How to set the new unit of measure for WooCommerce products

Ever wonder if selling products by weight, volume, or other unit of measure is possible in WooCommerce? Let’s take a look at a free plugin to set a new unit of measure for simple and variable (soon) WooCommerce products.

WooCommerce unit of measure

By default, WooCommerce does not allow setting a different unit of measurement for products. It’s possible to add weight or dimensions details in the Additional information section but products are still sold per item.

WP Desk has built a free plugin to change the WooCommerce product unit of measure.

The WooCommerce extension allows configuring products by weight, volume, area, dimensions, etc.

Selling by item only makes sense for a fraction of WooCommerce stores. If you run a business dealing in raw materials, food, textiles, or anything sold by quantity rather than piece, the default WooCommerce unit of measure setup forces you into workarounds — separate products for every size, or manual price adjustments that don't scale. Changing the unit of measure at the product level solves this at the source: customers see the price expressed the way they actually think about the product, whether that's per kg, per liter, or per square meter, and you avoid maintaining a bloated catalog of near-identical listings.

How to set a new unit of measure?

1. Flexible Quantity – Measurement Price Calculator for WooCommerce

   First, one needs a plugin.

   Flexible Quantity Calculator for WooCommerce

   Enable product price calculation based on dimensions on the product page. Set price and shipping thresholds for product quantities. Support for product variations.

   💾 Active Installations: 2,000+ | WordPress Rating:

   Download for free or Go to WordPress.org

   WP Desk

   2,000+ Active Installations

   Last Updated: 2026-07-06

   Works with WooCommerce 10.6 - 10.9

   It can also be found in the WordPress repository with a search bar.

   

2. Setting the new unit of measure for products

   After activating the extension, it’s possible to set the product unit of measure for simple and variable WooCommerce products. Justo go to the plugin's settings and create a news measuurement template:

   

3. WooCommerce products with a new unit of measure - examples

   Let’s take a look at the final effect on the product pages.

   

   

   

   

4. Settings templates

   What’s more, the plugin allows  the use of templates for settings. So you don't have to open each product separately, you just do everything in one place.

   

   Templates become especially valuable as your catalog grows. Instead of configuring the unit of measure, increment value, and min/max quantity separately for every product, you define the settings once and apply the same template across an entire category — for example, all your loose teas sold by weight, or all your fabric rolls sold by the meter. This keeps pricing consistent across similar products and makes it much faster to onboard new products that follow the same measurement logic.

    

5. PRO features for custom units & variable products

   It’s also possible to use the PRO version of the plugin to add customized units of measure.

   

   The plugin also works for variable products.

Additional plugin features

After showing how to set a new unit of measure, let’s see additional plugin options for WooCommerce products.

• Unit field label, prices, increment value, and mix/max quantity
• Inventory settings
• Unit dimensions (PRO)
• Pricing table (PRO)
• Shipping class table (PRO)

  

Summary

Today, you’ve learned about the plugin to set the unit of measure for simple and variable (soon) WooCommerce products. As you’ve seen, the extension is an advanced tool for managing the product quantity and price calculation. You may check out the free version of the plugin and compare its free/ PRO features!

FAQ

Can I set a different unit of measure for each WooCommerce product?
Yes. The unit of measure is configured per product (or per template applied to multiple products), so you can mix standard per-item products with weight-, volume-, or area-based products in the same store.

Does changing the unit of measure work with variable products?
Yes, the plugin supports variable products in addition to simple products, so you can combine variations like color or size with a custom unit of measure.

Is the WooCommerce unit of measure plugin free?
Yes. The core functionality — setting weight, volume, area, or dimension-based units — is available for free, while custom units and advanced pricing/shipping tables require the PRO version.

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