Have you ever had to return an item because it just wasn’t the right size? If so, you’ll understand how, as an online retailer, providing accurate product information is important. It not only improves customer satisfaction but streamlines business operations as well.
One often overlooked but crucial area within this scope is product sizing.
In WooCommerce, product sizing refers to a spectrum of measurements, from specific dimensions (such as length, width, and height) and weight, to more abstract terms like Small, Medium, or Large in clothing.
This guide is designed to provide you with everything you need to manage and implement product sizing in WooCommerce effectively. We’ll take you through the platform’s inherent capabilities and the innovative extensions offered by the Advanced Product Fields plugin.
Armed with this knowledge, you’ll have everything you need to get started with product sizing in WooCommerce.
Understanding WooCommerce product sizes
WooCommerce is a powerful e-commerce platform that seamlessly integrates with WordPress. It’s highly regarded for its flexibility and numerous customization features, making it a popular choice for online store owners.
Among its various features, the ability to clearly display product sizes is fundamental in WooCommerce, which, despite its significance, is often overlooked by many online stores.
Don’t be fooled: size matters! Incorrect or unclear sizing can:
- Prompt a surge in return rates.
- Cultivate negative reviews.
- Potentially curtail repeat purchases.
In tandem with affecting your brand reputation, the correct setting of sizes has profound financial implications, as it impacts shipping costs and overall business profitability.
While online shopping is very convenient, it doesn’t allow customers to assess the size of an item in person. That’s why it’s critical to provide clear size information on your product pages. While a defined size is expected for most physical products, the relevant information is conveyed in various ways.
For instance:
- Apparel usually requires a comprehensive size chart encompassing various dimensions such as chest, waist, and length.
- A furniture store may only need to convey simple dimensions like length, width, and height.
- Digital products don’t usually require sizing. However, exceptions apply for certain products like digital art, where the downloadable print size matters.
Of course, WooCommerce offers built-in support for dimensional and weight measurements. These features are especially handy for offering accurate shipping calculations, ensuring customers pay realistic shipping costs based on the actual dimensions and weight of the products.
However, while you can achieve size configurations in WooCommerce using the default system, it’s also possible to advance this feature further by incorporating dedicated plugins. Your decision between these two avenues primarily hinges on your business’s specific needs.
WooCommerce’s built-in functionality is usually sufficient for online stores that only need a straightforward setup involving simple configurations.
But for larger operations dealing with complex product attributes, such as varied sizes, colors, or materials across a vast inventory, supplementing your setup with a dedicated plugin like Advanced Product Fields (APF) for WooCommerce can be an efficient solution.
Configuring sizes using the default WooCommerce settings
Let’s take a quick look at some basic WooCommerce product settings and then move on to the advanced changes we can make with APF.
- Navigate to Products from your WordPress admin dashboard.
- Configuring sizes for simple products:
- Select the simple product you want to edit from your product list.
- Scroll down to Product data → Shipping.
- Add the dimensions, like height, width, length, and weight, for the product.
- These measurements influence the shipping costs, subject to the various shipping methods your WooCommerce store offers.
- Configuring sizes for variable products:
- Define Attributes such as Size.
- Create Variations based on these pre-defined attributes.
- Define dimensions and weight for each variation type.
- Define Attributes such as Size.
- Set up global attributes: Global attributes give you the flexibility of reusing them across various products. This can be useful in stores with many products with identical size variations.
- To add a global attribute, go to WordPress admin → Products → Attributes.
- Add a name and slug for the new attribute and choose the default sort order.
- You can further configure terms for the attribute and manage dimensional and weight-related settings for those as well.
- Bulk edit and CSV import: If your WooCommerce store boasts a massively diversified inventory, managing sizes might require bulk updates, edits, or CSV imports.
- To add size- and weight-related data in bulk, go to WordPress admin → Products → All products page.
- Select the products you want to edit in bulk or choose a category, then navigate to Bulk actions → Edit → Apply.
- Scroll down to Product data. The default weight and sizes will be set to No change.
- Select Change to from the dropdown menu and add the new weight and length, width, and height. This change will be applied to all the selected products.
Alternatively, you can import/export the new sizes in a CSV file, depending on what works best for you. However, make sure to be cautious when using these methods so you don’t accidentally overwrite important data.
If varying sizes significantly affect shipping costs for your store, WooCommerce allows you to create shipping classes. These can be associated with products of specific sizes, thus balancing out the shipping cost structure.
Configuring sizes with Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce
While the basic size configuration settings in WooCommerce offer a solid foundation, some businesses may need a more personalized and comprehensive approach to product sizing. This is where the Advanced Product Fields (APF) plugin for WooCommerce steps in.
- To install the APF plugin, purchase it from the Studio Wombat website and download the .zip plugin file.
- From your WordPress admin panel, navigate to Plugins → Add new → Upload plugin.
- Choose the downloaded APF plugin file and click Install now → Activate.
- Add a new product.
- Go to Products → All products and select an existing product or create a new one.
- If you are adding a new product, add all required details, such as price, product description, images, and so on.
- If you want to update prices based on the personalization options offered, set the Regular price to ‘0’. Go to the Price display option and select Hide the price.
- Create a new product field group:
- Go to WooCommerce → Product fields, then create and customize the size fields to match your specific business needs.
- Add the field title, e.g. Size.
- Click on the Add your first field button.
- APF has 16 field types, each suited for different needs. For example, you can use text boxes when you need to capture exact measurements, dropdown lists for predetermined size options, or radio buttons for quick, one-click size selection.
