Recently we had a client requirement for which we had to customize WooCommerce. As part of the customization we had to provide an option using which a website administrator can include a start date and end date for each product. The start date and end date represent the dates between which the product will be available for the user to be bought. Based on this start date and end date the products in a certain category can be filtered and displayed on a page. This filtration can be done by an administrator using a shortcode for the same in the pages where this data is required. But, using shortcodes makes the system manual, and anything that has the word manual in it always gets me thinking of ways to automate it. And while I was on this thinking spree I gained a completely different perspective of the solution which makes it bigger and better!!

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The WooCommerce scheduler that we finally had as a result of my overactive mind will be extremely useful to manage product availability and improve the user experience….and that I assure you! The WooCommerce scheduler can find applications in many instances. For example, let us assume that a website admin wants to add seasonal products to its WooCommerce shop then this functionality can be used. This functionality can also be used for online courses or any service that can be bought online. In order to be able to manage product availability on your website and to improve user experience on your website the following functionalities should be added to a WooCommerce scheduler.

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Specify Start Date and End Date for Product

The website administrator is provided with an option in the dashboard to specify the start date and end date for each product that is added to the WooCommerce shopping cart. The start date and end date represent the dates between which the product will be available for the user to be bought.

Display Availability Status on Product Page

The product availability status is made visible to the user on the product page. This is done by using a label which reads the value of the availability status of the product.

Display Dates between which Product is Available

If the website admin has set the dates between which a product is available to the users then these dates should be displayed to the user on the product page if the product status is ‘available’.

Change Product Status

The product status on the product page is made unavailable for any date that does not lie between the start date and end dart. When the product status is unavailable the ‘Add to Cart’ button is also hidden for that product.

Collect Inquiries for Unavailable Product

In the scenario that the product is not available the user is provided with an option to inquiry about the product. This is done using the Product Enquiry Pro plugin. The user is provided with a button, ‘Make an enquiry for this product’. On clicking on this button the user is presented with a form which will be used to communicate with the vendor for that particular product.

Highlight Limited Period Products on Shop Page

All products that have a start date and end date set for it are highlighted in the shop page indicating that the products will be available for a finite time window only. The shop page will look something like below.

Filter Products Based on  Start Date and End Date

An additional functionality that the user can be provided with is a functionality using which the products in a particular category can be sorted by Start Date or End Date.

So no more stress on, ‘How will I manage all the products??’. A WooCommerce scheduler can be used effectively to manage products in limited period offers! Just Add a Product……. Specify a start date and end date for product and forget all about it! What’s more you get to know of the product requirement even after it has expired! Isn’t that great?