Putting products on sale in WooCommerce

A WooCommerce product is an ordinary WordPress post with extra fields. You create one under Products and Add New. The work is not in filling the form, it is in deciding what to write before you open it.

What to prepare before the first product

Item	Why it counts
A short, concrete name	It is what shows in the listing, in the cart and in the order e-mail
A reference (SKU)	Without one you cannot tell which of twenty similar models was sold
Photographs at the same size	Mixed sizes make the listing look crooked
The price, decided	Including whether the figure shown already contains tax
Weight and dimensions	If you ship, the rates are calculated from these
Two lines of short description	That is the text beside the photograph. Almost nobody reads the long one

Creating a simple product

1	Open Products and Add New. Write the name, and the long description in the body of the page.

2	Under Product data, leave the type as Simple product and fill in the regular price. Leave sale price empty until there is a sale.

3	On the Inventory tab, add the SKU. If you want WooCommerce to count units, switch on stock management and enter the quantity.

4	On the Shipping tab, add weight and dimensions. If the product is digital, tick Virtual and this tab disappears.

5	Fill in the short description, in the box lower down. Two or three lines, with whatever decides the purchase.

6	On the right, pick the category, upload the product image and, if you have more photographs, the gallery.

7	Publish, then open the page on a phone. That is where most people will buy.

The product types

Type	When to use it
Simple	One thing, one price. Most products
Variable	The same product in sizes or colours, with a price and stock per variation
Grouped	One page gathering several products that are sold separately
External or affiliate	The button leads elsewhere. The purchase does not happen in your shop
Virtual	Not a type but a tick: it removes shipping from the product
Downloadable	Also a tick: it hands the buyer a file after payment

A variable product cannot be improvised. First you create the attributes (size, colour) with all their values, and only then generate the variations. Skip the first step and you end up with a product that has no options and no explanation why.

Photographs

1	All the same size, all on the same background. It is what makes a small shop look tidy.

2	Shrink them before uploading. A photograph straight off a phone is far too heavy and slows the shop down. If the upload fails with no clear error, it is the upload ceiling: the PHP limits.

3	Write the alternative text. It describes the photograph for people who cannot see it, and for search engines. It is not the place to repeat a keyword ten times.

Categories, tags and attributes

What	What it is for
Categories	The main arrangement, like shelves in a shop. Few and clear
Tags	Loose words that cut across categories. Use sparingly or they turn into clutter
Attributes	Characteristics with fixed values: size, colour, material. They are the basis of variations and filters

The product address is fixed when you publish. Renaming it later can change the address and break links that have already been shared. If you really must change it, redirect the old address to the new one.

Lots of products at once? WooCommerce ships with a CSV importer under Products and Import. Export one sample product first to see the columns it expects, and start by importing five rows, not five hundred.

Image uploads failing, or the shop slowed down once the products went in?

Open a support ticket

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What to prepare before the first product

Creating a simple product

The product types

Photographs

Categories, tags and attributes

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