While operating a WooCommerce store, one has to stay vigilant. From what’s trending to what’s selling, the upcoming season to the festive offers, one must be aware of everything in order to keep the store updated and have products that are more likely to be sold.
With addition comes deletion. Meaning that if you add seasonal products or the ones that are not sold for the time being, they must be removed, right?
This is where you would need to access the WooCommerce delete all products feature.
Whether you want to delete products in bulk or delete products based on filters, this article will make your job easier.
Why do you need to delete products from your WooCommerce store?
Before getting into the depth of deleting products using default WooCommerce, we would first highlight why you would need to delete products from your WooCommerce store.
There are multiple situations when you would need to bulk delete WooCommerce products. The top five reasons are mentioned below.
Seasonal products
Products that were relevant only for a specific time period. Say it was the Football World Cup and the products added were all related to the event.
After the event, the sale of such products would fall and a time would come when they are totally out of trend. So there arises the need to bulk delete these products.
Cyclic products
In some cases, inventory gets replenished with new products at regular intervals. Like new clothes for every major season as in the case of the renowned Zara brand.
So what happens to the old stock? Delete them so that they are not available henceforth.
Out of stock products
For products that are out of stock and there isn’t any likelihood of the same returning in stock, it is best to have them removed from the store. There isn’t any point in having products that are not to be sold or out of stock.
Non-selling products
Better to get rid of what’s not selling than to accumulate dust and costs.
Test products
Before launching the main product, you create some test products to check all is well. So when the final product is launched, remove the test products.
Three ways you can delete all products from your WooCommerce store
There are three ways or solutions using which you can delete all products in WooCommerce. For people wondering how to delete WooCommerce products all at once, here is the step-by-step guide for you.
Using the default WooCommerce way – Suitable for less products
Considering that the number of products to be deleted from the store is less than a few hundred, the WooCommerce delete all products task can be executed from the product page itself.
- Go to
WooCommerce > Products - Choose the
Screen Optionsto increase the number of products to be displayed.. - Select products one-by-one. Or apply filters based on category, stock status, and product type.
- Click on
Bulk Actionsand selectMove to Trash.
This process is very slow and tedious. If you don’t limit the number of products per page to 100 or less, it will take a lot of time.
To permanently delete these products, you need to then delete them from the Trash.
Running an SQL Command – For more products but requires coding
Another approach to delete bulk products from WooCommerce is by running the SQL command.
- Log in to the
phpMyAdminportal - Select the database that has all the products to be deleted. Make sure, that you backup your database before executing the SQL statement!
- Select table
{prefix}_postsand run the SQL statement as shown.
DELETE relations.*, taxes.*, terms.*
FROM wp_term_relationships AS relations
INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy AS taxes
ON relations.term_taxonomy_id=taxes.term_taxonomy_id
INNER JOIN wp_terms AS terms
ON taxes.term_id=terms.term_id
WHERE object_id IN (SELECT ID FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type IN ('product','product_variation'));
DELETE FROM wp_postmeta WHERE post_id IN (SELECT ID FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type IN ('product','product_variation'));
DELETE FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type IN ('product','product_variation');
After executing this SQL statement, verify if your products are deleted.
However, this is not the best way to delete products in bulk.
At times the total amount of products to be deleted ranges in thousands and using the above processes would consume a lot of time. Also, running SQL queries for complicated cases isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, because you may lose significant data if it went wrong.
This is why we recommend the third option below – using Smart Manager plugin to delete all products or delete products using advanced filters in WooCommerce.
Using Smart Manager – For any number of products, done quickly and without coding
Smart Manager is a powerful plugin that gives you the ease to make the most out of your WooCommerce store using an Excel-like spreadsheet.
From managing products to bulk editing them – add / delete / update, you can use Smart Manager plugin for all.
Not just products, you can also bulk edit your orders, coupons, blog posts, pages, users…any WordPress post type. There are separate tabs for post type which can be used to filter details and delete them on the go. You can rest assured that the plugin would clear unwanted data with ease.
