Products

You add and edit products in WooCommerce exactly as usual: title, description, prices, stock, images, categories, attributes and linked products all work the normal way. The Companion plugin adds a few extra fields to those screens so the storefront can show videos, colour swatches, trust badges and search-engine text, and it points WordPress’s “View” and “Preview” links at the storefront instead of the WordPress theme.

Before you start

• WooCommerce must be active.
• Set the Storefront URL under StoreFront → Settings → General. Until it is set, the Preview links and the product redirect described below stay switched off. See Connect the storefront.
• Everything on the product screen saves with the product’s own Update or Publish button.

What the plugin adds at a glance

Where	Addition	What shoppers get
Product edit, Product data box	Videos tab	Videos inside the product gallery
Product edit, Product data box	Trust badges and Payment & security tabs	Per-product reassurance badges and payment card
Product edit, side column	Primary category box	The category whose settings the product follows
Product edit, main column	SEO box, or the SEO on the storefront panel	Search-result and sharing text
Products list, editor, admin bar	Preview / View links	Open the product on the storefront
Products → Attributes → Color	Color field on each term	Real colour swatches
Products → Brands	Featured brand checkbox	Brands promoted on the brands page
Products → Categories	Trust badges and Payment & Security rows	Category-wide badges and payment card
Products → Categories / Tags / Brands	SEO fields	Search text for category, tag and brand pages

Add videos to a product

Products›Edit product›Product data›Videos

Videos play inside the product gallery, beside the photos, with a poster image as the thumbnail.

1. Open the product and scroll to the Product data box. Click the Videos tab.
2. Click Add video. A new box opens.
3. Choose a Source: YouTube, Vimeo or Uploaded video.
4. For YouTube or Vimeo, paste the video’s page address into Video link. For an upload, click Choose video and pick an MP4 or WebM file from the Media Library.
5. Add a Poster image if you want one. It is required for uploaded videos.
6. Optionally give it a Title and a Gallery position.
7. Add more videos the same way. Drag the boxes to change their order.
8. Click Update to save the product.

Setting	What it does	Default
Source	Where the video lives. Changes which of the next two fields is shown.	YouTube
Video link	The YouTube or Vimeo page address. The thumbnail is fetched from the platform unless you choose a poster.	Blank
Video file	An MP4 or WebM file from the Media Library (uploaded videos only).	None
Poster image	Shown as the gallery thumbnail and before playback. Optional for YouTube and Vimeo, required for uploaded videos.	None
Title	Optional. Used as the player’s accessible name for screen readers.	Blank
Gallery position	The thumbnail slot among the product images, where 1 is first. Leave empty to show the video after the images.	Empty (after the images)

When you save, each video is checked:

• YouTube links must contain a video ID. Normal watch links, youtu.be short links, Shorts and embed links all work. Without a poster, YouTube’s own thumbnail is used.
• Vimeo links must contain a numeric video ID. Without a poster, the plugin asks Vimeo for a thumbnail once, when you save.
• Uploaded videos must be a video file with a poster image.

A video that fails a check is not saved. The next screen shows “Some product videos were not saved:” with the reason for each one, for example “an uploaded video needs a poster image” or “Vimeo did not provide a thumbnail — choose a poster image”. There is no limit on the number of videos. If a video or its poster is later deleted from the Media Library, that video quietly disappears from the storefront.

Set trust badges and the payment card for one product

Products›Edit product›Product data›Trust badges

The Trust badges and Payment & security tabs in the Product data box override the category and store-wide settings for this product only.

1. Open the product and click the Trust badges (or Payment & security) tab.
2. Read the line at the top: it names the primary category the product follows.
3. Choose a mode: Inherit, Custom or Off. In Inherit mode, the Shoppers currently see preview shows what applies now.
4. For Custom, edit the badges or the card fields. Custom starts from what shoppers see today.
5. Click Update.

The fields and limits are the same as the store-wide settings: up to three badges, each with an icon and a label of up to 40 characters; a card title of up to 60 characters and a description of up to 300. If something is dropped while saving, a notice “Some product page settings were not saved:” lists it. The full rules, with a worked example of how product, category and store settings combine, are in Shop and product pages.

Choose a primary category

WooCommerce has no “main category”, so the plugin adds a Primary category box to the right-hand column of the product screen. It decides which category the product follows for category-level settings such as trust badges and the Payment & Security card.

1. Tick the product’s categories in the Product categories box as usual.
2. In the Primary category box, choose one of the ticked categories, or leave Automatic (first category).
3. Click Update.

Setting	What it does	Default
Primary category	The category this product follows. Only ticked categories can be chosen; the list updates as you tick and untick.	Automatic (first category)

Automatic uses the first of the product’s categories, sorted alphabetically by name. If you untick the category you chose, the box falls back to Automatic.

Note

The primary category only drives trust badges and the Payment & Security card. The storefront’s breadcrumb still uses the product’s first category.

SEO for a product

How you edit a product’s search-result and sharing text depends on whether an SEO plugin is installed:

• No Yoast SEO or Rank Math: an SEO box appears below the editor, with SEO title, Meta description, Social title, Social description, Social image and Hide from search.
• Yoast SEO or Rank Math in use: edit in that plugin’s box as normal. A read-only SEO on the storefront panel below it shows what the storefront will actually print.

Every field, the fallbacks and the preview panel are covered in SEO.

Preview a product on the storefront

With a Storefront URL set, every product link in wp-admin opens the storefront rather than the WordPress theme:

• the editor’s Preview button (WordPress saves the draft first);
• the View or Preview row action in the Products list (opens in a new tab);
• the View item in the admin bar;
• the “Product updated. View Product” notice.

