How do I manage my WooCommerce shop?

Please note: this guide only applies to websites that have the WooCommerce e-commerce software installed.

WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce software on the web. It offers lots of features, but we’ll cover the basics in this guide to help get you started.

A category page or product index will look similar to this below. The exact styling and layout will of course depend on your particular website design:

And an individual product page may look like this:

How do I add a product in WooCommerce?

The product editing screen looks like this (with our colouring explained below):

1. In the back-end of your WordPress website, go to “Products“.
2. Click “Add New“.
3. Type your product title into the headline box (highlighted in red above). It’s best to keep this short and concise.
4. Optionally, you can choose your page URL (highlighted in purple above). If you leave this empty, the website will automatically choose this for you.
5. There are two different description boxes:
   • • “Long description” (highlighted in yellow above), which typically displays at the bottom of the product page.
     • And a “Short description” box (highlighted in brown above), which typically displays to the right-hand side of your product image.
     • Tip: For most products, unless your product descriptions are fairly long, it may be best to leave the “long description” (yellow) box empty and just put your text into the “short description” (brown) box.
6. Put your price in the “Product data” section (highlighted in green above).
7. If necessary, you can hide your product from the catalogue indexes on your website, so only those people with a direct link can access your product. The options for this are shown in the area indicated in blue above. For most cases, you should just leave the default settings as they are.
8. Next, if your products are split into different categories on your website, you can choose one or more categories (highlighted in orange above).
9. Upload or choose your product image (indicated in pink above). This is the main image that will display at the top of your product page, as well as on the index pages on your website. There’s no set rule about how small or large this image should be, but if you want visitors to be able to to zoom-in and expand your pictures, we’d recommend an image size of around 1,000 pixels wide and around 1,000 pixels tall, but you may wish to experiment with what works best for your particular products. You may find square-shaped or portrait photos can look better, instead of horizontal/landscape photos.
10. Optionally, if you want to include additional images in your product listing, use the box indicated in grey above.
11. Finally, click the “Publish” or “Update” button.

How do I manage stock levels within WooCommerce?

1. When editing a product, go to the “Product data” box.
2. Click on the “Inventory” tab (indicated in red below).
3. You’ll then be able to manage your stock levels.
4. You can click on “Enable stock management at product level” to see more options.

When customers place orders, the website software will manage your stock levels automatically.

If you only have one of each product, ensure the “Stock quantity” is set to “1” (as indicated above in green). Once this item has been purchased, it will be listed as out of stock.

There are other advanced features available too, such as asking the website to email you if stock levels go below a certain level, or you can allow customers to purchase out of stock items if they’re returning to stock soon.

Your current stock levels are also displayed in the back-end Products index screen, for easy access:

How do I add a sale price to a product in WooCommerce?

1. When editing a product, go to the “Product data” box.
2. Ensure you are on the “General” tab.
3. Beneath the “Regular price” box, there’s a second box that says “Sale price“. Enter your new price here.

The exact formatting will depend on how your website has been setup, but the sale labels may look like this:

If you’re using product variations, the process is slightly different – see our WooCommerce product variations guide instead.

Can I list a product in WooCommerce, but prevent it from being purchased online?

1. In the “Product data” box, use the drop-down menu to select “External/Affiliate product“.
2. Optionally, you can add the full URL to your contact page in the “Product URL” box and your chosen label into the “Button text” box (e.g. “Request more info” or your preferred wording).

Please note, this option may require some formatting work by Primary Image, before it can be used.

See also:

• How do I offer variations of a product? (e.g. different colours of the same product)
• What does the order status mean in WooCommerce?

Need more help on WooCommerce?

For Primary Image customers who have our hosting/support plan, we’re happy to answer any questions you have on the basics of using your e-commerce software.

Or, if you don’t currently work with Primary Image, but are looking for help using or customising WooCommerce, why not work with us?! Find out more about our WordPress experience and contact us via our online form.