How you display or hide your products can significantly impact your online store’s performance. Whether you’re keeping exclusive items under wraps, clearing out-of-stock clutter, or showcasing seasonal offers, managing your WooCommerce product visibility gives you the flexibility to control what your customers see.
In this guide, we’ll dive into the benefits of hiding products and explore how to adjust visibility configurations in your e-commerce platform. Moreover, we’ll show you how to use product feeds to fine-tune which items are displayed across various sales channels.
So let’s get right into it!
I. What Is Product Visibility In WooCommerce?
In WooCommerce, product visibility refers to how and where your products are displayed on your online store and other sales channels. It lets you control whether a product is fully visible to the public, only accessible with a direct link, or hidden from your store’s catalog and search.
There are four main visibility options for products in a WooCommerce store:
- Public: The product is visible everywhere (store pages, search results, and category listings).
- Catalog: The product appears on shop pages and category listings but stays hidden in the store’s search results.
- Search: The product shows up in the store’s search results but is hidden from catalog pages.
- Hidden: The product is completely hidden from both store pages and search results. It’s only accessible via a direct link.
These options give you flexibility in how your products are displayed, making it easy to handle promotions, manage stock, or offer exclusive items.
II. Why Would You Want To Hide Products In WooCommerce?
Hidden products can be good for your e-commerce business. In fact, strategically displaying and hiding WooCommerce products can contribute to its success:
- Out-of-stock items: If a product is temporarily unavailable, you might want to hide it instead of removing it entirely. This makes it easier to bring back once it’s restocked without having to recreate the listing from scratch.
- Seasonal or limited-time products: Some products, like Halloween costumes or Christmas trees, are only relevant during specific times of the year. Hiding them once the season ends keeps your store clutter-free, unless you’re running a clearance sale to clear out remaining stock.
- Shipping restrictions: You may have products that can’t be shipped internationally due to logistical or legal reasons. In this case, it’s a smart move to hide them from customers living outside your shipping zones to avoid confusion and abandoned carts.
- Exclusive or branded products: If you sell items that are tailor-made for a specific retail store or customer, you’ll want to keep them hidden from the general public. This ensures those products remain exclusive and aren’t available for anyone outside your intended audience.
- Pre-launch or unfinished listings: When prepping for a product launch, hiding it gives you time to finalize all the details before it’s ready to go live. This way, customers won’t stumble upon incomplete listings.
- Testing purposes: Hiding products while testing new features or layouts can help store owners avoid showing unfinished or experimental listings to customers. This lets you ensure everything works perfectly before revealing the product.
- Registered customer-only products: If you offer special products or deals for registered customers, you might want to hide them from shoppers who haven’t signed up yet. This strategy can encourage more customers to create accounts to access those exclusive offers.
III. How Do You Change Product Visibility In WooCommerce?
WooCommerce offers many simple ways to change the visibility of your e-commerce products.
To find most of these options, head to your WordPress Admin Dashboard and click Products > All Products. Then, find the item you wish to hide, and either click on its name or Edit option.
This takes you to the product’s Edit Product page, as shown below.
Now, look for the Publish box on the right side of screen. Here, you’ll find the three different WooCommerce product visibility options. Let’s explore each of them in more detail!
1. Change the product status
The simplest way to hide a product is to change its status from published to draft. This can be extremely useful when you want to temporarily remove an item from your store so you can update its details and images.
In the Publish box, you’ll find an item called Status, which is set to “Published” for a live product. All you must do is change this status to “Draft.” So click Edit next to the status and select “Draft” from the dropdown.
Now, click the OK button to change the product’s status to “Draft.”
Lastly, save your changes by clicking the Update button in the Publish box. This implements your item’s “Draft” status, removing it from your store and thus preventing shoppers from purchasing it. When you want your store to display this product again, return to this page and change its status back to “Published.”
2. Modify the catalog visibility
You can easily control your products’ catalog visibility within WooCommerce. This offers more flexible visibility customization than simply changing a product’s status to “Draft.”
In the Publish box, look for the Catalog visibility options. To begin, click its Edit option. This will give you access to four options:
- Shop and search results: This visibility option allows the product to be displayed on both the shop pages and in the search results. Customers can easily find and view the product when browsing the catalog or using the search function on your e-commerce store.
- Shop only: Selecting this option means the product will be visible only on the shop pages and category listings. It will not appear in the search results, limiting its visibility to customers who are browsing through your store rather than searching for specific items.
