WooCommerce: How to Make Your Star Product Shine with Featured Products
So, you’ve got a WooCommerce store up and running. Congrats! Now, how do you draw attention to that *one* product you *really* want people to see? The answer is featured products. Think of them as your store’s VIPs, getting the red-carpet treatment right on your homepage or strategically placed throughout your site.
This guide will walk you through, step-by-step, on how to place featured products in WooCommerce, even if you’re a complete beginner. We’ll cover the basics, show you different ways to display them, and provide tips to maximize their impact.
What are Featured Products, and Why Should You Use Them?
Featured products are simply products that you’ve designated as “special.” WooCommerce recognizes this designation and allows you to display these products in specific locations, grabbing the attention of your visitors.
Why is this important? Think about it like this: you’re walking into a physical store. The items you see displayed prominently near the entrance, often on endcaps or in special displays, are the *featured* items. They’re the products the store wants to sell most, or the ones they believe will entice you to browse further.
Here’s why using featured products in your online store is a smart move:
- Highlight Best Sellers: Showcase your most popular products to encourage purchases and social proof. “Hey, everyone else is buying this, it must be good!”
- Promote New Arrivals: Generate excitement and drive initial sales for your latest additions to your product catalog. If you just released a new flavor of coffee, you’d want to get that out there, Learn more about How To Make Elementor Work With Woocommerce right?
- Showcase Seasonal Items: Promote products that are relevant to the current season or holidays. Think Christmas decorations in December, or sunscreen in July.
- Increase Sales: By strategically placing featured products, you can guide customers towards items they might not have otherwise noticed, boosting your overall sales.
- Quick Edit: Hover over the product and click “Quick Edit.” Then, check the “Featured” box and click “Update.”
- Edit Product: Click on the product title to open the full product edit screen. In the “Publish” meta box (usually on the right side of the screen), you won’t find a “Featured” option directly. Instead, after marking the Quick Edit, click Update on either Quick Edit or Edit product to save changes.
- `limit`: Sets the maximum number of products to display.
- `columns`: Sets the number of columns the products will be arranged in.
- `orderby`: Sets the order by parameter. Default is ‘date’.
- `order`: Sets the order parameter. Default is ‘ASC’.
- `hide_empty`: Boolean value if you want to hide products that are not in stock. (true/false).
- Homepage: The homepage is the most common and Discover insights on How To Arrange Woocommerce Products effective place to display featured products. Add the shortcode to your homepage content area.
- Sidebar Widget: Use a Check out this post: How To Find My Woocommerce Store Rss Feed “Text” widget (or a widget that supports shortcodes) in your sidebar to display a smaller selection of featured products.
- Product Category Pages: You can also display featured products on specific category pages to highlight related items.
Setting a Product as “Featured” in WooCommerce
This is the easiest part! Here’s how to designate a product as featured:
1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Go to Products > All Products.
3. Find the product you want to feature.
4. There are two ways to do this:
That’s it! You’ve now marked a product as “featured.” But now what? How do you actually *display* it?
Displaying Featured Products with the `woocommerce_featured_products` Shortcode
WooCommerce provides a simple and effective way to display featured products using a shortcode. Think of a shortcode as a little snippet of code that tells WordPress (and WooCommerce) to do something specific.
The shortcode we’ll use is `woocommerce_featured_products`. You can place this shortcode in pages, posts, or even widgets (if your theme supports shortcodes in widgets).
Basic Usage:
To display all your featured products in a standard format, simply use:
[woocommerce_featured_products]
This will display all your featured products, using the default WooCommerce product loop styling.
Customizing the Display:
You can customize the number of products displayed, the number of columns they’re arranged in, and whether or not to hide out-of-stock products.
Example:
To display 4 featured products in 2 columns, ordered by popularity, hide the empty products and use:
[woocommerce_featured_products limit=”4″ columns=”2″ orderby=”popularity” order=”DESC” hide_empty=”true”]
Where to Place the Shortcode:
Displaying Featured Products with a WooCommerce Block (Gutenberg Editor)
If you’re using the Gutenberg block editor in WordPress (which you likely are), you can use the dedicated WooCommerce blocks to display featured products.
1. Open the page or post you want to edit.
2. Click the “+” icon to add a new block.
3. Search for “Featured Product” or “Featured Category.” “Featured Product” shows only one item and “Featured Category” shows items in a particular category
4. Choose “Featured Product” or “Featured Read more about How To Change Picture Size Of Shop In Woocommerce Category.”
5. If you chose “Featured Product”, you’ll be prompted to select a specific featured product from your catalog. If you chose “Featured Category” you’ll be prompted to select a category.
6. Customize the block settings in the right-hand sidebar. You can adjust the layout, visibility of certain elements (price, add to cart button), and more.
This is a visually intuitive way to showcase your featured items.
Displaying Featured Products using Custom Code (Advanced)
For those comfortable with PHP and WordPress theme customization, you can directly query and display featured products using custom code.
'product', 'posts_per_page' => 4, 'tax_query' => array( array( 'taxonomy' => 'product_visibility', 'field' => 'term_id', 'terms' => 'featured', ), ), );
$loop = new WP_Query( $args );
if ( $loop->have_posts() ) {
echo ‘
- ‘;
while ( $loop->have_posts() ) {
$loop->the_post();
wc_get_template_part( ‘content’, ‘product’ );
}
echo ‘
‘;
} else {
echo ‘
No featured products found.
‘;
}
wp_reset_postdata();
?>
Important Considerations:
- Theme Compatibility: This code needs to be placed within your theme’s template files (like `functions.php` or a custom template page). Be very careful when editing theme files! Consider using a child theme to avoid losing your changes when the main theme is updated.
- Customization: You can further customize this code to adjust the layout, styling, and information displayed for each product.
- Safety: If you’re not comfortable with PHP, it’s best to avoid this approach or seek assistance from a developer.
Tips for Maximizing the Impact of Featured Products
- High-Quality Images: Use clear, attractive images that showcase your products in the best possible light. A blurry or poorly lit image will do more harm than good.
- Compelling Descriptions: Write short, engaging descriptions that highlight the key benefits of the product. Tell people *why* they should buy it.
- Strategic Placement: Experiment with different locations to see where your featured products perform best. Test different placements on your homepage or category pages.
- Regular Updates: Don’t let your featured products get stale. Rotate them regularly to keep your store looking fresh and engaging. Think of it like rearranging the window display of a physical store – you want to keep things interesting.
- Mobile Optimization: Ensure your featured products look great on all devices, especially mobile. A large portion of your traffic likely comes from mobile users.
- A/B Testing: Test different featured products, layouts, and descriptions to see what performs best. Use tools like Google Optimize to run A/B tests.
- Consider Sales and Discounts: Feature products that are currently on sale or have a special discount to further incentivize purchases. “Limited time offer!” always catches the eye.
By following these steps and tips, you can effectively use WooCommerce featured products to highlight your best offerings, attract customers, and boost your sales. Good luck!
