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Bartosz Gajewski

Variable Product in WooCommerce Complete Guide & Better Alternatives

Updated: February 17, 2023 / Plugin Tutorials

The WooCommerce variable product is a product with different variables such as colors or sizes. Today, you'll learn how to create variable products in WooCommerce in 3 ways: the built-in option, by adding product custom fields, and by importing products with a free plugin.

As you know, adding multiple products in WooCommerce may be time-consuming. Especially, when you sell similar products with a lot of attributes, features, and different options

Today, I will show you 3 ways of adding WooCommerce products with variations: a built-in and 2 free plugins! Let's begin!

Table of contents

  • How to add WooCommerce variable product?
  • Import simple and variable products into WooCommerce
  • Add variations in WooCommerce with custom fields

How to add WooCommerce variable product?

First, let's take a look at the default way of adding products with variations.

To create a WooCommerce variable product, simply go to Products → Add new. Adding and managing variable products is very similar to managing other products.

You may also read our complete tutorial about WooCommerce product types.

After you provide basic product information, go to Product data metabox. Now, you need to select a Variable product here from the select box.

Variable product in WooCommerce
Choose Variable Product in the drop down

WooCommerce variable product configuration

It's easy to add a WooCommerce variable product. Now it's time for configuration. I'll guide you through the process.

  1. Variable product settings

    👉🏼 First, go to the Variations tab.

    But, you'll probably get a notice saying you have to configure attributes first:

    How to add variable product in WooCommerce
    Variable products WooCommerce
  2. Attributes for the product

    So, now go to the Attributes tab then. Choose either an existing or new attribute and click Add. As a result, you'll get these configuration options:

    Product attributes in WooCommerce
    Variable product: Attributes
  3. Attribute settings

    Next, set your attribute name and add variations (separate the values with the '|' character). For example, you can configure i.e. Color attribute with Green, Blue, and Red variations.

    Of course, you may add as many attributes to variations as you need, i.e. Color, Size, Type.

    Now, you need to mark the Used for variations checkbox. Otherwise, WooCommerce won't let you create variations from the existing attributes.

    So, click Save attributes and you're ready to go!

    💡 Remember that you can also add attributes globally in Products → Attributes and then assign them to multiple products.
  4. Variable products configuration

    Next, go back to the Variations tab.

    Now, you can automatically create variations from all the attributes you have configured. Select Create variations from all attributes and click Go.

    As a result, you will see all possible variations of the product attributes:

    How to add variable product in WooCommerce
    Variable products: variations
  5. Variation settings

    👉🏼  With the Default Form Values option, you can set which variation a customer sees by default on the product page. This is optional but highly recommended.

    You can configure every variation the same way you configure the simple product. So, you can set an image, SKU, sizes, price, shipping class, and even a tax.

    💡 Remember to set the price of a variation. Otherwise, the variation will not show on the product page.
    WooCommerce variable product configuration
    Variable product: red variation
    💡One tip: you can choose if a variation is virtual or not. With this option, you can sell music albums as physical CDs or MP3 files to download.

    A customer will be able to choose one of these two options on one product page then!

  6. WooCommerce variable products - the product page

    As you can see, we've just configured the WooCommerce variable product.

    So, let's see now what it looks like in the store:

    WooCommerce variable products on a product page
    Variants on the product page
I hope the built-in option to add variable products in WooCommerce is clear to you now. If you want to learn more about general, stock, shipping, and other product settings, read our article about WooCommerce products.

Import simple and variable products into WooCommerce

Of course, you can add variable products in WooCommerce much much faster with a free plugin. How?

  1. First, download the free plugin

    Dropshipping XML WooCommerce

    WooCommerce variable product plugin. You can also add 18 extra product fields, which will enrich your WooCommerce product page in a blink!

    Download for free or Go to WordPress.org
    WP Desk
    Plugins used by 235,546+ shops
    Last Updated: 2023-03-26
    Works with WooCommerce 7.2 - 7.5.x
  2. Next, create the import

    You will need the URL of an XML or CSV file to set the import.

    WooCommerce import variable products with images - add a CSV or XML product feed file
    First, add a CSV or XML product feed file to import variable products with images to WooCommerce
  3. Then, map the product fields

    Choose the data from the XML file you want to use for product fields.

    Product Mapper to import products to WooCommerce with all data like attributes, categories, or images
    Then, use the Product Mapper to import products to WooCommerce with all data like attributes, categories, or images

    Of course, it's possible to choose the options to recognize and use XML fields for creating variable products.

    Add variable products in WooCommerce by importing data from XML or CSV files
    Also, add variable products in WooCommerce by importing data from XML or CSV files
  4. Also, decide about the import options

    Choose the fields you want to update if you make the import again. There are several useful options here.

    WooCommerce Import Products - plugin options
    Finally, use the import options to better manage the imports and product updates
  5. Finally, start the import

    The plugin will add or/ update the WooCommerce products now, including variable ones. As you can see, the plugin lets you add products much faster than with the built-in option.

    Read more about importing products into WooCommerce with this free plugin and see the short video about the plugin.

    Add variations in WooCommerce with custom fields

    WooCommerce variable products won't always fit your needs.

    Remember that every variation is an individual product created in WooCommerce. So, it is attached to the main product.

    That brings multiple database entries for every variation. For 50 variations you'll have 50 subproducts in the database. Also, it could make the database overloaded and slow down your site.

    But, if you want some personalization features in your store then variations won't make it. They won't let you add an engraving text field or gift-wrapping checkbox.

    WooCommerce variable product plugin

    So, we created the Flexible Product Fields plugin to let you create add-ons on product pages.

    Now, let's see the field types you can use instead of (or with) variable products:

    • Text
    • Textarea
    • Number
    • E-mail
    • URL
    • Checkbox
    • Multi-checkbox
    • Select
    • Radio with images
    • Multi-select
    • Radio
    • Time
    • Color
    • Heading
    • Radio with colors
    • Paragraph
    • Image
    • HTML
    • Date (PRO)
    • File Upload (PRO)

    One more thing...

    You can download Flexible Product Fields for free 🥳 

    Flexible Product Fields WooCommerce

    WooCommerce variable product plugin. You can also add 18 extra product fields, which will enrich your WooCommerce product page in a blink!

    Download for free or Go to WordPress.org
    WP Desk
    10,000+ Active Installations
    Last Updated: 2023-03-13
    Works with WooCommerce 7.1 - 7.5.x

    👉🏼 For now, let me show you an example of how this plugin works:

    WooCommerce variable product plugin
    Flexible Product Fields on the product page

    If you need more information about the plugin features check out the documentation.

    Summary & more about custom fields

    Today, you have learned how to add a WooCommerce variable product using the default product manager.

    Also, I have shown you two alternatives to speed up adding and managing your WooCommerce products.

    Let me know in the comments section below if the article helped you!

    Related to WooCommerce variable products

    • WooCommerce price fields (Flexible Product Fields)

      woocommerce extra price fields
      WooCommerce price fields. Find out how to add WooCommerce extra price fields with Flexible Product Fields.

    • WooCommerce color picker (Flexible Product Fields)

      woocommerce color picker
      Color picker on a WooCommerce product page. Also, find out how to add a color picker field with Flexible Product Fields.

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Bartosz Gajewski

Content Specialist in WP Desk. He tries to increase the number of plugin users with useful content. Privately an enthusiast of mountains and European cinema.

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