Empty WooCommerce shop page? Nine times out of ten this is a configuration issue, not a bug. Work through these checks in order – each takes under a minute. The visibility setting and permalink flush together resolve most cases without touching any code.
Check 1: Product Visibility Settings
Each WooCommerce product has a catalog visibility setting. Open a product that should be visible. In the Publish panel on the right side (or under Catalog Visibility in the product’s General tab), check Catalog Visibility. Options are:
- Shop and search results – visible everywhere. This is what you want for a product to appear in the shop.
- Shop only – visible in shop but not search results
- Search results only – does not appear in the shop grid
- Hidden – does not appear in shop or search
If a product is set to “Hidden” or “Search results only”, it will not appear in the shop. Change it to “Shop and search results” and save.
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Check 2: Product Status
Only Published products appear in the shop. Check that the product’s status is “Published” not “Draft” or “Pending Review”. In the product list (Products -> All Products), the Status column shows each product’s state. Filter by Draft to find any accidentaly un-published products.
Check 3: Out of Stock Visibility
Go to WooCommerce -> Settings -> Products -> Inventory. If “Hide out of stock items from the catalog” is enabled, products with zero stock do not appear in the shop. Check if your products have stock management enabled and have a zero stock quantity. Either add stock quantity or disable the hide-out-of-stock setting if you want to show unavailable products.
Check 4: The Shop Page Is Configured Correctly
Go to WooCommerce -> Settings -> Products -> Display. Check that “Shop Page” is set to your actual shop page. If this is set to the wrong page or “No page selected”, WooCommerce does not know where to display products. Also check that the assigned shop page contains the WooCommerce shop block or the [woocommerce_shop] shortcode.
Check 5: Permalink Flush
WooCommerce product URLs stop working after certain changes (switching themes, installing/deactivating plugins). Go to Settings -> Permalinks and click Save Changes without changing anything. This flushes the rewrite rules and often fixes products not appearing or 404 errors on product pages.
Check 6: Active Filters Hiding Products
If you have a filtering plugin active (FacetWP, WooCommerce Product Filter, or similar), check whether a filter is applied that excludes your products. Open the shop page and look for active filter indicators. Clear all filters and check if products appear. Also check if a category filter from the URL is limiting results (a URL ending in /product-category/uncategorized/ shows only uncategorised products).
Check 7: Theme or Plugin Conflict
Switch to a default WordPress theme (Twenty Twenty-Three) and check the shop page. If products appear with the default theme, your theme is overriding WooCommerce’s shop template in a way that breaks product display. Contact your theme developer with the specific WooCommerce version. Also deactivate WooCommerce-specific plugins one at a time to check for conflicts.