How to Add a Discontinued Product Stock Status to WooCommerce (2025 Guide)

If you’ve ever tried to retire a product in your WooCommerce store, you’ve probably noticed: there’s no built-in way to mark it as “discontinued.” You’re left with two unsatisfying options—either hide or delete the product entirely (which hurts your SEO), or mark it as out of stock (which implies it might return).

Neither of those options give you a clear, professional way to handle WooCommerce discontinued products. In this guide, we’ll explain the right way to manage end-of-life products using a discontinued product stock status, and show you how to do it easily with a plugin—or manually with basic code (for developers).

Why WooCommerce Needs a Discontinued Stock Status

WooCommerce includes a few basic stock statuses: “In Stock”, “Out of Stock”, and “On Backorder”. But what if a product is gone for good?

Marking it “Out of Stock” is misleading—it implies it’ll return soon. Deleting the product removes SEO value, and hiding it frustrates customers who previously purchased it.

That’s where a discontinued product stock status comes in. It gives you the flexibility to:

✅ Preserve the product page (and its search ranking)
✅ Let returning visitors view details
✅ Clearly signal that the product is no longer available
✅ Redirect customers to alternatives

WooCommerce doesn’t support this natively—but the good news is, there’s a better way.

The Best Way to Manage WooCommerce Discontinued Products

The most efficient, flexible solution is to use a dedicated plugin like 👉 Discontinued Products for WooCommerce

This powerful tool gives you everything you need to properly retire products—without deleting them or causing confusion for your customers.

🧠 What the Plugin Does:

Adds a discontinued product stock status
Shows a custom notice on discontinued product pages
Removes or replaces the default related products section
Hides (or shows) discontinued items in search results
Redirects users to alternative products which is manually configured in the settings
Provides full bulk management and reporting tools

All of this with zero custom code required.

Why Not Just Delete or Hide the Product?

You might be thinking: can’t I just unpublish or delete the product?

Here’s why that’s a bad idea:

❌ You lose SEO rankings (and all the traffic you worked for)
❌ Customers who previously purchased it can’t revisit the product page
❌ Reporting and sales history becomes incomplete
❌ You miss the chance to recommend alternative products

Even worse: if you simply mark the product “Out of Stock,” customers may wait for it to return—instead of buying a similar product that is available.

Why Choose Discontinued Products for WooCommerce?

The Discontinued Products for WooCommerce plugin is built specifically to help you manage WooCommerce discontinued products the right way.

✅ Key Features:

Discontinued Stock Status: Add a new stock type that clearly communicates product retirement
Custom Messaging: Show a branded notice on discontinued products, with styling control
Alternative Product Links: Recommend replacements directly on the product page
Disable Add to Cart: Automatically removes the add-to-cart button to prevent confusion
Search Visibility Control: Show or hide discontinued items in store search results
Bulk Management: Mark or unmark discontinued items in bulk, including variations
Detailed Reporting: View, filter, and export discontinued product data
WooCommerce-Ready: Built for compatibility with HPOS and custom themes

No more confusion. No more SEO loss. Just clean, clear control over retired products.

Who Should Use This Plugin?

🛍 Store Owners who need to manage retired or legacy products
🧩 Retailers who want to guide shoppers to replacements instead of dead ends
📈 Marketers who want to preserve SEO traffic from well-ranking product pages
🛠 Site Managers who want to bulk control discontinued items quickly and cleanly

Final Thoughts

When it comes to managing WooCommerce discontinued products, the default options just don’t cut it. Whether you want to preserve SEO, reduce customer confusion, or streamline your inventory management, adding a proper discontinued product stock status is essential.

The fastest and most flexible way to do it? 👉 Discontinued Products for WooCommerce

This plugin gives you everything you need to gracefully retire products—while keeping customers informed and your store running smoothly.

How to Add a Discontinued Product Stock Status to WooCommerce (2025 Guide)