- Search results only: When you pick this option, the product will only be visible in the store’s search results. It will not appear on the catalog pages or category listings, ensuring that it’s accessible only when customers actively search for it.
- Hidden: Choosing this option means the product will be completely hidden from both the catalog and search results. Hidden products will not be visible to customers unless they have a direct link to the product page, allowing you to keep certain items private or exclusive.
Once you’ve made your choice, click the OK button followed by the Update button to save your changes.
3. Set the product visibility to private or password-protected
You can also manage product visibility in WooCommerce by setting products to private or password-protected. When a product is private, only users with the direct link can view it, meaning it won’t appear in your shop’s catalog or search results.
To set a product as private or password protected, head to the Publish box, find the Visibility section, and click Edit. This will give you access to three options:
- Public: Products marked as public are fully visible to everyone. They can be found on your store’s catalog pages, category listings, and search results, making them accessible to all potential customers.
- Password Protected: This setting allows you to restrict access to a product by requiring a password. Only customers who have the password can view or purchase the product, making it ideal for exclusive offers or private sales.
- Private: When products are set to private, they’re only visible to users with the appropriate permissions, such as store admins or editors. They won’t appear in the catalog or search results, ensuring that only select individuals can access them through a direct link.
Finally, click the OK button and the Update button to save and implement your changes.
4. Hide out-of-stock products
Here’s a bonus fourth option!
If you have items that are currently out of stock, you can hide them from your catalog to enhance the customer experience. This technique, however, requires heading to another location in the WordPress Admin Dashboard.
To begin, navigate to WooCommerce > Settings. Next, click the Products tab followed by the Inventory sub-tab.
Now, scroll down to the Out of stock visibility section and tick the checkbox for Hide out of stock items from the catalog.
Lastly, click the Save changes button to turn all out-of-stock items into hidden products.
IV. Changing WooCommerce Product Visibility On Sales Channels
As we’ve seen, strategically hiding products can benefit your WooCommerce store. But to take your business to the next level, you’ll need to elevate this strategy even further.
To start, it’s essential to showcase your products not only on your WooCommerce store but also across various sales channels. Picture advertising on platforms like Google Shopping, Microsoft Bing, Facebook, PriceGrabber, Shopzilla, and others. By doing this, you’ll reach not just your website visitors but also the customers of those additional channels. This expanded exposure will significantly boost your reach, visibility, and, ultimately, your sales and profits.
This is where product feeds come in.
What is a product feed?
A product feed is a structured data file that contains a list of your products and their details, including their titles, descriptions, prices, availability, and more. When you send these feeds to different platforms (such as Google Shopping, Bing, etc.), they use the data to display your products to their customers. This approach allows you to showcase your items to your customer base and to shoppers visiting other sales channels, effectively expanding your reach and enhancing your sales potential.
How do you create product feeds?
To create product feeds, you need to use a product feed solution. For this tutorial, we’ll use AdTribes Product Feed, a powerful product feed plugin for WooCommerce.
This plugin boasts a premium version (Product Feed Elite) which boasts many versatile features. However, you can display or hide certain products using the free version (Product Feed Pro).
Additionally, it’s important to get acquainted with the process of creating product data feeds. Don’t worry; it’s quite straightforward! We also provide a detailed, step-by-step guide on using AdTribes to craft effective product data feeds. Be sure to check out our article titled, “What Is A Product Feed And How Do You Create One? (Ultimate Guide).”
With all that in mind, let’s find out how to use AdTribes Product Feed Pro to set product visibility across multiple sales channels!
V. How To Use Product Feeds To Change The Visibility Of WooCommerce Products
Start the product feed creation process and complete the following steps:
- General feed settings
- Field mapping
- Category mapping (if applicable)
Once more, refer to “What Is A Product Feed And How Do You Create One? (Ultimate Guide)” to learn how to create product feeds.
The fourth step, Feed filters and rules, is where you can instruct a sales channel to show or hide products. Basically, filters allow you to manipulate your feed to exhibit only specific items . This is extremely helpful when you want precise control over what to showcase on a sales channel.
What is a product feed filter?
A product feed filter is an instruction, taking the form of an if-then statement, that tells a sales channel to:
- Include only the products you want to display, and/or
- Exclude products you don’t want to display
How do you use product feed filters to control WooCommerce product visibility?
First, generate a filter by clicking the + Add filter button. Then, create an if-then statement using the provided entry fields.
For instance, in the image below, we tell the sales channel, “If the product’s price is less than 10 Euros, then exclude it from the feed.” This way, we instruct the channel to keep a product hidden if it costs less than 10 Euros.
