
How to Create WooCommerce Simple Products
WooCommerce is the most famous plugin for eCommerce, made with the idea to add eCommerce functionality to your WordPress website. What makes it so popular is its ease of use. With just a few clicks, even a complete beginner can turn WordPress website into a fully-functional and feature-rich online store. WooCommerce is easy to install, setup and integrate with the WordPress theme you’re already using, so it’s not surprising everyone from small businesses to big corporations use it. In combination with eCommerce WordPress themes, WooCommerce plugin brings amazing results. No matter what niche you cover and which product type you plan to sell, you can do it without hiring website developers. Since WooCommerce offers different product types, you can sell everything from ebooks to fashion items. If you’re a WooCommerce newbie, we recommend you to start with a simple product type.
In this tutorial you will learn how to create simple products in WooCommerce. This article covers following topics:
A simple product is the most frequently used product type in online stores. Basically, it’s one particular product, shown on one product page. Customers can purchase it by adding it to the user cart after which the product will be physically delivered to the desired address. A woman bag is a good example.

The single product doesn’t allow you to choose a different product color, dimensions, material, etc. This product type is a stand-alone, physical product that follows the rule ‘what you see is what you get’. In case you want to offer a product that has different attributes (color, materials, patterns…) you may have to use a variable WooCommerce product. instead of a simple WooCommerce product.
After you install WooCommerce plugin, you can start adding products right away. No matter what type of product you plan to add, WooCommerce will let you describe it in detail so the customer can get all the relevant info about the product’s characteristics. This isn’t mandatory, however, it can benefit both your business and your customers.
No matter what product type you want to add, you can do it by clicking on Products > Add New.

The product page works like any other page. This means you need to input its title, define its slug, and set its publishing date. We recommend you to firstly fill in the page title (product’s name). Secondly, change slug but make sure it follows the basic SEO standards. This will help your product rank faster and better. In the end, define the publishing date for your product.

After you input this basic info, you can continue with the further product specification. The first thing you need to do is to choose the product type. Find a Product data section and choose the Simple product from the dropdown menu.

When you choose a certain product type, you will notice the change in the section for inputting product information. Each product type is followed by different fields and functionalities that are inherent for that product type only. So, when you change the product type, the fields that you can use to specify the product’s characteristics also change. Once you create a new product and choose its type, continue with specifying its characteristics and inputting product info.
The great thing about WooCommerce is its large set of features. Thanks to them, you can describe your product in detail and share all the relevant info with potential buyers. Have in mind that this info can be stylized differently on different themes. Thus, the way this information is shown in our example may differ from the way this info looks on your theme.
Product Description
The product description contains all the essential info customers should be aware of. WooCommerce allows you to describe your product through two separate sections.
The first, longer description is placed right there on the product page in the Description tab. It’s used for describing the product in detail and adding important notes.

Editor for inputting this description is placed below the field for the product name.

The second product description type is placed next to the product. This is one of the first things your customers will see, so make sure it will grab their attention. Keep it simple and stick to crucial info. Of course, depending on your needs, you can insert any type of info here.

The field for this description type is called Product short description.

Product Price
A field where you can input this info is placed in the General tab. We recommend you to first go through the all available options, and then enter the info you find relevant. Some info is required, other is optional. Entering the price is mandatory. You can enter both the regular price and sale price for the same product.

After you enter the sale price, you will instantly see a difference live – the product that is on sale will be marked. This will apply to the product price as well. The way your prices appear depends on your theme’s design, so it can look different than in our example.

WooCommerce plugin is developed with attention to detail, so it offers additional options for specifying sale prices. One of them is the Schedule option you can also find in the General tab. Thanks to it, you can plan your sale in advance. Just set the start and the end of your sale for a certain product, so you don’t have to change the price once the sale starts/finishes. Of course, for each product that is on sale, you need to input the sale price separately.

Adding SKU and Stock Status
In a nutshell, SKU is a stock keep unit, used to track products. It’s an identification, usually alphanumeric, of a certain product thanks to which you can track it for inventory purposes. You can add this number through the Inventory tab. Every product has a unique SKU.

