About this plugin
Lots of WooCommerce stores start out with one simple product per color or size: “Classic Tee Black”, “Classic Tee Blue”, “Classic Tee Red”. Shoppers see three listings where there should be one, and you have three products to keep in sync.
Fixing that by hand means building a variable product, re-entering every SKU, price, stock level and image, and then hiding the old products. Variation Converter does it for you.
Search for the product, for example “Classic Tee”. Variation Converter shows the groups it has already found for that name, and any matching products it didn’t group. Tick the ones that are one product and click Combine into one product.
You check the variable product before anything is created, then get one variable product with a variation for each original. The originals are hidden, not deleted, and Undo puts everything back the way it was.
Groups that are colors or flavors of the same product combine too. Tick “Syrup Vanilla” (250ml, 750ml) and “Syrup Caramel” (250ml, 750ml, 1L) and you get one Syrup with two attributes, Flavor and Size.
Got thousands of products? The plugin scans your whole catalog and suggests every group up front, so you can also work down the list, or tick many groups and click Create a product for each group.
It works the other way too. If a variable product would sell better as separate listings, or you’re moving to a setup that needs one product per variant, Variation Converter splits it into simple products the same way: preview, one click, and Undo.
How it works
- Go to Products > Variation Converter. On the Combine tab, type a product name or SKU in Find the products to combine and click Search.
- The results show the suggested groups that match and, below them, Products not in a group: matching products the scan didn’t group.
- Tick the groups and products that are one product, and click Combine into one product. Products, or one group with extra products, become a variable product with one attribute, such as Color. Two or more groups become a variable product with two attributes, such as Flavor and Size.
- Check the product name, the attribute and the label of each variant (“Black”, “Blue”, “Red”). Untick anything that doesn’t belong, then click Create variable product.
- Changed your mind? The History tab has an Undo button for every product the plugin made.
Without a search, the Combine tab lists every suggested group, with Ready and Needs review views. Open one to check it, tick several and click Create a product for each group, or mark a group Skip, not variants so it stops appearing.
Features
- Both directions. Merge simple products into a variable product, or split a variable product into simple products.
- Search first. Type a product name and see every group and stray product that matches, ready to tick and combine.
- Suggests the groups for you. Products are grouped when their SKUs share a family (SE1421-01, SE1421-03) and their names share a beginning, so most of the picking is already done.
- One or two attributes. Combine products into one attribute (Color), or whole groups into two (Flavor and Size), with a grid of the pairs that exist.
- Review before anything changes. Nothing is created until you approve a group. You can rename it, change the attribute, fix labels and leave products out.
- Flags the things worth a second look: different prices, different categories, duplicate labels, or labels long enough to suggest these aren’t really variants.
- Keeps your data. Each variation takes its original’s SKU, regular and sale price, sale dates, stock settings, weight, dimensions and image. The variable product takes the first member’s description, images, categories, tags, tax and shipping class, plus every member’s image in its gallery. It has no SKU of its own; the variations keep theirs.
- Non-destructive. The products you convert from are hidden from your shop and search, never deleted. Their orders, reviews and links stay as they were.
- One-click Undo. Undo removes what the plugin made and brings the originals back with the visibility they had before.
- All or nothing. If WooCommerce fails to save any part of a variable product, the partial product is removed and your catalog is untouched.
- Lightweight. No settings page, no front-end code, no external services, and nothing stored beyond a few product meta fields.
Splitting a variable product
Going the other way works too. On the Split tab, or from the Split into simple products link under any variable product in Products > All Products, pick a variable product. You get one row per variation with a suggested name (“Classic Tee Black”), which you can edit.
Click Split and each checked variation becomes a simple product with its SKU, prices, stock, weight, dimensions and image, plus the variable product’s descriptions, categories, tags and other attributes. The variable product is hidden, not deleted, and Undo in History brings it back and removes the simple products.
A variable product the plugin made by merging offers Undo instead of a split, so you get your original products back rather than new copies.
Who it’s for
- Stores imported from a supplier feed or another platform that created one product per variant.
- Shops that grew one product at a time and now want a tidier catalog.
- Developers cleaning up a client’s catalog who want a safe, reversible tool instead of a spreadsheet.