How to Display Out of Stock Variations in WooCommerce Product Drop-downs

Описание: Learn how to effectively manage `out of stock` variations in WooCommerce to enhance your user's shopping experience without cluttering your product archives.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/74233989/ asked by the user 'Johann Kratzik' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/7226072/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/74234853/ provided by the user 'mujuonly' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/1117368/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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How to Display Out of Stock Variations in WooCommerce Product Drop-downs

In the ever-evolving world of eCommerce, ensuring your customers have a seamless shopping experience is paramount. One common user experience issue arises with out-of-stock product variations in WooCommerce. Customers often can't see whether a variation they're interested in is sold out, which can be frustrating. In this guide, we’ll address how to display out-of-stock variations in the product drop-down on a single product page while keeping them hidden from the main catalog.

The Problem

When customers browse your WooCommerce store, they should have clarity on which product variations are available and which are not. However, if you have enabled the “Hide out-of-stock items from the catalog” option in WooCommerce settings:

Out-of-stock variations will not appear in the product variations drop-down on single product pages.

Customers are left guessing whether a variation is available, leading to potential loss in sales.

The ideal solution allows you to show out-of-stock variations grayed out in the drop-down menu while preventing them from being visible in other areas of your store, such as archives or categories.

The Solution

To achieve this, you need to use a simple code snippet that modifies WooCommerce's behavior specifically for product pages. Below is a step-by-step explanation of how to implement this solution.

Step 1: Modify WooCommerce Settings

First, ensure that the option to hide out-of-stock items from the catalog is enabled in your WooCommerce settings. This allows you to control visibility in product archives and categories while still showing the information on product pages.

Step 2: Add Custom Code to Your Theme

You can add the following code snippet to your theme’s functions.php file. This code will override the default behavior of out-of-stock items on product pages without affecting their display in archives.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 3: Clear Cache and Test

After adding the code:

Clear your site’s cache (if you’re using a caching plugin).

View a product page with out-of-stock variations. You should now see these variations displayed in the drop-down list, grayed out and marked as "sold out".

Important Considerations

While this solution allows you to show out-of-stock variations on product pages effectively, keep in mind the following:

User Experience: Ensure that you clearly communicate to customers that these variations are unavailable to avoid confusion.

Theme Compatibility: Customizations may behave differently depending on the theme you're using. Always test on a staging environment first.

Maintenance: If you ever change or update your theme, ensure that this custom code persists and works with any WooCommerce updates.

Conclusion

Displaying out of stock variations in the drop-down on single product pages provides a smoother shopping experience for your customers. Using the provided code snippet, you can display these variations without cluttering your main product catalog, thus integrating both functionality and user-friendly design.

Implementing this can lead to better customer satisfaction and potentially increased sales, as customers will have complete visibility of their options. Happy selling!