The way you present products impacts a customer’s shopping experience. Seeing an out-of-stock item can be frustrating and cause many shoppers to leave your website.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to hide out-of-stock products in WooCommerce. This can improve the look of your store and the customer experience.
Table of Contents
Why Hide Out of Stock Products?
Adjusting WooCommerce Settings to Hide Sold-Out Products
Using WordPress Plugins to Enhance WooCommerce
Smart Ways to Manage Your WooCommerce Inventory
Why Hide Out of Stock Products?
You might wonder, “Is hiding out-of-stock products really that important?” The short answer is yes! It directly leads to a better shopping experience for your customers.
WooCommerce out of stock product example
Instead of getting frustrated with buying something unavailable, they’ll only see what you have in stock, creating a smoother, faster checkout process.
This also benefits you.
The average eCommerce conversion rate is already quite low Bahrain Phone Numbers hovering between 1 and 4 percent. By hiding out-of-stock products, you can focus on managing your available inventory more effectively, guiding converted customers toward products they can actually buy. You can quickly see what needs restocking and make smarter decisions about which products to prioritize.
Plus, think about it this way: When customers aren’t distracted by unavailable items, they’re more likely to find and purchase something you do have in stock. This means happier customers, fewer abandoned carts, and more sales for you.
Adjusting WooCommerce Settings to Hide Sold-Out Products
WooCommerce comes with built-in tools to manage your inventory, giving you some control over how out-of-stock products appear in your store. This is a great place to start if you’re looking for a quick and easy fix.
Using Native WooCommerce Options
You can hide out-of-stock products right from your WordPress dashboard – no need for extra WordPress plugins. Here’s how:
From your WordPress dashboard, head over to WooCommerce » Settings and click the “Products” tab. At the top of this page, click the “Inventory” option.
WooCommerce products inventory settings
Now, look for the “Hide out-of-stock items from the catalog” checkbox and click the Save Changes button.
WooCommerce hide out of stock products
When you check this box, WooCommerce will automatically hide any product that is no longer in stock.
This built-in option is great for its simplicity – it’s the easiest way to hide out-of-stock items without extra plugins or code. However, it’s a storewide setting, so if you need more control over which products are hidden or how they’re displayed, you’ll want to explore the other methods I cover in this guide.
Changing Product Inventory Settings
WooCommerce also lets you fine-tune inventory settings for each product. This is helpful if you want more control than the storewide “hide out-of-stock” option.
To get started, go to Products » All Products in your WordPress dashboard and choose the product you want to edit.
WooCommerce edit products
On the product editing page, look for the “Product data” section. You’ll see several tabs; click on the one labeled Inventory.
WooCommerce product data stock management
Here are the key settings you can adjust:
Stock management: This checkbox is important. Check it if you want to track inventory for this specific product. Leave it unchecked if you don’t need to track stock levels.
Quantity: If you’re managing stock, enter the number of items you have available.
Allow backorders: Decide whether customers can place orders even if this item is out of stock. You have a few options here, like allowing all backorders, only allowing them if the item is marked as “in stock,” or not allowing backorders at all.
Low stock threshold: Get notified when stock for this item falls below a certain number.
Stock status: Manually mark the product as “in stock,” “out of stock,” or “on backorder.”
Note: To view the “stock status” options, you’ll need to uncheck the “Stock management” checkbox.
WooCommerce stock status settings
You might be wondering, “How do these settings work with the global hide option?”
Even if you have the global “Hide out of stock items from the catalog” enabled, you can override it for individual products.
For example, you could have it enabled globally but allow backorders for a specific product, ensuring it remains visible in your store. This means you can customize which out-of-stock products are hidden and which ones can still accept orders.
Using WordPress Plugins to Enhance WooCommerce
While WooCommerce’s built-in settings are handy, sometimes you need more horsepower. That’s where WooCommerce plugins come in. They add extra features and functionality to your store, often without needing to code.
There are some great plugins specifically designed for inventory management, giving you more flexibility and control than the standard WooCommerce options. You can find plugins to automate stock updates, get detailed inventory reports, and, of course, customize how you hide out-of-stock products.
WooCommerce Stock Control with ATUM Inventory
One popular option is the ATUM Inventory Management for WooCommerce plugin. It’s a free plugin (with paid upgrades available) that transforms WooCommerce’s basic inventory features into a powerful management system.
Here’s how to get started with ATUM:
From your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins » Add New and search for “ATUM Inventory Management for WooCommerce.”
Install ATUM WooCommerce inventory management plugin
Click “Install Now” next to the plugin, and once it’s done, click “Activate.”
ATUM has tons of cool features, but for this guide, I’ll focus on those that help you hide those out-of-stock products.
To get started, navigate to ATUM Inventory » Settings and look for the section related to product visibility (the exact location might vary depending on your ATUM version).
ATUM general options: out of stock threshold per product
In my version, this is the “Out of stock threshold per product” option under the General settings tab. Go ahead and activate this toggle to hide out-of-stock items from your product listings.
And don’t forget to click “Save Changes” before moving on.
Customize WooCommerce Pages with SeedProd
Want even more control over how your products look and feel? SeedProd is a powerful drag-and-drop WordPress page builder that integrates with WooCommerce, letting you create completely custom online stores.
SeedProd Drag and Drop WordPress website builder
To begin with, you’ll need SeedProd Elite, which comes with full WooCommerce support. Then, follow these instructions for installing and activating the plugin.
With SeedProd, you can either build a custom WooCommerce theme from scratch or create individual WooCommerce pages, like:
wooCommerce store builder
Custom shop pages with eye-catching product grids, add-to-cart buttons, and extra elements like videos, social media buttons, or countdown timers.
Unique product pages that highlight each item’s best features.
Streamlined checkout pages that make buying easy.
SeedProd WOoComm
