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Dropdowns?
You may have been surprised the first time you created a product variation with WooCommerce.
If you add a “blue” variation to your t-shirt, you’ll see a dropdown menu on the product page. That works fine, but a color swatch would be much more intuitive.
The best product variation plugins for WooCommerce listed here all fix this problem.
The plugins listed below will each give you visual options to display your product variations, giving you more beautiful and easy-to-understand ways to share your product’s sizes, colors, etc.
If you’d prefer not to use variations, you might prefer these product add-on plugins instead.
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Best product variation plugins for WooCommerce
- 1. WooCommerce Better Variations
- 2. YITH WooCommerce Color and Label Variations
- 3. WooCommerce Variation Swatches
- 4. WooCommerce Additional Variation Images
- 5. WooCommerce Variation Prices
- 6. WooCommerce Show Variations on Shop Page
- 7. YaySwatches Pro
- 8. WooCommerce Variation Master
- 9. WooCommerce Bulk Variations
- 10. Product Variations Table for WooCommerce
- 11. WooCommerce Product Table
- 12. WooCombinator
- 13. Variation Swatches for WooCommerce
- 14. WooCommerce Additional Variation Image
- Which product variation plugin is best?
Best product variation plugins for WooCommerce
Only highly-rated plugins have been included here.
Beyond the obvious best-sellers, you’ll also find some unique additions for things like product variation tables and additional variable images.
These plugins will help you sell more variations of the same product and make selecting variations easier for your shoppers.
Since these are eCommerce plugins that will help you to make more sales, they’re mainly premium plugins, but there is a free option included at the end.
1. WooCommerce Better Variations
Plugin Description
Better Variations gives you some simple yet unique options for your variable products. It has two “Display modes” available to customize how you present variable choices to customers.
The “Standard” display mode allows you to ensure that out-of-stock variations are disabled and greyed out. This means they’re still visible to the user, but they can’t be selected. This features works with both single and multiple product attributes. You can also add some extra text to out-of-stock variations. For instance, you can add a simple message like “Out of stock!” or you can even add a date for when the variation will be back in stock.
Further customization options include the ability to apply different colors to in-stock variations and out-of-stock variations. You can even choose to sort variations so that the in-stock items appear above the out-of-stock items. These are all simple ideas that can be accomplished easily with the Better Variations plugin.
The second display mode is “Grid.” This allows you to display all your variations for products in a single table or grid view so that customers can enter quantities for multiple products without the laborious task of selecting each variation separately. You can also display stock and price information for each variation.
The Grid mode is ideal for B2B and wholesale sites where customers need to quickly add multiple variations to their cart. It makes ordering variable products much simpler.
Overall, Better Variations is an awesome plugin for any WooCommerce store that makes extensive use of product variations.
2. YITH WooCommerce Color and Label Variations
Plugin Description
This product variation plugin by YITH is most likely the plugin you’re looking for. It lets you add beautiful color swatches and other select options to your product pages instead of the boring dropdown menus WooCommerce uses.
With this variation plugin, you can choose the right type of icon to display on the product page for each variable you add. For instance, you can add a color picker for the visitor to select a color, an image for a totally different style, or plain text for choosing a size. This option alone makes the plugin well worth the price, but there are even more features included.
You can also add a totally different image gallery for each variation. For instance, if you’ve got a hoodie for sale and someone selects the green version, all of your gallery images will update to match the green variation. You can also add small tooltips that appear with larger images of the style thumbnails.
On top of all these features, you can also add a short description below each variation, list all the variation options in the Additional Information section below the product description, and display your variations like individual products on your store pages.
Overall, this is an excellent plugin for taking control of your variations and creating a better user experience for your customers.
3. WooCommerce Variation Swatches
Plugin Description
Another top plugin to consider is WooCommerce Variation Swatches. The best part about this plugin is that it can automatically convert your existing dropdowns into swatches. It will only take minutes to switch all your products over to the more elegant swatch picker design.
This WooCommerce plugin also includes the ability to create dual-tone swatches. The circular swatch will be split in half so shoppers can easily see the palette they’ll get. And if you’d prefer to show customers a preview of how the product looks with the selected color, you can replace the color swatches with small product thumbnails auto-generated from your Featured Image.
Overall, it’s an awesome plugin for any store that makes use of color variations.
4. WooCommerce Additional Variation Images
Plugin Description
A major limitation with variations is that shoppers continue to see the same product images and videos regardless of which variation they select. That all changes with the WooCommerce Additional Variation Images plugin.
