3. Setting category, product & variation lead times
The WooCommerce Lead Time plugin allows you set lead times for all products in a category, or for individual products and variation.
Adding category lead times
To add a category lead time, go to Products → Categories and choose either 'Static' or 'Dynamic' from the 'Lead time' field:
- Static - Add fixed text which will always be displayed on the page, for example '5 days'. This will be displayed on the products in that category, along with any units or prefixes that you have entered on the settings page.
- Dynamic - Select a date and automatically display the length of time remaining until this date.
If you have enabled the 'Lead time per stock status' option on the plugin settings page then these options will appear separately for each stock status, otherwise you can set one lead time for the entire category regardless of stock status.
Overriding the category lead time for individual products
Setting a category lead time will display that lead time on all the products in the category and its sub-categories. You can override it for individual products and variations by adding lead times to each one as required. Any products or variations without their own lead time will show the category-level lead time.
Note: If a product is in two categories with two different lead times, then it will display the lead time for whichever category name comes first alphabetically.
Adding a product lead time
To set a lead time for an individual product, navigate to any product under Products in the WordPress admin to get to the Edit Product view.
In Inventory tab of the Product Data section, you will find fields to set the lead time for the product:
- Static - Add fixed text which will always be displayed on the page, for example '5 days'. This will be displayed, along with any units or prefixes that you have entered on the settings page.
- Dynamic - Select a date and automatically display the length of time remaining until this date.
If you have enabled the 'Lead time per stock status' option on the plugin settings page then these options will appear separately for each stock status, otherwise you can set one lead time for the product regardless of stock status.
Setting the lead time here will take precedence over the category lead time and global lead time.
Note: Your lead time will still only display for the stock statuses selected on the plugin settings page under the ‘Display lead times for’ option.
Adding variation lead times
For variable products, you can set the lead time individually for each variation. Go to the Inventory tab in the Product Data section of the Edit Product screen, and click to edit a variation. You will see the lead time fields for that variation:
- Static - Add fixed text which will always be displayed on the page, for example '5 days'. This will be displayed, along with any units or prefixes that you have entered on the settings page.
- Dynamic - Select a date and automatically display the length of time remaining until this date.
If you have enabled the 'Lead time per stock status' option on the plugin settings page then these options will appear separately for each stock status, otherwise you can set one lead time for the variation regardless of stock status.
If you do not set a lead time for a variation then when a user selects the variation, they will see the lead time for the overall product, if this is set. If there is no variation or product lead time then they will see the overall site lead time, if this is set.