Creating the “Price Range” Attribute
Now, let’s create the custom attribute in WooCommerce.
1. Go to Products > Attributes in your WordPress admin panel.
2. In the “Add new attribute” section, name your attribute “Price Range”.
3. You can leave the “Slug” field blank; WooCommerce will automatically generate one.
4. Important: Enable the “Enable archives?” option *only* if you want a dedicated page for each price range (generally, you *don’t* need this).
5. Click “Add attribute”.
Step 3: Adding Terms (Price Ranges) to the Attribute
Next, we need to define the actual price ranges as terms within the “Price Range” attribute.
1. On the “Attributes” page, find the “Price Range” attribute you just created.
2. Click on the “Configure terms” link next to it.
3. In the “Add new Price Range” section, enter your first price range (e.g., “Under $25”).
4. Again, you can leave the “Slug” blank.
5. Click “Add new Price Range”.
6. Repeat this process for all your defined price ranges (e.g., “$25 – $50”, “$50 – $100”, etc.).
Step 4: Assigning Price Ranges to Your Products
Now comes the crucial part – associating the price ranges with your products.
1. Go to Products > All Products and edit a product.
2. Scroll down to the “Product data” meta box.
3. Click on the “Attributes” tab.
4. Select “Price Range” from the “Custom product attribute” dropdown.
5. Click “Add”.
6. In the “Values” field, choose the price range(s) that apply to the product. Important: You can only assign *one* price range to a product if you want proper filtering. If a product fits in multiple ranges, decide on the most appropriate one.
7. Make sure “Visible on the product page” is *NOT* checked. We’re using this for filtering, not displaying.
8. Make sure “Used for variations” is *NOT* checked unless you are using price ranges as part of product variations (uncommon).
9. Click “Save attribute”.
10. Update your product.
11. Repeat steps 1-10 for all your products.
Reasoning: We *don’t* want the price range to be visible on the product page because it will be redundant given the price is already displayed. We *don’t* want it used for variations because variations already have their own prices and price ranges.
Step 5: Displaying the Price Range Filter on Your Storefront
Now, you need a way for your customers to actually filter by the price range. The easiest way to do this is by using a WooCommerce widget.
1. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress admin panel.
2. Find the “Filter Products by Attribute” widget.
3. Drag the widget to your desired sidebar or widget area (usually the shop sidebar).
4. In the widget settings:
5. Click “Save”.
Now, visit your shop page. You should see the “Price Range” filter in the sidebar (or wherever you placed the widget). Customers can now click on a price range to filter the displayed products.
Alternative Methods: Plugins and Coding
While the method above works well for basic price range filtering, you might want more advanced features. Here are a few alternatives:
Example of custom coding (very basic and requires further development for full functionality):
/**
/
* Modify the main query to filter by price range
*/
add_action( ‘woocommerce_product_query’, ‘filter_products_by_price_range’ );
function filter_products_by_price_range( $q ) {
if ( ! is_admin() && is_shop() && ( $price_range = get_query_var( ‘price_range’ ) ) ) {
//Example of how to handle ‘under-25’ price range
if ($price_range == ‘under-25’){
$q->set( ‘meta_query’, array(
array(
‘key’ => ‘_price’,
‘value’ => 25,
‘compare’ => ‘<=',
‘type’ => ‘NUMERIC’
)
));
}
//Add additional logic for other price ranges here.
}
}
Important Note: The above code is a *very* basic example. You’ll need to expand it to handle all your price ranges, create URL structures that include the `price_range` query variable (e.g., `yourstore.com/shop/?price_range=under-25`), and integrate it into your theme’s template files. This is best left to experienced developers.
Conclusion
Adding a price range attribute to your WooCommerce store is a great way to enhance the user experience and increase sales. By following these steps, you can easily implement this feature and help your customers find the products they’re looking for within their budget. Remember to test your implementation thoroughly to ensure it’s working correctly. Good luck!
