Managed WordPress Ecommerce Help

Add a variable product in WooCommerce

Variable products are products with multiple options or SKUs, such as jackets in different sizes or colors. This product type is useful when you need to set different attributes, images, stock, or price in your set of variations. In this article, you'll learn how to add a variable product to your WooCommerce store.

Just looking for a simple product without any variations? See our article on how to create a simple product in WooCommerce for more information or learn about the various different product types.

Follow the steps below to add a variable product:

  1. Sign in to WordPress.
  2. In the left-hand menu, hover over Products and click on Add New.
  3. The first field you'll want to fill out is the Product name field with the name of your product.
  4. Below the Product name field is a large text box for the Product description. Like WordPress posts or pages, this field supports rich editing to make your product's description shine.
  5. Next, let's move on to the Product data section. Using the dropdown at the top of the section, change your product type to Variable product.
  6. To generate variations of your product, attributes will need to be defined. To access your product's attributes, navigate to the Attributes tab.
  7. Let's create a new product attribute. Start by clicking on the Add button to add a new attribute.
  8. Upon adding a new attribute to the list, additional fields will appear. Within these fields, enter a Name and Value for your attribute.
  9. Since we're creating a variable product and this attribute will be used to create product variations, enable the Used for variations checkbox within the attribute configuration.
  10. Now that your attribute settings are in place, click on the Save attributes button to save your new product attribute.
  11. Next, we're going to use our newly created attribute within a new product variation. Navigate to the Variations tab to access your product variations.
  12. Within the Variations section, select Add variation from the dropdown and click Go.
  13. A new variation has now been added to your product. To configure this product variation, click on the variation to expand its settings. For the purposes of this article, we won't go over all of the settings available here, but the main field you'll want to take notice of is the Regular price field. Before your product can be sold, you'll need to enter a price here. As you add more variations, a price will need to be added to reflect each variation.

    For more information on the various product variation articles, see our WooCommerce product variation settings reference.
  14. Now that the product has attributes and variations, it's time to finish adding the various other product details.

    Continue with adding a short description of your product into the Produce short description. Just like the product description, this field supports rich editing.
  15. Most stores will want to include at least one image for each product. To set your product's primary image, use the Product image box to upload a new image or select an existing image from the WordPress media gallery.

    If you want to include additional images of your product, you can include secondary images by using the Product gallery section just like you did with the primary product image.
  16. It's always a good idea to keep your products neatly organized. This is especially true when working with a large catalog of items. Therefore, it's recommended to add your product to a category using the Product categories option. Here, you can either select an existing category or add new categories as you see fit.
  17. With all of your settings neatly in place, it's time to publish your new variable product to your WooCommerce site. To do so, click on the Publish button.

    Optionally, if you're not quite ready for your product to be available yet, you can use the Save Draft button to save your changes for later.

More info

For more information about managing products, check out the WooCommerce documentation.