Keep Out-of-Stock WooCommerce Products at the End of Your WooCommerce Listings
Last updated on: October 23, 2026 12:11 am
Managing product order in a WooCommerce store involves more than deciding which products should appear first. Product availability is equally important, especially when customers browse categories, brands, and other product archives. A product may have the perfect position in a carefully arranged catalogue, but displaying an unavailable item ahead of products that can be purchased can create a frustrating shopping experience.
Advanced Post Types Order (APTO) introduces a new Out-of-stock products option to help store owners address this issue. The feature allows out-of-stock products to be displayed at the end of frontend product listings while preserving the custom sorting configured with APTO.
Why Display Out-of-Stock Products Last?
Product sorting is an essential part of the shopping experience. Store owners often spend time arranging products manually to highlight bestsellers, featured items, seasonal offers, or products that are most relevant to their customers.
However, stock availability changes over time. A product that was available when the sorting order was configured may later become unavailable. Without additional handling, that product can remain near the top of a listing, even when other products are ready to ship.
Moving out-of-stock products to the end of the listing helps customers discover purchasable products first. At the same time, it allows store owners to retain their existing merchandising strategy instead of constantly rearranging products as inventory changes.
The new Advanced Post Types Order functionality provides this behavior without requiring a separate sorting configuration for stock availability.
How the Out-of-Stock Products Feature Works
When enabled, the feature changes the order in which products are displayed on the frontend.
Products with WooCommerce stock status Out of stock are placed after available and backorder products. This makes stock availability an additional consideration in the displayed order while APTO continues to provide the customized sorting.
For example, consider a product category with the following saved APTO order:
- Product A — Out of stock
- Product B — In stock
- Product C — In stock
- Product D — Available on backorder
- Product E — Out of stock
With the feature enabled, the frontend listing displays the available and backorder products first, followed by the out-of-stock products. The saved APTO order remains unchanged.
This distinction is important: the feature affects frontend product display, not the underlying APTO sorting configuration. It does not permanently rearrange products simply because their stock status changes.
As WooCommerce stock statuses change, the frontend can reflect the updated availability while retaining the intended custom ordering.
Frontend Only: Keep Your Existing Administration Workflow
The Out-of-stock products option is designed specifically for frontend product listings.
Enabling it does not modify the saved APTO order or change the ordering shown in WordPress administration. The existing product and order screens in wp-admin remain unchanged.
This separation is particularly useful for stores with large catalogues or carefully maintained manual sorting arrangements. Store managers can continue organizing products through APTO as usual, without the additional stock-based behavior changing their administrative workflow.
The feature also avoids the need to manually reorder products whenever inventory changes. Instead, the frontend presentation takes stock availability into account automatically.
Configure the Setting for All Taxonomy Archives
The new option is available in the Archive selection within the APTO interface.
Enabling or disabling Out-of-stock products at this level establishes the default behavior for the associated taxonomy archives and their inner terms. This provides a convenient way to control stock-based ordering consistently across product categories, brands, product tags, and other supported taxonomy listings.
To configure the archive-wide behavior:
- Open the relevant sorting configuration in Advanced Post Types Order.
- Select Archive in the archive and taxonomy selection area.
- Locate the Out-of-stock products setting.
- Select Yes to move out-of-stock products to the end of frontend listings, or No to leave this feature disabled.
- Save the configuration using Settings Update.
The setting is disabled by default unless configured otherwise. When enabled, it provides a consistent baseline without requiring individual changes to every taxonomy term.
Customize the Behavior for Individual Taxonomy Terms
Different parts of a store may have different merchandising requirements. For example, a general product catalogue may benefit from placing unavailable products last, while a particular category could require its existing listing behavior.
APTO allows individual taxonomy terms to inherit the Archive setting or define their own behavior.
When editing the sorting configuration for an individual term, the available options are:
- Inherit Archive setting — Uses the setting configured for Archive. The interface also indicates the currently inherited value, such as “currently: No”.
- Yes — Enables the feature for the selected term, regardless of the Archive setting.
- No — Disables the feature for the selected term, regardless of the Archive setting.
This makes it possible to manage the behavior centrally while retaining flexibility for specific categories, brands, or other taxonomy terms.
For example, a store can enable the feature globally and disable it for a particular category by selecting No for that term. Alternatively, the Archive setting can remain disabled while selected terms enable the feature individually.
The inheritance option also simplifies ongoing maintenance. When a term inherits the Archive setting, changes made to the central configuration can automatically determine its behavior without requiring the term to be updated separately.
A More Practical Approach to WooCommerce Product Sorting
The new Out-of-stock products option combines custom product ordering with a practical consideration: whether a product is available for purchase.
It is especially useful for stores that maintain manual product arrangements, operate large catalogues, or frequently experience changes in inventory. Rather than forcing store owners to choose between curated sorting and availability-based presentation, APTO allows both to work together.
The feature uses WooCommerce’s existing stock status, so it complements the inventory information already maintained by the store. It does not replace WooCommerce stock management or change whether a product is actually available.
Conclusion
The Out-of-stock products feature in Advanced Post Types Order provides a simple way to improve the presentation of WooCommerce product listings. Out-of-stock products can be moved to the end of frontend listings while available and backorder products appear first, and the saved APTO sorting order remains intact.
With an Archive-level setting and individual taxonomy-term overrides, store owners can apply this behavior consistently or tailor it to specific parts of their catalogue.
The result is greater control over how products are presented to customers, without disrupting existing sorting arrangements or changing the WordPress administration workflow.