As a free WordPress plugin, WooCommerce has become a popular tool to bring online stores to life. Beyond providing a digital storefront, WooCommerce can also help manage a store’s inventory, making it an attractive option for online retailers.

But what about the cost of hosting, creating domain names, using themes, and additional plug-ins or extensions? Are these and other premium features worth it?

In this article, we will provide:

1. An overview of WooCommerce features and how to use them,
2. Discuss how WooCommerce inventory management supports your online store,
3. Analyze some of the pros and cons of using WooCommerce specifically for your inventory management needs

Creating a Product Catalog in WooCommerce

Once you install the WooCommerce plugin and select a topic, adding products to your online catalog is fairly simple, even for a novice webmaster. If you are familiar with the WordPress user experience, adding a new product to your WooCommerce inventory management is similar to creating a new page.

When you create a product, you can add:

1. Product title
2. Short product description
3. Long product description
4. Product image

WooCommerce inventory management plugin gives various options to add simple and variable products. A variable product gives your customers options for features such as size or color while a simple product has only one type (eg, your customers can only buy black socks in one size).

In addition, WooCommerce allows regular pricing and sale pricing, both scheduled and undefined.

For example, if the regular price of your product is $ 40, you may want to offer a selling price of $35.99. If this is a sales strategy, you may want to offer this sale price indefinitely, so it will not be a selling price.

On the other hand, if the $ 35.99 price is part of a promotion (eg, Christmas, Valentine’s Day sales) or an inventory management strategy (eg, you need to move this product quickly because it is trying too much capital) Fixed Price of Sale.

Adding Convertible Products to WooCommerce

To list products with variable attributes such as size and color, you can add “Variable Products”. When entrepreneurs select this option, the main difference to set-up “simple product” is the ability to add attributes.

Now, you can choose a color-like attribute and input your custom values. You will then indicate that you want this product:

• Appears on product page
• Used for variations

Entrepreneurs can add several attributes with the values ​​associated with each product (eg, size: S | M | L | XL).

Once created, select “Create variations from all attributes” from the Variety tab. This allows your customers to find products that are combinations of different colors and sizes (eg, small red jumpsuits or large blue jumpsuits).

Once you create your variations, WooCommerce gives you visibility on all possible variations.

Manage your inventory in WooCommerce

WooCommerce empowers you to choose the right approach for your business – either hands-off or controlled product management.

1. a. Using SKU in WooCommerce

If you are an authorized reseller of popular products, it is important to be able to enter the SKU in the system, so that your customers know that you are carrying the exact items they are looking for, whether it is a tracksuit Or an important piece of machinery.

If you sell the original product, you may not have an SKU. After entering SKU in WooCommerce’s inventory management is optional, you can choose whether you want to create one for your products or leave it out. That said, it may be worth considering new SKUs for your products to make your accounting and recordkeeping easier.

SKUs help you track the success (or failure) of your products based on size, color, style, and more. You can then use this data to make smarter inventory management decisions.

For example, you may find that a popular A-line dress is only popular in a red size 12, which allows you to reduce your re-order levels for other colors and sizes, and your re-order levels for popular SKUs Guide to increase.

1. Backorder and Stock Quantity in WooCommerce

WooCommerce also asks you to choose whether you want to manage your stock or not. If you decide to manage your stock, you will be asked to specify the stock quantity and whether you will allow a return order.

Although it helps you with the front end of selling your inventory, it does not connect to your actual inventory. This is why WooCommerce gives you this option. If you want, you can actually list products for sale on WooCommerce without any products in stock.

On the other hand, if you indicate that you want to manage the stock then you will need to enter the inventory level. You will then need to specify whether you will allow backorder and if so, how you will interface with customers.

For example, if you have 20 jumpsuits in stock and you allow a backorder with the condition that the customer is informed, then the customer who orders jumpsuit number 21 will get the message that their order has a long wait.

Customize the online shopping experience in WooCommerce

To help retailers customize their shopping and checkout experiences, WooCommerce offers additional customization options:

• Enter product weight and dimensions for fast, accurate shipping details
• Display and link to related products for potential fluctuations and cross cells
• Expand on product images using the product gallery. This is especially useful when selling items such as apparel – retailers can show the front, back, and side views of a jumpsuit or pair of pants.
• Activate or deactivate reviews for each product
• For easy navigation, retailers can assign products (eg, jumpsuits) to the basic category (eg, apparel) and subcategories (women’s apparel), and use product tags to further customize the website.