In the next example, the instruction states, “If the product has a sale price, then include only this product in the feed.” Thus, the sales channel will display only discounted products.
Do you want to hide out-of-stock items? Then create a filter instructing the channel to treat them as hidden products, thus making it avoid displaying them:
Do you want to showcase specific products on a particular channel? For example, if you want Google Shopping to feature only your swimwear collection, simply apply a filter to include items solely from your “Swimwear” category. This automatically turns all other items into hidden products, keeping the focus where you want it.
Take note: while you can create multiple filters, they act as AND statements instead of OR statements. Moreover, if you use both “Include only” and “Exclude” filters, make sure the first filter is “Include only.”
Using filters allows you to conceal or show products however you want. The customization options are endless!
For more information and examples, read this document as well as this one.
How do you implement product feed filters?
To implement your product feed filters, simply finish the product feed creation process and generate your product feed. Then, submit the feed to a sales channel!
You can generate multiple product feeds and distribute them to as many sales channels as you desire. Additionally, you can configure unique feed filters for each channel, enhancing product visibility and optimizing your marketing efforts!
Frequently Asked Questions About WooCommerce Product Visibility
Let’s answer some common questions about WooCommerce product visibility!
1. Can you hide products in a WooCommerce store?
Yes, you can hide your WooCommerce items by:
- Setting their visibility to “Private” or “Password Protected”
- Changing their Catalog visibility to “Hidden”
- Reverting their status to “Draft”
2. Who can see private products in WooCommerce?
In WooCommerce, private products are only visible to users who have the appropriate permissions. Typically, this includes:
- Administrators: Store admins can view all private products, allowing them to manage the store effectively.
- Editors: Users with editor roles also have access to private products for editing and managing content.
- Users with a direct link: If you share a direct link to a private product, anyone with that link can view it, even if they do not have a specific role within your WooCommerce store.
Private products are not visible to regular customers or users without the necessary permissions, keeping them exclusive to those who manage or have been granted access to the store.
3. Why are new products in WooCommerce not showing?
If new products are not showing up in your WooCommerce store, there could be several reasons for this issue. Here are some common causes and their potential solutions:
- Product status: Ensure that the product status is set to “Published.” If it’s still in “Draft” or “Pending Review,” it won’t be visible on the site.
- Visibility settings: Check the product’s visibility. If it’s set to “Private” or its Catalog visibility options are restricted, it won’t be shown to customers.
- Out-of-stock settings: If the product is marked as out of stock and you have enabled the option to hide out-of-stock items, it won’t be displayed.
- Inventory management: Make sure the product is set to “In Stock” in the inventory settings. If stock management is enabled, the product won’t show if the stock level is zero.
- Caching issues: Sometimes, caching plugins can prevent new products from appearing immediately. Try clearing your site cache and browser cache.
- Theme or plugin conflicts: There may be conflicts with your theme or other plugins. Temporarily switch to a default theme (like Storefront) and disable other plugins to see if the product appears.
- Categories and tags: Ensure the product is assigned to relevant categories and tags. If the product is not categorized, it might not show up in the catalog.
- Product settings: Check for any specific settings related to the product display, such as the order in which products are shown or filters applied on shop pages.
By reviewing these factors, you should be able to identify and resolve why new products are not showing in your WooCommerce store.
4. Does WooCommerce not show out-of-stock products?
WooCommerce has the option to hide out-of-stock products, but this setting can be adjusted based on your preferences. Here’s how it works:
- Default behavior: By default, out-of-stock products are still visible on your store, allowing customers to see them even if they cannot purchase them.
- Hide out-of-stock products: If you want to improve the shopping experience, you can enable the setting to hide out-of-stock items from your catalog. To do this, go to WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Inventory and tick the checkbox for Hide out of stock items from the catalog.
By adjusting these settings, you can control how out-of-stock products are displayed in your WooCommerce store, enhancing your customers’ browsing experience.
Conclusion
Mastering WooCommerce product visibility gives you the power to control who sees your products and when. Whether it’s making use of drafts, passwords, or product feed filters, managing visibility is essential for driving engagement and increasing sales across multiple channels.
To sum up, WooCommerce allows you to control the visibility of your products in the following ways:
- Change the product status
- Modify the product catalog’s visibility
- Set the product visibility to private or password-protected
- Hide out-of-stock products
Furthermore, you can use the AdTribes Product Feed plugin to display or hide specific products across multiple sales channels.
Do you have any questions about displaying or hiding products in your WooCommerce store? Let us know in the comments!
