WooCommerce Linked Variations
WooCommerce Linked Variations: Comprehensive Overview
Handling many variants of similar products may become hard when all options should stay separate WooCommerce products. The WooCommerce Linked Variations Premium will help you to solve this problem by linking independent products through attributes and keeping their product entities separate.
Instead of merging all options into one variable product, we can create separate products and group them together as linked variations. This strategy works great when dealing with products of the same design, model, style, or concept implemented differently.
The plugin is developed by WPClever and is intended to be used with WooCommerce stores, which require flexible product organization solutions. The official WordPress plugin page states that WPC Linked Variation connects separate products through attributes.
What Is WooCommerce Linked Variations?
WooCommerce Linked Variations is a product linking plugin that allows us to link separate WooCommerce products and display them as related variation options.
In case of standard WooCommerce variable product, its variations are usually stored under the one parent product. Such an approach works fine for simple size and color variations. However, it becomes too rigid when every option should have its own product page, SKU, inventory, description, price, or any other product data.
WooCommerce Linked Variations offers an alternative approach. It allows us to keep products separate and link them through attributes. Then customers will be able to switch between linked products from the product page via an interface that is similar to variation switcher.
According to its WordPress.org description, the plugin supports various product types and even links product bundles, grouped products, and composite products.
Why Use Linked Products Instead of Ordinary Variations?
The key feature here is product independence.
Let us consider that we have a design for a T-shirt, hoodie, mug, and cap. In case we create all of these as ordinary variations of a single product, we might face the problem of losing control over the product. For example, each product may have its product image, description, SKU, stock, shipping information, and URL.
Using linked products, we will be able to have separate products and still give customers a chance to navigate between related products easily.
It may be beneficial in cases like
- Different clothing styles
• Products in different formats
• Connected accessories
• Related products to show up as selectable options
• Independent inventory of separate products
• Stores built with WooCommerce and featuring a complicated product catalog
• Product bundles, grouped products, and other types of WooCommerce products
Features of WooCommerce Linked Variations Premium
Attribute-Based Product Linking
Separate products may be linked using the attributes of WooCommerce. It allows us to establish the hierarchy between products without merging the product data.
Official plugin documentation describes the workflow regarding WooCommerce attributes and attribute terms, giving the store owner an intuitive way to link the products.
Linked Product Swatches
Linked products may be displayed in swatches. As a result, the selection area will look similar to the variation selectors, which are known by customers.
Depending on the settings, customers will be able to identify related options faster than searching for them manually across the whole store.
Support for Shortcodes
Besides placing the plugin in the default manner, shortcodes offer another method to show linked variations. We can put these linked products into the necessary place within a custom layout.
Such an approach may be beneficial in case of customized WooCommerce templates or layouts made with a page builder.
Integration With Quick View
Potential customers can have a look at each linked product without the need to leave the shopping process. WPC Linked Variation can open each product in the current tab, a new tab, or via a Quick View popup, providing integration for WPC Smart Quick View.
Products From Category or Tag
Product sources can also include product categories and tags apart from the attributes. This allows for better management of the catalog.
Instead of the same treatment of every relationship, we can classify the products according to the available taxonomy system in WooCommerce.
Configuring WPC Linked Variation
Prior to configuring linked variations, WooCommerce should be already installed and activated. Then the official instructions suggest installing and activating WPC Linked Variation and going to the settings via WP-admin → WPClever → Linked Variation.
Step 1: Creation of WooCommerce Attributes
Go to the section of WooCommerce attributes and create attributes that you will need for your product relations.
For example, if you have an apparel store, you may use such attribute as Style; another store can use Product Type, Design, or something else that makes sense.
Step 2: Configuration of Attribute Terms
Enter the needed attribute terms. They will serve as values for identification and grouping of your related products.
It would be better to name the attributes consistently because proper terminology will make managing of large product catalogues much easier.
Step 3: Attribute Assignment to Products
Open the needed WooCommerce products and configure their attributes. According to the plugin installation documentation, it is crucially important to check whether the product attributes are correct and match the configured WooCommerce attributes and terms.
Step 4: Linked Variations Configuration
Open the settings of WPC Linked Variation and create product relations.
Then we can configure how our related products will look like, where they will be located and how.
Step 5: Selection of Presentation Method
Dependent on the website design, related products can be shown using one of two available presentation methods – swatches display or using shortcodes.
We should choose a natural presentation of related products, not adding additional complicated interface to our website.
Step 6: Customer Experience Testing
When we finish the configuration, it would be good to check several product pages on the front end and see if everything works.
We should check that:
- The right products are shown;
• The attribute labels are right;
• The product links work properly;
• There are no problems with images displaying;
• The Quick View works if it is enabled;
• Layout looks correctly on mobile devices;
• No unwanted products are included in the list of related ones.
WPC Linked Variation for Large WooCommerce Catalogs
Organized connections between products are particularly useful for large catalogs. This is evidenced by the history of the plugin’s development, which includes data structure optimization for handling an extremely large number of linked variations, as well as a bug fix that was especially needed for catalogs containing more than 500 linked products.
All this makes the idea particularly relevant for stores where manual switching from one product to another in a series will lead to unnecessary inconvenience for the customer.
In addition, an organized system of connected products may facilitate catalog management since each product is editable separately.
Difference Between WPC Linked Variation and Standard WooCommerce Variations
These two systems are aimed at solving different issues.
WooCommerce standard variations are perfect if there are multiple variations that logically belong to one parent product, having common product structure and properties.
WPC Linked Variations are better if there is a need to keep separate products independent but present them as connected variants to the customer.
For instance, the first solution can work if several variations of the same item have one product structure. But for different product types which require separate product page and inventory, yet need to be logically connected, linked products will do the job.
Conclusion
WPC Linked Variation for WooCommerce Premium allows linking independent WooCommerce products without forcing them to be part of one conventional variable product structure.
The plugin has attribute-based linking, swatch representation, shortcode implementation, flexible placement of variation listing, Quick View implementation, taxonomy-based product sources, multi-language support, and compatibility with WooCommerce environment, making it especially suitable for large and diverse catalogs.
For WooCommerce stores with products that need to stay independent yet be presented as connected options for customers, WPC Linked Variation is the right choice.
Demo WPC Linked Variation Premium
