WooCommerce: Working with Products

WooCommerce provides a way to sell items, both physical and virtual. As a WordPress plugin, WooCommerce builds upon the structure of WordPress. This allows for integrating a store right inside your site. A WooCommerce overview is great for those who want to learn more before proceeding.

There is quite a bit to learn about with WooCommerce. In this training we will take a look at the types of products your store can offer. In addition, we will look at the virtual and downloadable options, to see when these are appropriate to use.

Product Data Types

WooCommerce offers 4 product data types to choose from and we will look at each of them.

Simple Product

This is the most common and simplest product data type. The simple product is great for items without options, such as sizes or colors, for the customer to choose from.

Group Product

Group product is an interesting product data type. A popular group product setup is music. Typically sites will offer the ability to choose which songs to purchase. Or to even purchase the entire album, all on the same page. When you wish to show a group of simple products together, the group product is a great choice.

External/Affiliate Product

External products is great if you have affiliate products you wish to add to your store. Unlike the simple or variable product option, the "purchase button" goes to the external site for completing the purchase.

Variable Product

Variable products are great for more complex products. One great example of a variable product would be articles of clothing. You could have different sizes, such as t-shirts. You can make variable products as complex as needed. For example, you could have size and color as options.

Virtual / Downloadable Options

The virtual and downloadable product options are amazing. Each has a distinction, so let's take a look.

Virtual products are non-physical products and are not items to ship. That is, selecting the virtual option hides the shipping section. One of the best examples of a virtual item is an e-card.

A downloadable product comes with a download option. The download can be from anywhere, either onsite or using an external service. One of the best examples of a downloadable item is stock photography. Downloadable products allow for setting a time limit for downloads, as well how many times overall a download is available.