You’ve successfully installed WooCommerce and configured your initial settings. Your online store is officially open for business… but the virtual shelves are empty. Now comes the most important and exciting step: adding your products.
You navigate to the “Add New Product” screen and are immediately confronted with a dozen fields, tabs, and options. It can feel overwhelming. What in the world is an SKU? What’s the difference between the long description and the short description? Is “upsell” the same as a “cross-sell”?
Don’t worry, it’s much easier than it looks. Getting this part right is the key to creating a great shopping experience for your customers and driving sales.
This guide will walk you through exactly how to add a simple product in WooCommerce. We will break down every single field on the page, explaining what it means in plain English and providing professional best practices along the way. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll be a pro at adding products to your store.
Table of Contents
First, What is a “Simple Product”?
Before we begin, let’s clarify what WooCommerce means by a simple product. This is the most common and basic type of product you can create.
A simple product is a unique, physical product that you would ship to a customer, with no different options or variations like size or color.
Examples of Simple Products:
- A specific book by an author.
- A coffee mug with a single, specific design.
- A piece of original artwork.
- A bag of a particular brand of coffee beans.
If it’s one distinct item that doesn’t require the customer to choose from a dropdown menu of options, it’s a simple product. This is the perfect place to start.
The Step-by-Step Guide to Adding Your Product
Let’s walk through the “Add New Product” screen together, field by field.
Step 1: Navigate to the “Add New Product” Screen
In your WordPress dashboard, look at the main navigation menu on the left.
- Hover your mouse over the Products menu item.
- In the submenu that appears, click on Add New.
You are now on the main product creation screen. It looks similar to the standard WordPress post editor, but with some powerful new e-commerce sections.
Step 2: Add the Main Product Information
This is where you’ll add your product’s name and its main description.
- Product Name: The very first field at the top is for your product’s title.1 Make it clear, descriptive, and compelling. Include the brand name if it’s relevant.
- Long Description: The large text box below the title is for your main, detailed product description. This is your primary sales pitch. Don’t just list features; describe the benefits. Tell a story about the product. Explain what it’s made of, its dimensions, and what makes it special. Use headings, bullet points, and bold text to break up the content and make it easy to read.
Step 3: Configure the “Product Data” Box
Scroll down below the main description, and you’ll find a large box titled “Product data.” This is the engine room of your product page.
First, make sure the dropdown menu at the top of this box is set to Simple product. Now let’s go through the most important tabs on the left.
General Tab:
- Regular price: This is the normal, everyday price for your product.2 This is a required field.
- Sale price: If your item is on sale, you can enter the discounted price here. You can even click “Schedule” to run the sale for a specific date range (perfect for promotions like Black Friday).
Inventory Tab:
- SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): This is a unique code that you create to identify your product.3 It’s for your internal use to track inventory. It can be any combination of letters and numbers, but it’s best to create a simple, consistent system (e.g., TSHIRT-RED-LG-001).
- Manage stock?: Check this box to enable stock management at the product level. When you do, a “Stock quantity” field will appear.4 Enter the number of items you have available. WooCommerce will now automatically track your inventory and display the product as “Out of stock” when it sells out.
Shipping Tab:
- Weight and Dimensions (L×W×H): Enter the weight and dimensions of the packaged product, not the product itself. This information is crucial if you plan to use real-time shipping rate calculations from carriers like USPS or FedEx in the future.
Linked Products Tab:
- Upsells: These are products that you recommend to the customer instead of the current product.5 They are typically more profitable or of a higher quality. Upsells are displayed on the product page itself under a heading like “You may also like…”
- Cross-sells: These are products that you promote in the shopping cart, based on the current item.6 They are complementary products. For example, if the customer is buying a camera, a cross-sell might be a memory card or a camera bag.
Step 4: Write the Product Short Description
If you scroll further down the page, past the “Product data” box, you’ll find another text box for the Product short description.
This is a very important piece of content. It’s the brief, punchy summary that usually appears right next to your product image and the “Add to Cart” button. Keep it to one or two sentences and focus on the single biggest benefit or most important feature of the product.
Step 5: Add Images and Organize Your Product
Now, look at the right-hand sidebar. This is where you’ll organize your product and add its all-important images.
- Product categories: Categories are the main “aisles” of your online store. They help customers browse and find related items. You can create new categories (e.g., “Apparel,” “Mugs,” “Books”) and assign your product to one or more of them.7
- Product tags: Tags are more specific keywords that can help customers filter products.8 For a coffee mug, tags might include “funny,” “ceramic,” or “gift idea.”
- Product image: This is the single most important image for your product. It is the main “cover” photo that will appear on your shop page and at the top of the product page. Click Set product image to upload a clear, high-quality photo from your computer.
- Product gallery: Don’t stop at one photo! Click Add product gallery images to upload additional photos. Show your product from different angles, show it in use, or highlight close-up details. The more images you provide, the more confident your customer will feel about buying.
Step 6: Review and Publish!
You’ve filled out all the essential information. The final step is to bring your product page to life.
- Before you publish, it’s always a good idea to see what your page will look like to a customer. In the “Publish” box at the top right, click the Preview button. This will open a new browser tab showing you a live preview of your product page.
- Check for any typos in your descriptions. Make sure your images look clear and that the price is correct.
- Once you’re happy with how everything looks, go back to the editor and click the big, blue Publish button.
Congratulations! You have successfully added your first product to your WooCommerce store. It is now live on your website and ready for customers to add to their cart and purchase.
Conclusion: Rinse and Repeat
The “Add New Product” screen can seem complex on your first visit, but as you’ve seen, it’s just a series of simple, logical steps. You now have a complete, repeatable workflow that you can use to add every simple product to your store.
With each new product you add, the process will become faster and more intuitive. You have now mastered the single most important function of your new e-commerce business.