When you design your content strategy based on a product catalog, there is that point of reflection where you must decide how to show or offer a product to your customers, based on the structure of the catalog and compensating accessibility and visibility for these users. of these products on the one hand, and on the other hand, the technical characteristics to work on SEO.
Analyzing the catalogs of very large stores, such as the textile stores of the Inditex group, one day I came across a very cool detail; as an example: A t-shirt, let's say with the print of the drawing a drop-down menu or thumbnails on the product detail sheet, they were also available as a photo card, independent, in the listing of the "t-shirts" category.
That is to say, Its visibility is double, And thus, there are several ways to reach the product that is most attractive to your customers. But there's even more: with this strategy, the view of the category grows, which You really make it look like your catalog is extensive.
One of the key features of WooCommerce is product variations, which allow you to offer different versions of the same product, such as different sizes, colors or materials.
From here, I investigated how to implement it in WooCommerce, since I found it super interesting.
What are product variations in WooCommerce?
Product variations in WooCommerce are different versions of the same product that customers can select before making a purchase. For example, if you sell t-shirts, the variations could be different sizes or colors. This gives customers the ability to choose the option that best suits their needs.
Strategies for displaying products and variations
When displaying products and variations in your online store, it is important to consider strategies that improve the user experience and increase the chances of sales. Here are some useful strategies:
☑️ Highlight the most popular variations: Show variations that are most popular with customers first to increase the chances of a quick sale.
☑️ Use clear and descriptive images: Make sure the images of each variation are clear and clearly show the differences between them to help customers make informed decisions.
☑️ Offer search filters: Implement search filters so customers can easily find the variations they are looking for, such as size, color, or price.
☑️ Show variations in category listings: Use a plugin that allows you to display product variations directly in category listings. This will make your catalog appear more extensive and attractive to customers.
By following these strategies and taking advantage of WooCommerce functionalities, you will be able to improve the way you display products and variations in your online store, which can result in a better shopping experience for your customers and increase sales.
StorePlugin “Variations as Single Product” Plugin
Of course, as always, "there's a plugin for that", but don't think I found it easily. There are others, of course, and of course, Woo official, but this one from StorePlugin exists in basic version. If we want advanced options, we can always get the PRO version, with support, of course.
Here you have a screenshot of its options screen, and as you can see, the basic version is not bad at all, and includes what is necessary:
Solution with custom php code
We can always make our own solution, but it's not simple. Variable products and their data structure are a complex content type. To get the variations to be shown in the lists, we will have to modify the main query to include these. I was thinking about it and there are good ideas and tricks on sites like StackOverflow, but there are several features to take into account that this plugin already solves for you, so... yourselves.
I hope this trick, mini-tutorial or advice has been useful to you, for me finding this "feature" was a great WIN. Do you know of any useful and cool tricks to improve your ecommerce? Share it, don't keep it to yourself, we are Open Source people!
Leave a Reply