- For instance, consider you are selling custom-sized windows and want to set up product customization fields. Here, you can set up various field options, such as a text box for height and width, a dropdown for glass type, etc.
- Add the product field group to a product:
- Go to the Conditions tab in the product field group settings.
- Add rules to determine where the fields should appear.
- Preview the product at the frontend.
Other key features of Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce
- APF has the capability to incorporate conditional logic. By implementing this, you can display certain customization options only when specific conditions are met. Imagine a scenario where a customer selects “Custom size”; only under this condition will the “Enter Your Dimensions” fields appear, ensuring a clean user interface free from unnecessary clutter.
- APF can dynamically calculate the total price based on the selected sizes or dimensions. This can be highly useful for businesses where bigger sizes or customized measurements lead to higher costs.
- With APF, you can also escort your customers down the size selection process in a more visually compelling manner, for example by adding images showing size guides.
- APF provides validation options that prevent customers from entering impractical or impossible sizes, potentially saving your business from pesky post-purchase corrections.
The Advanced Product Fields plugin is designed to harmoniously coexist with other WooCommerce features. Whether it’s inventory management or shipping calculations, APF integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, delivering a unified and professional e-commerce experience.
Enhancing user experience for product sizing
It’s a proven fact that a superior user experience (UX) not only elevates your conversion rates but also cements customer loyalty while minimizing cart abandonment.
Here, we share some tips for improving user experience, with respect to product sizing, on your WooCommerce store.
Offer a detailed size chart
A crucial part of building an encouraging UX is adding an exhaustive size guide or chart. This information is all the more critical for products where size defines suitability, such as apparel, shoes, and the like.
You can create interactive size charts via specific plugins or by utilizing WooCommerce’s built-in features. Displaying this level of detail can significantly help customers in making well-informed purchasing decisions, which simultaneously decreases the return rates.
Show live previews of dimensional changes
A well-known customer habit is to zoom into product images for a more in-depth look at the item’s size, texture, and details. To cater to this need, high-resolution images are advised; even better is a 360-degree view functionality. This technique offers a richly interactive and immersive experience for buyers, bringing them closer to in-store shopping.
Features like live previews are particularly beneficial when customers can witness changes in the product in real time as they select different sizes or dimensions.
As we’ve seen above, Advanced Product Fields can be utilized to create a visual product configurator – an interactive tool that lets customers customize their products and see their changes live.
Make all size elements responsive
All size-related elements should be not just visible but also interaction-friendly on all devices, from desktops to tablets to mobile devices. This cross-device compatibility provides a smooth shopping experience for users, regardless of the device they’re using.
Drive urgency with live stock availability updates
Showcasing real-time stock availability per product size can speed up purchase decisions due to a sense of urgency. Similarly, dynamically changing the price as different sizes are selected provides a transparent and reassuring customer experience.
Offer social proof
Social proof is the psychological phenomenon where people’s actions are influenced by others’ behaviors, and it plays a pivotal role in online purchase decisions. Displaying user reviews, especially those discussing the product’s size and fit, acts as a form of social proof and can persuade potential buyers.
Incorporate user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), like customer photos showing the product in use, can present a real-world perspective on size and scale to prospective buyers. Encourage your existing customers to share this type of content by giving them an incentive, e.g. with a discount or a feature on your social media platforms. UGC as a tactic not only strengthens social proof but also grows your media collection.
Allow quick views for varying sizes
Finally, for a streamlined shopping experience, consider convenience features such as “Quick View”, where customers can promptly view product sizes and other details without leaving their current page, which saves them additional load times.
Alternatively, the “Wishlist” functionality allows them to save products for reviewing sizes later. UX features like this simplify the buying journey, allowing customers to make confident purchase decisions.
Ensuring consistency and accuracy in size information
Accuracy and consistency in product sizing are especially significant in the e-commerce landscape for businesses selling apparel, furniture, and tech gadgets..
However, online retailers often face numerous size-related challenges. These could include:
- Discrepancies in size conventions across different brands.
- Inaccuracies in conversions between measurement units.
- Inconsistencies that lead to customer confusion and discourage their desire to purchase.
To overcome these, here are some strategies that online retailers can adopt.
Use standardized systems
Adopting a standardized system for size information promotes consistency and assists customers in navigating your product range with ease.
For example, clothing businesses may follow ISO 8559 body measurement standards, while furniture manufacturers might adhere to the British Standard BS 4875 for strength and stability.
Incorporate a product information management system
A solid Product Information Management (PIM) system is instrumental in maintaining accurate and consistent size-related data. You can program these systems, which integrate seamlessly with WooCommerce, to automatically update product size information.
This automation ensures your customers always have the most accurate and current details at their disposal.
Add conversion charts on product pages
Conversion charts display sizes in different units or country standards. They can considerably simplify the shopping experience for your customers and substantially reduce cart abandonment and returns due to size discrepancies.
Get customer feedback
Customer feedback is a valuable tool for ensuring size accuracy. Methods such as post-purchase surveys can help collect insights about size satisfaction and any issues faced by customers. This firsthand information can help you refine your size information and make it as accurate as possible.
Mastering size management for a better WooCommerce experience
Accurate product sizing plays a pivotal role in shaping user experiences in the world of e-commerce. Providing correct and comprehensive size information is crucial. It not only helps reduce return rates, but also builds customer trust by ensuring that the products you deliver meet your customers’ expectations.
This is where a tool like Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce comes in handy.
It has the potential to overcome many of WooCommerce’s sizing limitations, offering a superior, smooth user experience that is guaranteed to increase customer satisfaction.
Give Advanced Product Fields a try and see how it can transform your store’s product size configuration!
