WooCommerce Product Variations Plugins

Firstly, what’s a variable product? A variable product has multiple attributes that customers can select from such as a shoe product displayed with size, material and color attributes. A customer can then use the displayed attributes to pick the best product to match their tastes. Learn about WooCommerce product variations plugins in this article.

Variable Products in WooCommerce make it possible to add variations such as color, size, price, or other specific features to a product, which is one of the many reasons I like using it. There’s also the option to use plugins to customize WooCommerce from its default drop-down list display to something less generic. They can be used in combination with ecommerce WordPress themes.

Improve WooCommerce with WooCommerce Product Variations Plugins

The plugins listed here make it possible to customize standard WooCommerce selections with icons, custom images, and dynamic labels by using swatches, colors, and photos. In combination with a robust e-commerce web hosting package, you can breathe new life to your WooCommerce store.

1. Visual Attributes – WooCommerce Variable Products

This plugin enhances an online shopper’s experience by allowing them to simply click visual elements instead of on the attribute menu. This allows them to read the attributes before then selecting the item of their choice.

It works well on mobile devices and allows users to have smoother navigation. It also includes complete Spanish and German translations.

2. Improved Variable Product Attributes for WooCommerce

I like this plugin because it’s easy to use and provides a variety of options for improving the default look of WooCommerce’s Product Variation. An added feature I truly appreciate is that this plugin stops online customers from selecting attribute combinations I don’t have in stock.

You can also customize this plugin by using text, HTML, images or color to highlight different product variations for your customers’ viewing pleasure and navigation ease.

3. WooCommerce Visual Attributes and Options Swatches

This plugin is better suited for power users with enough knowhow about building their own product attribute styles. With this plugin’s flexibility, almost any variation feature is customizable. And if you have a large workload to customize, this allows you to simply enter the desired configuration required for thousands of products.

4. WooCommerce Product Colorizer

This e-store plugin extension generates live previews of different color options on a product.

After generating a “mask” (a clean white .pngoutline) for your product, this can then be filled with colors or a logo. The plugin colors the clear mask and presents different color options for the same product.

5. YITH WooCommerce Colour and Label Variations

This versatile plugin allows you to replace default WooCommerce selections with icons, custom images, and dynamic labels. It can be adapted to contain a wide range of product features and will indicate size, color, material, and other parameters.

6. WooCombinator for Variable Products

With this plugin, I can select and set from 7 pre-defined styles, or write my own inline CSS styles. It’s also compatible with WordPress Customizer. But I must warn you that for this plugin to be fully enjoyed, some HTML/CSS skills might be required.

Other interesting WooCommerce Product Variations plugins include; JC WooCommerce Advanced Product Attributes, WooCommerce Variation Master, WooCommerce Color or Image Variation Swatches, Openswatch – WooCommerce Variations Image Swatch, etc.

How to set up products with multiple WooCommerce variations

Variable products can allow you to generate a single product entry for multiple styles, allowing for easier management of displayed products put up for sale.

Setting up variations shouldn’t be a problem if you follow these steps:

1. Select Variable Product from the dropdown next to Product Data at the top.
2. Under Attributes, click Add.
3. If you want, you can apply global variations settings to reduce your workload. Simply go under Products, then Attributes, then select what you need under the Add menu.
4. Add Name and Values for each selected Attribute. The name will correspond to the drop-down menu that’ll show on the product page, and the entered values will be selectable in that menu.
5. Verify Visible on the product page and Used for variations before clicking Save Attributes
6. Under Variations, press Link All Variations before clicking OK in confirmation messages that’ll pop up. After that, you should have one variation panel for each combination where you’ll then enter stock and its price.
7. If you want images to change after a visitor selects a combination of variations, go to the thumbnail button in the variation, and click to upload the desired variation image. The image can also be selected from the media library. But this won’t work if your product post is displayed as a slider.
8. Now that you’re finished, click Publish/Update.

Best practices when displaying product variations

1. Use high quality, realistic images for each variable product. Not every shopper has a clear understanding of verbal descriptions, which is why accurate pictures that depict the true nature of the product should be provided to avoid any misunderstanding. While stressful, it’s ideal to upload images for each variant. It’s advised to use only main image on a product page, not the variation.
2. Only clear and easily understood labels should be used for attributes. Even if creating complex attributes (for example, multiple skirts with multiple colors in multiple sizes), they should still be clear and easily understood at a glance.
3. Allow your variations to be easily previewed by applying swatches or photos. Using swatches (small samples of fabric or color used to demonstrate how a larger piece looks) or small photos to indicate your variations makes it way easier for shoppers to have an idea of what’s going on.
4. Make provisions for your customers to easily add multiple items to their shopping cart. On some sites, adding multiple items or variations of an item into a cart can be unnecessarily complicated. Bulk Variation Forms can help fix this. It’s an extension that gives shoppers a way to add multiple variants to their shopping cart at once. The preferred quantity of variants of each product can also be easily entered by a customer once this extension is in place.

 Recommended Product

This article presented several WooCommerce plugins for variable products. WooCommerce can handle product variants at a basic level even without additional plugins. As you can see on our Fashion WordPress theme, WooCommerce allows you to create a product and let buyers choose a color or size of the product before it’s added to the cart.