With this plugin, you can add new images and videos for each of your product variations. This will give customers a better look at the product before they purchase, and elevate the quality of the shopping experience.
WooCommerce Additional Variation Images also gives you a variety of customization options. You can enable auto-play for the slider, show/hide elements like the arrows, and change the positioning of the thumbnail images. And of course, it’s all totally responsive and mobile-friendly regardless of how you configure it.
Click the link below to see more screenshots and details.
5. WooCommerce Variation Prices
Plugin Description
The WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin by Barn2 allows store owners to control the format in which the prices of their variable products are displayed on their online store. This can be useful for products that have a range of options available, as it allows store owners to present the prices of each variation in a way that is easy for customers to understand.
Normally, the prices of variable products are always displayed as a range, such as $50 – $100. WooCommerce Variation Prices lets you replace this with any other format. You can show the ‘From’ or ‘To’ price only, change the symbol in the price range, and create your own custom variation pricing formats. It’s also possible to list the price of each variation individually on the product page, which is useful for products with just a few variations.
WooCommerce Variation Prices changes the variable product price format everywhere that the price range normally appears in your store. This includes the main shop page, individual product page, and in the related products section.
With its easy-to-use features and support for range formatting, this plugin can help store owners present the prices of their variable products more effectively and improve the customer experience on their online store.
6. WooCommerce Show Variations on Shop Page
Plugin Description
Normally, WooCommerce will list all of your products on the shop page, and shoppers will need to select a product to see its variations. For some stores, it’s more practical to include all the product variations on the shop page, and that’s exactly what WooCommerce Show Variations on Shop Page can do for your store.
Once you enable this plugin, your products and all their variations will appear on your main store page. Since the generic product titles for variations are lame, you can rewrite the title of each variation to make it more appealing. You’ll also find that when filtering by attribute on the store page, the correct variation will always show up.
If you’d like to give your variations more prominence in your shop, this plugin will help tremendously.
7. YaySwatches Pro
Plugin Description
YaySwatches Pro will take your product variations way beyond simple color swatches. Using this plugin, you can include real photographs of your products for customers to click on to change the color. You can also use photorealistic buttons for materials and neatly labeled buttons for size options.
Managing stock for variations isn’t too difficult in WooCommerce, but it’s not presented well to shoppers by default. This is another area where YaySwatches Pro shines. It’s great at showing visitors exactly which variations are out of stock, making it easy for them to select a version that’s available now.
One last feature worth noting is that these variation options aren’t limited to the product page. You can include these UI elements on the main shop page and category pages too. This encourages shoppers to customize while they browse, and the more time they spend customing an item, the more likely they will be to make a purchase.
8. WooCommerce Variation Master
Plugin Description
There’s a reason this plugin is called “Variation Master.” It does so much more than add swatches and custom labels to your product pages.
As you’d expect, this plugin lets you display color swatches on product pages and single letters for item sizes (“L” for large). In addition to this functionality, it also includes a host of other helpful features.
With WooCommerce Variation Master, you can add a new image gallery for each variation. If you have four images for a white shirt and a customer switches to the pink version, all four gallery images will update. There’s also an option to turn the gallery images into a slider so you can add even more product images. To make for a smoother shopping experience, you can enable all of these options directly on the shop page and the individual product page.
Perhaps the coolest feature in the WooCommerce Variation Master plugin is the cart page popup window. There’s a new “Update” button added to each cart item, and if a customer clicks it, it shows a popup window right in the cart page. Inside the popup, the variation options can be changed. For example, a black shirt can be switched to blue. The quantity can be adjusted as well.
All of the designs added by this plugin are fully responsive, so the options will be completely accessible on desktop and mobile devices alike. If you want tons of ways to customize how variations are selected for your products, the WooCommerce Variation Master plugin will be a great choice.
9. WooCommerce Bulk Variations
Plugin Description
Depending on the type of products you sell, you may find that customers want to buy multiple variations of the same product. The default variation dropdowns make this quite time-consuming because you have to add each variation to the cart one at a time.
The WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin solves this problem by displaying all the variations for a particular product in a matrix or grid format. Customers can enter the quantity they require of each variation and then click the Add to Cart button once instead of repeating the process multiple times.
There are lots of options for configuring the bulk variations grid. You can choose which products to use it for and whether to show an image for each variation. There are options for choosing which attributes to display as rows or columns in the variations grid, and you can show extras such as stock information.
