If your wholesale customers order variable products, the way variations appear on your order form affects how quickly they can place an order. Wholesale Order Form lets you choose how product variations are displayed. This guide covers the Standard and Combo variation styles, when to use each, and the extra display settings available.
Requirements
Before customizing your variation styles, please ensure you have the following:
- Wholesale Order Form installed and activated.
- Variable Products configured in your WooCommerce store.
- An active Order Form has already been created within the plugin settings. If you haven’t set this up yet, please read here: Set up Wholesale Order Form
Standard variation style
The Standard style is the familiar WooCommerce layout, with a separate selection box for each attribute.
- Click the gear icon in the Options column.
- In the settings panel that opens, find the Variation Style setting.
- Select Standard (One Box Per Attribute).
Keep in mind that the Standard variation style has a limit of 100 variations per order form.
On the ordering form, it will look like this:
Combo variation style
The Combo style consolidates all variation selectors into a single selection box. This layout is recommended for products with over 100 variations, maintains performance, and these variations are lazy-loaded as the user scrolls down.
You can find the setting by doing the following:
- Click the gear icon in the Options column.
- In the settings panel that opens, find the Variation Style setting.
- Select Combo (Less Clicks/Faster).
On the Wholesale Ordering Form, it’ll look like this:
Extra settings
You can enable the Hide Combo Variation Name Prefix to make the selection box look cleaner. This removes the 1/4 or the variation number prefixes.
Before enabling the setting:
After enabling the setting:
You can also choose to display the variation selectors directly under the product name rather than in a separate “Options” column. To enable this, do the following:
- Click the gear icon in the Product Name column.
- Tick the Display Variation Dropdown checkbox.
The variation selectors now appear directly under the product name instead of in the separate Options column.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between the Standard and Combo variation styles?
The Standard style displays a separate selection box for each product attribute (e.g., Size, Color), following the familiar WooCommerce layout. The Combo style consolidates all attributes into a single dropdown, which reduces clicks and improves performance. Use Standard for simplicity and smaller variation counts; use Combo when a product has more than 100 variations.
Can I set a different variation style per product?
Yes. The variation style is configured per product via the gear icon in the Options column on your order form. Each product can independently use the Standard or Combo style based on its variation count and your preferences.
What happens when a product has more than 100 variations and I use the Standard style?
The Standard style has a hard limit of 100 variations. If a product exceeds this limit, not all variations will be displayed on the order form. Switch to the Combo style for products with over 100 variations — it lazy-loads variations as customers scroll, keeping the page performant regardless of how many variations the product has.
What does “lazy-loaded” mean for the Combo style?
Lazy-loading means variations are fetched and displayed on demand as customers scroll through the order form, rather than all at once when the page first loads. This significantly improves initial page load times for large catalogs with many variable products.
Can I use variation styles with simple (non-variable) products?
No. Variation styles only apply to variable products. Simple products do not have attributes or variations, so the variation style setting will not appear in their options panel on the order form.
The variation style setting doesn’t appear in my product’s Options panel — why?
This setting is only available for variable products in the current Wholesale Order Form builder. If you do not see it, confirm that: (1) the product is set to a Variable product type in WooCommerce, (2) you are using the current order form builder and not the legacy V1 form, and (3) your Wholesale Order Form plugin is up to date.
Will changing the variation style affect how prices are displayed?
No. The variation style only controls how the variation selector is presented on the form (layout only). Pricing, wholesale discounts, and stock availability are determined separately and will display correctly regardless of which style you choose.
I changed the variation style but the order form still looks the same — what should I do?
After saving your changes, clear any page or server-side cache. If you are using a caching plugin such as WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache, or if your hosting provider applies its own cache, flush it and reload the order form page. If the issue persists, try viewing the form in a private or incognito browser window to rule out a local browser cache problem.
Need help?
- Premium users — please go to the support ticket request form and send us a message. Our dedicated support team knows our products, WooCommerce, and the industry very well.
- Free plugin users — please send us a support request on the forum. We actively monitor the WordPress.org support forums and help our users there as best as we can.
