How to Add a Variable Product in WooCommerce (A Step-by-Step Guide)

You’ve successfully mastered adding simple products to your WooCommerce store. But now you’re facing a new, common challenge: you need to sell a product that comes in different options. Think of a T-shirt that’s available in multiple sizes and colors, a bag that comes in different materials, or a print that’s offered in various dimensions.

You know that creating a separate product for “Red T-Shirt, Small,” “Blue T-Shirt, Medium,” and so on would be a management nightmare for you and a confusing mess for your customers. What you need is a single, clean product page where your customer can choose the options they want from convenient dropdown menus.

The solution is a Variable Product, one of WooCommerce’s most powerful and essential features.

This detailed, step-by-step guide will teach you exactly how to add a variable product in WooCommerce. We will demystify the core concepts of “Attributes” and “Variations” and walk you through the entire process, using a simple T-shirt example from start to finish.

The Two Pillars of a Variable Product: Attributes & Variations

Before we jump into the dashboard, it’s crucial to understand the two concepts that make variable products work. Once you grasp this logic, the entire process becomes easy.

What are Attributes?

Think of attributes as the questions you need to ask your customer before they can add a product to their cart. For a T-shirt, the questions are:

  1. “What Size do you want?”
  2. “What Color do you want?”

In WooCommerce terms, “Size” and “Color” are your Attributes.

The answers to these questions are called Terms.

  • For the “Size” attribute, the terms might be: Small, Medium, Large.
  • For the “Color” attribute, the terms might be: Red, Blue, Green.

What are Variations?

If attributes are the questions, variations are the final, specific products that exist based on the combination of answers.

A “Small, Red” T-shirt is one variation. A “Large, Blue” T-shirt is another variation.

Each unique variation can have its own price, its own SKU, its own stock quantity, and even its own unique image. This gives you incredibly precise control over your product offerings.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Variable Product

Let’s walk through the process using our example of a T-shirt that comes in three sizes (Small, Medium, Large) and two colors (Red, Blue).

Step 1: Set the Product Type to “Variable product”

  1. In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Products > Add New.
  2. Add your main product title (e.g., “Classic Cotton T-Shirt”).
  3. Write your main, detailed product description in the large text box.
  4. Now, scroll down to the “Product data” box. Click the dropdown menu that currently says “Simple product” and change it to “Variable product”.

You’ll notice that the price and some other fields disappear. This is normal! The price will be set for each variation individually later.

Step 2: Create the Product Attributes (Asking the Questions)

Now we need to create our “Size” and “Color” attributes.

  1. In the “Product data” box, click on the Attributes tab.
  2. Click the dropdown menu that says “Custom product attribute” and click the Add button.
  3. A new panel will appear. In the Name box, type Size.
  4. In the Value(s) box, type in your terms, making sure to separate each one with a vertical pipe character (|). The vertical pipe is usually found above the “Enter” key on your keyboard. For our example, you would type: Small | Medium | Large.
  5. This is the most important step: Make sure the “Used for variations” box is checked. This tells WooCommerce that this attribute will be used to create our selectable options.
  6. Click Save attributes.
  7. Now, let’s repeat the process for color. Click Add again. In the Name box, type Color. In the Value(s) box, type Red | Blue. Check the “Used for variations” box and click Save attributes.

You have now successfully set up the questions you need to ask your customers.

Step 3: Generate the Variations (Creating the Final Products)

With our attributes in place, it’s time to let WooCommerce work its magic and create all the possible combinations.

  1. In the “Product data” box, click on the Variations tab.
  2. Click the dropdown menu that says “Add variation” and instead select “Create variations from all attributes” from the list.
  3. Click the Go button.
  4. A confirmation alert will pop up. Click OK.

WooCommerce will now automatically generate every possible unique combination. In our example (3 sizes x 2 colors), it will create 6 variations.

Step 4: Configure Each Variation (Price, Image, and Stock)

You will now see a list of all your newly created variations (e.g., Small – Red, Small – Blue, etc.). Each one is a separate, controllable product.

  1. Click on any variation to expand its options.
  2. Image: Click the blue image placeholder to upload a unique image for that specific variation. For the “Small – Red” variation, you would upload your picture of the red T-shirt. This enables the fantastic “image swap” feature, where the main product image changes when a customer selects a different color.
  3. SKU: It’s a best practice to give each variation its own unique SKU for inventory tracking (e.g., TSHIRT-RED-SM).
  4. Regular Price (Required): This is the most important field. You must enter a price for each variation, otherwise, it will not be available for sale on your website.
  5. Stock quantity: If you manage stock, you can enter the specific quantity you have for that exact size and color combination.

Repeat this process for all of your variations.

Pro Tip (Huge Time-Saver): If many of your variations have the same price, you can use the “bulk edit” feature. At the very top of the Variations tab, the dropdown menu has options like “Set regular prices.” You can use this to set the price for all 6 variations at once and then manually adjust any that are different.

Step 5: Final Touches and Publishing

The hard part is over! Now just a few final steps to complete your product page.

  1. On the right-hand sidebar, add your main Product image. This will be the “fallback” image that visitors see before they’ve selected any options.
  2. Add any additional photos to the Product gallery.
  3. Assign your product to the appropriate Category (e.g., “T-Shirts”).
  4. Use the Preview button in the top right to see how your new variable product looks. Test the dropdown menus and make sure the price and image update correctly.
  5. Once you’re happy, click the big blue Publish button.

Conclusion: Unlocking E-commerce Power

Variable products might seem intimidating at first, but they follow a simple and logical process. Remember the two pillars:

  1. Attributes are the questions (Size? Color?).
  2. Variations are the final products based on the answers (A Small, Red T-shirt).

By mastering this feature, you have unlocked the true power of WooCommerce. You can now sell complex and customizable products, manage your inventory with incredible precision, and provide a professional, user-friendly shopping experience for your customers. You’re no longer just a store owner; you’re an e-commerce pro.

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