10. Product Variations Table for WooCommerce
Plugin Description
If you’re selling clothing, you’ll likely be okay with color swatches and friendly visual options for selecting a single item. But for technical products, this may not be enough. For example, shoppers buying computer parts or camera gear might want to review many specs at once. That’s where the variations table plugin comes in.
With the Product Variations Table for WooCommerce plugin, you can display a complete table of all the different variations. Even better, visitors can add products from the table directly to their cart. This means that instead of just visually presenting all the variations, you can use this as a sales tool to get visitors to purchase multiple variations at once.
The table includes real-time search that updates the rows instantly as visitors type in the search bar. Tables are notoriously difficult to adapt to mobile devices, but this plugin handles responsive design perfectly well.
11. WooCommerce Product Table
Plugin Description
Normally, WooCommerce only lets customers select variations on a single product page. This isn’t ideal because if a customer wants to buy several different variable products, they have to visit multiple pages.
WooCommerce Product Table is the perfect solution because it lets customers add variations away from the single product page. It does this by listing products in a quick order form layout, complete with quantity pickers and variation selectors.
You can list products and variations on the shop page, category pages, or manually by adding a shortcode to any page or post. If you have lots of products on each table, you can help customers find them more easily using the AJAX-powered search box. It’s also possible to add filter dropdowns so that customers can quickly filter the table to find variable products with a certain attribute.
There are two ways to display variations in the product table. You can either show them as dropdowns in the add to cart column for each product or list each variation on a separate row of the table. Either way, it’s an excellent way to select variations from outside of the single product page.
12. WooCombinator
Plugin Description
WooCombinator is another wonderful option for transforming your variation dropdowns into more appealing designs.
This plugin will list all of your variations as buttons above the product description. For example, you could have a bottle with “glass” and “plastic” as variations listed on the page, and your visitors could quickly click one to select it. The selected variation gets highlighted on the page to make their choice clear.
When you have multiple WooCommerce attributes and product variations, WooCombinator provides an excellent way to let visitors quickly pick out the version of the product they want. Not to mention, it’s kind of fun to select the right options, and you may end up charging more based on these choices, which will improve your bottom line.
If you’re a developer or know how to write CSS, you might prefer this plugin. It allows you to add custom classes for elements and states, and easily add your own inline CSS rules. There is also plenty of documentation to help beginner and advanced users alike.
WooCombinator provides a much smoother experience for your customers than the default dropdown menus. Shoppers can plainly see all the options at once, and their selections are clear. That said, the YITH plugin provides shows the actual colors available and can include small product images, which is clearer and more apparent.
13. Variation Swatches for WooCommerce
Plugin Description
If you’re looking for a free and straightforward option, Variation Swatches for WooCommerce is excellent.
This plugin works exactly the way you’d expect. It takes your color options, and instead of using the dropdown menu that WooCommerce usually displays, it outputs color swatches that can be easily clicked. This lets visitors quickly see what colors are available and select one.
Perhaps more practical than the simple color swatches are the image options. For example, if you have different styles of the same watch, you can replace the color swatches with small thumbnails of the various watch styles. The image variation swatches are more descriptive than using plain colors.
This WordPress plugin works with a variety of variable product attributes beyond colors. It also works for clothing sizes, shoe sizes, and ring sizes. You can adapt it to virtually any kind of product attribute you want.
While the more advanced options are limited to the PRO version, the free version is plenty useful enough and works great for adding color and image swatches.
14. WooCommerce Additional Variation Image
Plugin Description
WooCommerce Additional Variation Image is a simple feature plugin that will add more variation images to your site.
With this plugin, you can add more product images for each variation on your site. When a potential customer selects a new variation, all of the images will immediately update to match.
While this WooCommerce plugin doesn’t include visual swatches like the others, you can use it in addition to the other plugins listed here. This means you could use a different plugin to replace the default dropdown menus and stick to this plugin for adding more image variations.
As a plugin sold on the official WooCommerce store, you can also trust it to be well-coded and fully documented by the WooCommerce development team.
Which product variation plugin is best?
What did you think?
There are many useful plugins to choose from in this list, so you won’t walk away empty-handed.
WooCommerce Better Variations is a straightforward plugin with robust presentation options for variations, which is why it became our #1 recommendation.
For some sites, YITH WooCommerce Color and Label Variations will be the best choice. It handles color attribute swatches and many other product variables well. It also allows for images specific to the variable selected.
One other plugin worth highlighting is Product Variations Table for WooCommerce simply because it’s unique. If you’re selling lots of technical products that need to be compared and reviewed, this is a great way to provide shoppers with an overview.
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