When it comes to stock status, your product can be In stock – available and ready to be shipped; Out of stock – sold out/not available, or On backorder – a product that is not currently available but will soon be ready for ordering.
The product that is sold out will be marked as sold out. When a product is sold out, the Add to cart option disappears. The way this info appears will depend on your theme’s design. In our case, it looks like this:

The product that is Available on backorder will also be marked.

Another useful adjustment for managing product stock is to Enable stock management at the product level. This option allows you to predefine the number of available products in advance. This will make sure our customers can’t buy products that are no longer available.

After you mark Enable stock management at product level box the following options will appear:
Stock quantity – Here you can input the number of available products.
Allow backorders – Define what will happen when you sell out all products (Do not allow, Allow and Allow, but notify customers). Choose Do not allow if you want to emphasize that backorders are not allowed and that product will be out of stock once you sell everything. Option Allow, as its name suggests, allows repurchasing.
Another interesting option is the Low stock threshold. Thanks to it you can get notified when a product’s inventory goes below a certain threshold. This will help you keep the track of your sales and allow you to order/add new items on time.
Limit Purchases to One Product Per Order
When you want to limit customers to buy only one unit of a specific item per order, go to Inventory tab and check the Sold individually field.

Shipping Options
Many shipping carrier companies require that your products have dimensions and weights set. So, don’t forget to specify product length, width, height, and weight. Also, you can set the Shipping classes here. This option allows you to group products of a similar type to provide different rates to different classes of product.

When you save the changes, the shipping info will appear on the product’s page as Additional information.

WooCommerce Related Products
WooCommerce related products functionality allows you to choose related products for one, particular product. You can create related products through the Linked products area. This will help your customers decide easier when they are hesitant about the purchase. Also, when you display related products, your customers can get inspired for additional products that make a perfect combo with the product they’re primarily interested in. For instance, if you sell bags, a wallet would be a good related product.
There are two ways to offer related products in WooCommerce: upselling and cross-selling. Use an Upsell when you want to convince a customer to buy a more expensive version of the product they originally wanted to purchase. Choose a Cross-sell when you plan to encourage a customer to buy related products alongside the product they originally wanted.
Upsells shows the related product directly on the product page. Cross-sells offers related products on a user’s cart page based on what your customer has already added to their cart.

Simple Product Attributes
Although product attributes are most frequently used for variable products, you can use them to specify the simple product as well. You can create WooCommerce attributes independently from a certain product. You can later use these attributes for as many products as you want.

Let’s take the size attribute (S, M, L..) as an example. Once you add it, your customers will be able to see this info in the Additional information tab. Although your customers will be able to see which sizes are available, in order to choose a certain size, they will have to contact you.

Simple Product Advanced Options
Advanced options offer you some great functionalities. In the first place, you can fill in the Purchase note that will be sent to the customer after the purchase (this is not mandatory). Secondly, you can use the Menu order field to rearrange the order of your products.

User Reviews
In the Advanced tab (image above) you can also enable/disable user reviews. This can be very practical since people like to read about other’s experiences or skip products that didn’t meet their expectations. It’s up to you whether you want to share both good and bad reviews with the customers or not.

Product Image Upload
It’s hard to imagine a professional shop without product images. There are two fields you can use to add an image for your product. Uploading a product image is essential while creating a product gallery is optional.

The way your product image will look depends on your theme’s stylization options.

Product Categories and Tags
Products are often grouped in major categories and sub-categories, but tags are another great way to help your customers sort through products. So, don’t forget to create tags and categories before you publish your product.

Let’s Wrap It Up
A simple product is the most common product type in WooCommerce. This product type is an ideal choice when you want to focus on one, particular product without offering its variants. We hope our guide on how to create WooCommerce simple products will help you do this fast and without any challenges. Good luck!
We hope that you found this article to be helpful. If you liked it, please feel free to check out some of these articles as well!