Smart Manager plugin has a Pro as well as the Lite (Free) version available on WordPress.org.
Though the plugin supports the WooCommerce delete all products feature in the Lite version, you can only move them to trash and delete upto 50 records only at a time.
So, if you also want the permanent delete functionality using advanced search filters and bulk edit functionality, purchasing the Pro version is the best way to update your store database.
How Smart Manager makes deleting WooCommerce products super easy and quick?
Delete all products / bulk delete products
As shown in the above image,
- Go to
WP Admin > Smart Managerand selectProductsas the post type from the drop down. - Tick the header checkbox to select all the products. Or select only those products you want to delete. Use advanced search to find your desired products quickly.
- Click the
Deleteicon. It will show two options –Move to TrashandDelete Permanently. Choose your desired option.
That’s it. So whenever you are sure that all the products that are displayed need to be removed, follow the above steps.
Bulk delete products based on filters
Select the products from the list. Or use the search bar to filter out specific products. Select them and then click on Delete. This will delete the selected products from the list.
Apply filters and delete test products, non-selling products…
The plugin has advanced search features that allow you to filter products based on your needs. The AND-OR operations allow you to search for any product and delete them in a click.
For example, you want to delete all products having prices below $10. Apply filter, select products, and delete them.
Delete based on categories and attributes
Select products based on a certain category and attribute. Say delete all t-shirts that are yellow in color. Filter them based on the conditions and apply the delete option. Similarly, you can use the plugin to delete categories and attributes from the list as well.
Delete products using Inline edit
Select any row or multiple rows and delete products directly by clicking on the Delete option. Very convenient to delete fewer products quickly.
Delete products using date filters
This is useful when you want to delete seasonal products as mentioned. Apply the date range in advanced search option in Smart Manager. It will fetch you the products for that date range. Select the ones that are not required and click on Delete.
Note – Deleting the products would also not show the same product name in any of its existing orders or subscriptions.
Delete only specific product variations
Smart Manager lists each product variation in a separate row. This means that if you want to delete only X out of Y variations for a particular product, select only those product variants and delete them.
Delete featured images, media library images
This is yet another advantage of using Smart Manager. Instead of going through each product and post, select ‘Attachment’ as the post type from the drop-down. Select all images you want to remove and click on the Delete icon.
Sounds exciting right?
How to remove the same products with duplicate descriptions?
Smart Manager allows you to delete products having the same descriptions. You may find yourself with hundreds of products with duplicate descriptions while creating test products or when you are importing them, and you want to get rid of them after you have added the products up.
- Toggle on the Advanced Search.
- Select
Descriptionfrom the first drop down, selectisfrom the second drop down and enter or copy the description. - Smart Manager will fetch your required results. The search result will also include the main product which the Admin would not like to be deleted. So select the products carefully.
- Click on the Delete button, choose to delete the products permanently or move them to trash.
Smart Manager also gives you the flexibility to delete duplicate products based on title, stock status, product category, SKU, tags and other product fields, including custom ones.
Conclusion
Scrapping all of the products that are no longer sellable or unwanted is essential to keep the store updated and avoid costs.
So whether you have just started or have been running a store for years, whether you have hundreds or thousands of products, Smart Manager is the most convenient solution to delete WooCommerce products. Super-easy and super-quick.
FAQs
How do I mass delete a product in WooCommerce?
- Go to WordPress Admin > Smart Manager and select Products dashboard from the drop-down.
- Tick the header checkbox to select all the products. Or select only those products you want to delete.
- Click the Delete button. You can move them to Trash or delete them permanently.
How do I add and remove products in WooCommerce?
You can add new products directly to your WooCommerce store using Smart Manager’s sheet editor. Refer to this doc.
How do I delete multiple variations in WordPress?
Select all the desired variations using Smart Manager advanced search sheet and delete them.
Can we permanently delete WooCommerce products with one click?
Yes.
Thanks a lot works great!