Woocommerce How To Change Available Stock

WooCommerce: How to Change Available Stock (The No-Fuss Guide for Beginners)

Running an online store with WooCommerce is fantastic. But managing your inventory, specifically keeping track of your available stock, is crucial for avoiding unhappy customers and ensuring smooth operations. Nothing is worse than a customer ordering something you don’t actually have! This guide will walk you through exactly how to change your WooCommerce available stock, whether you need to adjust a single product or update your entire catalog. We’ll focus on simple, effective methods that even a complete beginner can understand.

Why is Accurate Stock Management Important?

Imagine you’re selling hand-knitted scarves online. A customer excitedly orders a unique, limited-edition design. But, because your stock levels are inaccurate, you discover you’ve already sold it. Now you have to contact them, apologize, and potentially lose a customer. That’s bad news!

Here’s why accurate stock management matters:

Prevents Overselling: Avoid selling products you don’t have. This leads to cancellations, refunds, and unhappy customers.
Improves Customer Experience: Knowing exactly what’s available builds trust and encourages repeat purchases.
Better Forecasting: Accurate stock data helps you plan future purchases and avoid running out of popular items.
Reduces Manual Errors: Using WooCommerce’s built-in tools is generally more reliable than trying to track everything manually.

Method 1: Changing Stock on Individual Products

This is the most common way to adjust stock levels, especially when dealing with returns, damages, or small adjustments.

1. Navigate to Products: In your WordPress dashboard, go to Products > All Products.

2. Find the Product: Locate the product you need to adjust. You can use the search bar or browse the product list.

3. Edit the Product: Hover over the product and click Edit.

4. Find the Inventory Tab: Scroll down to the Product data meta box. Select the Inventory tab.

5. Manage Stock: Make sure the “Manage stock?” checkbox is ticked. If it isn’t, you won’t be able to change the stock quantity.

6. Adjust Stock Quantity: In the “Stock quantity” field, enter the new available stock. For example, if you had 5 scarves and found one in Read more about How To Change The Text In Woocommerce Search the back room, change it to 6. If you sold one, change it to 4.

7. Update Product: Click the Update button in the top right corner of the screen to save your changes.

Example:

Let’s say you sell handcrafted wooden spoons. You initially entered 10 spoons in your inventory. You sell 3 online and accidentally break one while cleaning your workshop. To accurately reflect your current stock:

1. Go to Products > All Products.

2. Find the “Handcrafted Wooden Spoon” product.

3. Edit the product.

4. Go to the Inventory tab.

5. The “Stock quantity” should be 6 (10 – 3 – 1).

6. Click Update.

Method 2: Bulk Editing Stock

This method is perfect for making changes to multiple products at once, saving you tons of time!

1. Learn more about How To Change Read More In Woocommerce Store Navigate to Products: In your WordPress dashboard, go to Products > All Products.

2. Filter (Optional): If you need to change the stock of a specific category or set of products, use the filters at the top of the screen to narrow down the list.

3. Bulk Edit: Select the checkboxes next to the products you want to edit. From the “Bulk actions” dropdown menu at the top, choose “Edit” and click “Apply”.

4. Edit Stock: In the bulk edit form, change the “Stock” field to either:

Set to: This will set *all* selected products to the same stock quantity. Use this if all the products should have the same number in stock.
Increment: Add or subtract from the existing stock quantity. Use “+” followed by the number to *add* stock, or “-” followed by the number to *subtract* stock.

5. Update Products: Click the Update button.

Example:

You have a sale on all your t-shirts. After the sale, you want to restock by ordering 5 more of each design.

1. Go to Products > All Products.

2. Filter by the “T-shirts” category.

3. Select all the t-shirt products.

4. From the “Bulk actions” dropdown, select “Edit” and click “Apply”.

5. In the “Stock” field, select “Increment” and enter “+5”.

6. Click Update. This will add 5 units to the existing stock of each selected t-shirt.

Method 3: Programmatically Changing Stock (Advanced)

For developers or those comfortable with code, you can change stock programmatically. This is useful for automating stock updates based on external systems or custom logic.

 // Get the product object $product_id = 123; // Replace with your product ID $product = wc_get_product( $product_id );

if ( $product ) {

// Get the current stock

$current_stock = $product->get_stock_quantity();

// Set the new stock quantity

$new_stock = 20; // Replace with your desired stock quantity

wc_update_product_stock( $product_id, $new_stock, ‘set’ );

// Or to increase stock:

//$increase_stock = 5;

//wc_update_product_stock( $product_id, $increase_stock, ‘increase’ );

// Or to decrease stock:

//$decrease_stock = 2;

//wc_update_product_stock( $product_id, -$decrease_stock, ‘decrease’ );

echo “Stock updated successfully!”;

} else {

echo “Product not found!”;

}

Explanation:

`$product_id`: Replace `123` with the actual ID of the product you want to modify. You can find the product ID on the “Edit Product” page in the URL.
`wc_get_product()`: Retrieves the product object based on the ID.
`$product->get_stock_quantity()`: Gets the current stock level of the product.
`wc_update_product_stock()`: This function is the key to updating the stock. It takes three arguments:
`$product_id`: The ID of the product.
`$new_stock`: The new stock quantity (or the amount to increase/decrease by).
`set/increase/decrease`: Specifies how to update the stock. `’set’` replaces the current stock, `’increase’` adds to it, and `’decrease’` subtracts from it.

Important: This code needs to be placed within a WordPress plugin, theme’s `functions.php` file, or a custom code snippet plugin. Be careful when editing your theme’s functions.php file, as errors can break your site. Always back up your site before making code changes.

Tips for Accurate Stock Management

Regular Audits: Conduct regular stock audits to compare your physical inventory with your WooCommerce stock levels.
Use a Barcode Scanner: For larger inventories, a barcode scanner can significantly speed up stocktaking and reduce errors.
Set Stock Thresholds: WooCommerce allows you to set low stock thresholds. When a product reaches this level, you’ll receive an email notification, reminding you to reorder.
Consider a Stock Management Plugin: For advanced features like automatic stock synchronization with suppliers or multiple warehouses, explore dedicated stock management plugins.
Disable Backorders (or manage them carefully): If you can’t reliably fulfill backorders, disable them in the product settings to prevent overselling. If you do allow backorders, clearly communicate estimated delivery times to your customers.

Conclusion

Managing your WooCommerce stock accurately doesn’t have to be a headache. By using the methods described above and implementing good stock management practices, you can avoid overselling, improve customer satisfaction, and run a more efficient online store. Start small, be consistent, and always double-check your work! Good luck!