For the majority of WooCommerce store owners, product variations are vital to increasing overall sales. Whether it’s additional sizes, colors, materials, or simply the need to display pricing variations.
What is crucial, however, is that your customers can find them easily and have enough information available to evaluate them. Otherwise, those items are going to remain where they are, collecting dust in your warehouse.
However, there’s a problem. Product variations within a standard WooCommerce setup are buried within the product page and are only afforded one photo each. With such strict limitations in place, it’s challenging to present your WooCommerce variations in their best light.
The good news is that WooCommerce variations can be optimized to improve your online store’s sales and customer experience. In this article, we’re going to show you how.
What’s a variable product?
A variable product is a product within WooCommerce that has a number of customization options available to the customer. For instance, if you’re selling t-shirts, you may have several different sizes, colors, and SKUs per product.
These product options are known as ‘attributes’. When an online shopper chooses which options or ‘attributes’ they would like with that specific product, the combination they add to the cart as their final choice is known as a variation.
In WooCommerce, a standard variable product page will allow customers to choose from a drop-down menu to select the specific WooCommerce variation they would like to buy.
7 techniques to optimize your WooCommerce variations
As stated, variations are not given a great deal of functionality within a standard WooCommerce setup. However, you can easily optimize your WooCommerce variations to increase conversions with the help of plugins.
#1 Show variations as individual products
One way to boost the sales of WooCommerce variations is by displaying them as individual products. Although standard WooCoomerce setups hide away your variations on the product page.
To get around this, you’ll need the help of a plugin such as WooCommerce Show Single Variations. Once installed, you can display product variations on the shop page as though they are separate products.
Not only does this massively increase exposure for your product variations, but it also will enhance the consumer experience.
WooCommerce Show Single Variations
Use IconicWP's WooCommerce Show Single Variations to easily show variations as single products.
Start your free trial nowOnce you’ve configured the plugin, your variations will not only appear on the main shop page, but they’ll also show up when specific search filters are applied, such as color and size.
#2 Add extra fields to product variations
Another limitation of the out-of-the-box WooCommerce configuration is that you can’t add any additional data to a variation.
Customers simply have the option to choose, say, a medium-sized t-shirt, and that’s it. But what if there’s some information you simply have to tell your customers about that specific size, color, or design variation?
That’s where WooCommerce Custom Fields for Variations comes in handy. This plugin allows you to both display and organize additional variation data for your customers.
You can add any number of custom fields to each of your WooCommerce product variations, making it easy for your customers to find any additional product information they’re looking for.
By adding more information about each specific variation beyond those allowed on a standard WooCommerce site, you provide as much information as you need to increase the number of conversions.
WooCommerce Custom Fields for Variations
Use IconicWP's WooCommerce Custom Fields for Variations to add extra fields to product variations.
Get started nowThe best part is that the extra information you display adopts the native WooCommerce theme styling. All so it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb and put customers off.
#3 Add image and color swatches
While the standard WooCommerce setup is functional, it’s a long way from awe-inspiring. A few drop-down boxes and a text description don’t really capture the imagination. Nor does it transmit information to the consumer in the best way.
The brain can reportedly process visual stimuli 60,000 times faster than text, which means you should focus on visual cues rather than perfecting that product description. That’s precisely what you can achieve with WooCommerce Attribute Swatches.
By installing this plugin you can improve your customer’s buying experience by transforming those boring dropdowns into eye-catching swatches and images.
Rather than merely having a text description, you can give your customer the chance to click through many visual representations of WooCommerce variations within the product page.
WooCommerce Attribute Swatches
Use IconicWP's WooCommerce Attribute Swatches to easily add image and color swatches to your products.
Get started nowNot only does this look much more enticing than a standard WooCommerce layout, but customers can also use the swatches, images, and customized prices per variation to process information and make their purchasing decisions faster.
#4 Link product variants together
Do you find yourself competing with the likes of Amazon for the types of products you sell? If so, you’ll want to copy one of their SEO tricks – linking product variations together.
By installing the WooCommerce Linked Variations plugin, you can create a more extensive product archive by linking products of any type together by their attributes.
But what does that mean in the real world?
By installing a linked variations plugin, you can give each product variant a unique URL, title, and description. Not only will that dramatically increase your product archive and reach within search engines, but it’ll also lead to much more accurate search results and product filtering within your online store.
The benefits extend beyond better long-tail search coverage and on-site product visibility. Since each variation has its own URL, you can push them on platforms such as Google Shopping and Facebook, and your customers can share direct links to their friends online or on social media.
Use IconicWP's WooCommerce Linked Variations to link product variants together.
Get started nowThis plugin helps you unleash your product variations from the shackles of a specific product page to wherever you want them to appear on the world wide web!
#5 Manage & Display Bulk Variations
If you’re looking to simplify the process of adding variations to your store, WooCommerce Bulk Variations is the perfect solution!
You can easily add multiple product variations at once, enable bulk discounts, set stock availability, and change attributes directly from the product page.
Create a user-friendly shopping experience by simplifying the display of product variations. Replace the variation dropdowns with a bulk variations grid, complete with quantity boxes and buy buttons.
#6 Customize how pricing variations are displayed
Tired of seeing WooCommerce display prices as a range when your product has variations with different prices? You’re not alone! Not only is this suboptimal for sales, but it can also put customers off from buying from you.
By default, WooCommerce displays pricing variations as a range, such as $10.00 – $25.00. The problem is that this often isn’t the best way to sell your products and can put customers off, resulting in lost sales.
The WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin allows you to customize how variable prices are displayed – giving you complete flexibility over pricing.
The available display options include:
- Price range
- Starting price (short)
- Starting price (long)
- Maximum price
- List all variation prices
- Hide the price until a variation is selected
- Custom
#7 Keep your customers engaged and on the same page
This innovative plugin is designed to enhance the shopping experience by allowing customers to select product quantities and variations directly from the shop and category pages. This eliminates the need for customers to navigate to individual product pages, making the shopping process faster and more convenient.
For an even more streamlined shopping experience, the plugin can be used in conjunction with the WooCommerce Fast Cart plugin. This combination allows for a one-click checkout process directly from the shop page, further enhancing the customer’s shopping experience.
The plugin also prioritizes performance. It uses AJAX to load variations, ensuring that even stores with thousands of products can load variations on the shop page without slowing down the site.
By making the shopping process faster and more convenient, the plugin can help increase conversion rates. Customers are more likely to complete their purchases when the process is simple and efficient. Moreover, by encouraging customers to buy larger quantities, the plugin can help increase overall sales.
Take your WooComerce variations to the next level
WooCoomerce is an excellent eCommerce platform. However, if your online store is to compete in this increasingly competitive space, you’re going to need to optimize your WooCommerce variations beyond their out-of-the-box settings.
With the help of the plugins listed above, you can:
- Display variations as standalone products.
- Display more detailed variation information in an eye-catching manner.
- Increase the number of searchable products within your store and improve filter performance.
- Dramatically increase the size of your site within search engines.
- Create direct links to each variation for online sharing.
- Keep your customers engaged without chasing rabbits.
By implementing these changes, you can dramatically improve your online store’s customer experience and increase those all-important conversion rates.
