Stock on a single choice

Some choices run out and others do not. You have plenty of the plain jars and eleven of the marmalade; you have every size of the tee in navy and four left in burgundy. Without a way to say so you either build a variation for every combination and manage stock you do not really have, or you keep selling something you cannot ship.

Stock on a choice fixes that. Type a number on one option and WooCommerce counts it from there: that flavour sells out on its own, says so on the page, and stops being orderable, while every other choice in the set carries on.

This is a Pro feature. It lives on the option itself: open Option Sets, edit a set, and type a number in the stock box on any choice.

Typing a count

Each choice has its own box, and each one is independent.

• A number is the count you hold. Ten means ten.
• Empty means unlimited. Most choices are like this, and leaving the box alone is the right answer for a colour you can always get.

Empty is not zero. A choice with nothing typed is on sale forever; a choice with 0 typed is sold out. That distinction matters, so an unfinished box never quietly takes something off sale.

WooCommerce does the counting

Behind each counted choice AddOnBoss keeps a hidden product that holds the number, so WooCommerce's own stock machinery does the work. A sale takes it off, a cancelled order puts it back, and a refund with "restock" ticked returns exactly what came back. Nothing here is a second stock system to keep in step with the first.

What customers see

A choice that has run out is shown as Sold out and cannot be picked. A choice that is low says how many are left, using the same low-stock threshold your shop already uses for products.

You decide whether shoppers see the numbers at all. Each set has a Show stock to shoppers switch:

• On shows “Only 2 left” on a low choice and marks a sold-out one.
• Off shows no numbers, and a sold-out choice is simply not offered rather than shown greyed out.

The switch is only about what is displayed. Whether the numbers are shown or hidden, nobody can order more than you have.

It counts one shelf, however the sale is dressed

A count belongs to the choice, not to a page. The same eleven jars are counted whether a customer buys them:

• on the product’s own page,
• several at once through the quantity grid,
• in two separate cart lines with different other options,
• by reordering a past order, or
• inside a BundleBoss bundle.

Two cart lines that both use the marmalade are counted together, and the count is checked again on the way to checkout, so a cart that has sat while stock moved is caught before payment rather than after.

Colour and size counted together

On a product where stock genuinely lives on the pair, a Navy Medium rather than Navy or Medium, counts can be held per combination. A size the chosen colour has none of is dimmed the moment the colour is picked, and a combination the range does not contain is not offered at all.

Shops built from a supplier by StockBoss get these pair counts filled and kept up to date automatically. Anyone can set them by hand where a product needs them.

Allowing backorders on a choice

If you are happy to sell a choice you have not got yet, WooCommerce’s own backorder setting applies to it. A choice set to allow backorders can be ordered past its count, exactly as a backordered product can.

Choices with stock, or real variations?

Both are right for different shops, and this is the question worth getting straight.

Use a counted choice when the thing you are counting is a choice on one product and you do not need it to have its own SKU: eleven jars of one flavour, four burgundy tees, two of a limited print. You keep one product, one page and one clean list, and the choice still sells out honestly.

Use real variations when each combination needs its own SKU, its own weight or its own row in your warehouse system, because that is what a SKU is for. A size run you count and pick in the warehouse belongs in variations, and you can still add option sets on top for the extras that do not need counting.

The two live side by side, and plenty of shops use both on the same product.

What it does not do

Two customers who reach the last jar in the same instant can both get through the page, because the count is read rather than locked while they decide. That is how WooCommerce behaves for ordinary products too, and the counting itself is exact: whatever is sold comes off, and nothing is lost or counted twice.

If you sell something where the very last unit is regularly contested, treat the count as an honest guide rather than a hard gate, exactly as you would for any WooCommerce product.