Are you running a WooCommerce store and want more control over product pricing insights?
Whether you’re optimizing for sales, seasonal pricing, or promotional strategies, tracking price changes over time can be a game-changer. That’s where the WooCommerce Price History Tracker plugin comes in.
What is the WooCommerce Price History Tracker?
The WooCommerce Price History Tracker is a lightweight, yet powerful plugin that tracks and displays price changes for your products — including both simple and variable products. It logs every change made to the regular and sale prices, and displays the historical data in a clean, tabular format with visual charts powered by Chart.js.
Key Features
1. Automatic Price Logging
Whenever you save a product or variation, the plugin compares the current price with the last saved price. If a change is detected, it logs:
- The date/time of the change
- The new regular price
- The new sale price
2. Supports Simple & Variable Products
- For simple products, the plugin tracks price changes directly.
- For variable products, it tracks:
- The parent (variable) product’s prices
- Each variation’s price independently
3. Admin Interface with Chart.js
- On the product edit screen in the WordPress admin, you’ll see a new meta box: “Price Change History”.
- It displays:
- A history table of past price changes
- A line chart visualization of price trends (powered by Chart.js)
4. Clean and Intuitive UI
All information is displayed within the product editing screen, so no extra navigation is required. The interface is:
- Non-intrusive
- Easy to read
- A helpful visual cue for product pricing over time
Under the Hood – Developer’s Notes
This plugin:
- Hooks into
save_post_product
andwoocommerce_save_product_variation
to monitor changes. - Saves historical data as post meta under
_price_history
. - Uses native WooCommerce functions like
wc_get_product()
for compatibility. - Leverages Chart.js via CDN for a minimal dependency footprint.
$history[] = [
'time' => current_time( 'mysql' ),
'regular_price' => $new_regular,
'sale_price' => $new_sale,
];
The data is stored efficiently in an array and only logged when there’s a real change — helping reduce clutter and DB bloat.
Why This Matters
Most store owners change prices over time — whether due to:
- Seasonal offers
- Competitive adjustments
- Bulk discounts
- Market trends
But WooCommerce doesn’t log this data by default.
This plugin fills that gap, helping store managers:
- Understand pricing trends
- Validate promotions
- Revert or analyze past pricing strategies
Ideal Use Cases
- eCommerce managers tracking historical pricing for analysis
- Shop owners running long-term promotions
- Agencies managing stores for clients who want pricing transparency
- Developers looking to extend WooCommerce with helpful admin features
Getting Started
- Install the Plugin
Upload and activate it from your Plugins dashboard. - Edit a Product
Make changes to regular or sale prices and hit save. - View the History
Scroll to the new “Price Change History” meta box and see the updates!
Feature Suggestions for the Future
If you’re actively developing this plugin further, here are some ideas:
- Export price history as CSV
- Integration with WooCommerce Analytics
- Show price change notifications or trends on the frontend
- Filters by date range or custom datepicker
- Multisite compatibility
Final Thoughts
The WooCommerce Price History Tracker is a smart, admin-side enhancement for any WooCommerce store. It helps take the guesswork out of pricing decisions, encourages data-driven thinking, and adds valuable historical insight — all without bloating your site.
🔗 Stay tuned for future updates and enhancements — or fork it and build your own pricing analysis tools on top!
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