Product status	Where the link goes
Published	The public storefront page, /product/ followed by the product’s slug.
Draft, pending, scheduled or private	A secure preview of the storefront product page, with a preview bar. Shopping actions are disabled in the preview.

How preview links behave:

• A preview link is created only for someone who can edit that product.
• Each link works once and is valid for 12 hours. Reload the edit screen to get a fresh one.
• Opening it starts a 1-hour preview for that one product.
• Removing someone’s editing role ends their open preview immediately.
• If the product is published in the meantime, the preview moves to the live page.

Caution

Unsaved edits to a published product cannot be previewed, because WooCommerce keeps no revisions of product data. To check a big change before shoppers see it, make the change on a draft copy of the product.

Posts, pages and other content keep WordPress’s own preview links.

Product pages redirect to the storefront

Once the Storefront URL is set, a published product’s WordPress address (/product/ plus the slug) permanently redirects (301) to the same product on the storefront. This gives each product a single address in search results.

The redirect does not apply to:

• unpublished products;
• an editor’s own ?preview=true view;
• feeds, embeds, other content types and listing pages;
• anything at all while no Storefront URL is set;
• anything at all when the Storefront URL is on the same host and port as WordPress (this prevents a redirect loop).

Browsers are told not to remember the redirect, so a changed storefront address never sticks. There is no switch for it in wp-admin; a developer can turn it off with the rsc_seo_redirect_product filter.

Colour swatches for the Color attribute

Products›Attributes›Color›Configure terms

Give each colour a real swatch so shoppers pick from colour dots rather than text labels.

1. Go to Products → Attributes. Create an attribute named Color if you don’t have one. Its slug must be exactly color.
2. Click Configure terms next to Color.
3. Add or edit a term (for example “Navy”) and choose its colour in the Color field.
4. Save the term. The terms list shows a Color column with the swatch and its hex code.

Setting	What it does	Default
Color	The swatch shown on the storefront for this term. Only a valid six-digit hex colour, such as #1f3a5f, is stored. Empty the field to clear it.	None

Caution

The colour picker appears only on the attribute whose slug is exactly color (taxonomy pa_color). An attribute called “Colour” or “colors” gets no swatches.

Feature a brand

Products›Brands

The storefront’s brands page (/brands) opens with a Featured brands strip. You choose which brands appear in it.

1. Go to Products → Brands.
2. Add a brand, or click Edit on an existing one.
3. Tick Featured brand (“Show this brand in the “Featured brands” strip”).
4. Save. The brands list shows a gold star in the Featured column.

Setting	What it does	Default
Featured brand	Shows the brand in the Featured brands strip. Up to 12 featured brands are shown.	Unticked

When no brand is featured, the strip shows the three brands with the most products instead. Quick Edit does not change the Featured flag; use the full edit form. On the same screen, the brand’s thumbnail is used as its logo and its description as a one-line tagline.

The category badge shown on each brand card is worked out automatically from the brand’s products by a daily background job. On a new store it may be empty until that job has run. See Emails and background jobs.

Badges and payment card for a whole category

Products›Categories›Edit

Set trust badges or the Payment & Security card once for a category, and every product whose primary category is that one (or a subcategory that inherits) follows it.

1. Go to Products → Categories and click Edit on a category. These rows are on the edit form only, so a new category starts on Inherit.
2. Find the Trust badges and Payment & Security rows.
3. Choose Inherit, Custom or Off. For a subcategory, Inherit is labelled with its parent’s name, such as Inherit (from Electronics); for a top-level category it reads Inherit (from global settings).
4. Click Update.

Subcategories set to Inherit pick up their parent’s setting. Category pages also have their own SEO fields; see SEO.

Schedule sales for Today’s Deals and sale countdowns

The storefront turns WooCommerce’s scheduled sale dates into urgency: a Limited Time Offer card on the product page showing when the sale ends, and the home page’s Today’s Deals section.

1. Open the product and, in Product data → General, enter a Sale price.
2. Click Schedule and set the sale’s end date (and a start date if you want one).
3. For a variable product, open Product data → Variations, expand each variation, and schedule its sale there.
4. Click Update.

Where it shows	When a product qualifies
Product page “Limited Time Offer” card	The product (or the chosen variation) is on sale and has a scheduled end date.
Home page Today’s Deals	The product is on sale and its scheduled sale ends between now and midnight tonight, in the store’s timezone. Up to 12 are shown, soonest-ending first.

Caution

Variable products never appear in Today’s Deals, because WooCommerce schedules their sales per variation. Their variations still get the end-date card on the product page. “Midnight tonight” follows WordPress’s timezone under Settings → General → Timezone, so check that it matches your local time.

The Today’s Deals section itself (its heading and on/off switch) is set up on the home page tab. See Home page.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
A video disappeared after saving	It failed a check (for example, an upload without a poster).	Read the “Some product videos were not saved” notice, fix the row and save again.
Preview opens the WordPress theme	No Storefront URL is set.	Set it under StoreFront → Settings → General.
“Preview” link says it has expired	Links work once and last 12 hours.	Reload the edit screen to get a fresh link.
No colour swatches on the storefront	The attribute’s slug is not exactly color, or the terms have no colour.	Check the slug under Products → Attributes and set each term’s Color.
Brand cards show no category badge	The daily job that works it out has not run yet.	Wait a day, or ask your developer to run it now.
Today’s Deals is empty	No product has a sale ending today, the product is variable, or the timezone is wrong.	Schedule an end date for today on a simple product and check the timezone.

Next steps

Shop and product pagesStore-wide badges, payment card and product sections.

SEOPatterns, page settings and per-item SEO.

Product previewHow editors see drafts on the real storefront.

Catalog and searchHow shoppers browse, filter and find products.