How to Show Stock Availability in WooCommerce: A Comprehensive Guide
Introduction:
In the world of e-commerce, transparency is key to building trust and driving sales. One crucial aspect of transparency is clearly displaying your product stock availability in WooCommerce. Informing customers about whether a product is in stock, out of stock, or available for backorder can significantly impact their purchasing decisions. A well-configured stock display can prevent frustrating situations where customers order items you can’t immediately fulfill, leading to negative reviews and lost sales. This article will guide you through the various methods of showing stock availability in your WooCommerce store, optimizing the user experience and ultimately boosting your bottom line.
Understanding the Importance of Stock Management
Before diving into the “how,” let’s quickly address the “why.” Showing stock availability is more than just a nice-to-have feature; it’s a fundamental element of a successful online store.
- Customer Satisfaction: Customers appreciate knowing if a product is readily available before they proceed to checkout.
- Reduced Cart Abandonment: When customers are unsure of availability, they might hesitate and abandon their carts.
- Improved Trust: Transparency builds trust. Customers are more likely to return to a store that provides clear and accurate information.
- Better Inventory Management: Accurate stock levels help you forecast demand and avoid overstocking or stockouts.
- Enable stock management: This is the most important setting. Check the box to activate WooCommerce’s stock management features.
- Hold stock (minutes): Set the time (in minutes) to hold stock for pending orders. This prevents others from purchasing items that are already in someone else’s cart.
- Notification threshold: Set the low stock threshold. When a product’s stock level reaches this number, you’ll receive an email notification. This helps you replenish your inventory proactively.
- Low stock notifications recipient(s): Enter the email address(es) where you want to receive low stock notifications.
- Out of stock visibility: Decide whether to hide out-of-stock products from your catalog. Read more about How To Add Shipping Tracking In Woocommerce Hiding them can prevent customer frustration, but it might also limit visibility if you’re accepting backorders.
- Stock display format: This setting controls how stock availability is displayed on the product page. You have three options:
- Always show stock e.g. “12 in stock”: This displays the exact number of items in stock.
- Only show stock when low e.g. “Only 2 left in stock”: This only shows the stock level when it’s below the low stock threshold.
- Never show stock: This hides the stock level completely.
- Edit the Product: Go to Products > All Products and edit the product you want to configure.
- Inventory Tab: Navigate to the Inventory tab within the product data section.
- Manage stock?: Check this box to enable stock management for this specific product.
- Stock quantity: Enter the current stock level for the product.
- Allow backorders?: Choose whether to allow customers to order the product even when it’s out of stock. You have three options:
- Do not allow: Customers cannot order when out of stock.
- Allow, but notify customer: Customers can order, and they’ll see a notification that the item is on backorder.
- Allow: Customers can order without any notification. Use with caution!
- Low stock threshold: Override the global low stock threshold for this specific product.
- Sold individually: Check this box if you only want to allow one of this item to be purchased in a single order.
Main Part: Displaying Stock Availability in WooCommerce
WooCommerce offers built-in options for managing and displaying stock levels. Let’s explore these methods in detail:
1. WooCommerce’s Built-in Stock Management Options
WooCommerce’s core settings provide basic but functional stock management. You can find these settings under WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Inventory.
2. Configuring Stock at the Product Level
Once you’ve enabled stock management, you can configure stock settings for individual products.
3. Customizing Stock Availability Messages
While WooCommerce provides basic stock display formats, you may want to customize the messages to better suit your brand or provide more specific information. You can achieve this using code snippets in your `functions.php` file or a custom plugin. Always back up your website before making changes to your theme files.
/**
function custom_stock_availability_message( $text, $product ) {
if ( $product->is_in_stock() ) {
$stock_quantity = $product->get_stock_quantity();
if ( $stock_quantity > 10 ) {
$text = __(‘In Stock: Available!’, ‘woocommerce’);
} elseif ( $stock_quantity > 0 && $stock_quantity <= 10 ) {
$text = sprintf( __(‘Hurry, only %s left!’, ‘woocommerce’), $stock_quantity );
} else {
$text = __(‘In Stock’, ‘woocommerce’);
}
} else {
$text = __(‘Out of Stock’, ‘woocommerce’);
}
return $text;
}
This code snippet demonstrates how to customize the stock availability message based on the stock quantity. You can adapt this code to create more complex and personalized messages. For example, you could show estimated shipping times based on whether the product is in stock or on backorder.
4. Using WooCommerce Plugins for Advanced Stock Management
For more advanced features and granular control over stock display, consider using a WooCommerce plugin. Several plugins offer features such as:
- Stock per Variation: Display stock levels for individual product variations.
- Product Bundles Stock: Manage stock for bundled products.
- Pre-Order Functionality: Allow customers to pre-order out-of-stock items.
- Backorder Management: Advanced control over backorder notifications and processing.
Some popular WooCommerce stock management plugins include:
- ATUM Inventory Management: Comprehensive inventory management solution.
- WooCommerce Stock Manager: Simple and intuitive stock management tool.
- Smart Manager for WooCommerce: Offers advanced bulk editing and stock management capabilities.
5. Show Stock Availability in WooCommerce Product Loop
Showing stock availability on the shop page improves user experience and might increase sales. You can add a small code snippet to `functions.php` file in order to show the stock status.
add_action( 'woocommerce_after_shop_loop_item_title', 'bbloomer_show_stock_shop_page', 11 );
function bbloomer_show_stock_shop_page() {
global $product;
if ( !$product->managing_stock() ) return;
echo wc_get_stock_html( $product );
}
Conclusion:
Displaying accurate and informative stock availability is crucial for creating a positive customer experience and boosting sales in your WooCommerce store. By leveraging WooCommerce’s built-in features, customizing messages with code snippets, or utilizing powerful plugins, you can ensure that your customers are always informed about product availability. Remember to regularly monitor your stock levels and adjust your settings as needed to maintain optimal inventory management. By implementing these strategies, you’ll build trust, reduce cart abandonment, and ultimately drive more conversions.
