📦 Move Out-of-Stock Products to the end of Pagination (WooCommerce Snippet)

Nobody likes browsing a shop only to find half the products are out of stock. It’s frustrating for customers and bad for conversions.

Here’s a simple code snippet that pushes out-of-stock products to the end of the product listings—on shop, category, and tag archive pages.

🧩 The Code

// Move out-of-stock items to the end
function modify_product_query_for_stock_status($query) {
    if (!is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() && (is_shop() || is_product_category() || is_product_tag())) {
        add_filter('posts_join', 'add_stock_status_join');
        add_filter('posts_orderby', 'add_stock_status_orderby');
    }
}
add_action('pre_get_posts', 'modify_product_query_for_stock_status');

function add_stock_status_join($join) {
    global $wpdb;
    $join .= " LEFT JOIN {$wpdb->postmeta} AS stock_meta ON ({$wpdb->posts}.ID = stock_meta.post_id AND stock_meta.meta_key = '_stock_status')";
    remove_filter('posts_join', 'add_stock_status_join');
    return $join;
}

function add_stock_status_orderby($orderby) {
    global $wpdb;
    $orderby = "stock_meta.meta_value ASC, $wpdb->posts.post_date DESC";
    remove_filter('posts_orderby', 'add_stock_status_orderby');
    return $orderby;
}

📍 Where to Add It

Place this snippet in your theme’s functions.php file or add it using a code snippet manager plugin like Code Snippets.

🔍 What It Does

• Prioritizes products with _stock_status = instock
• Pushes outofstock products to the bottom of the list
• Works on shop, category, and tag pages
• Doesn’t affect the admin or unrelated queries

✅ Why It Matters

• Improves customer experience
• Highlights in-stock products first
• Avoids confusion or disappointment when browsing

🛠️ Want More UX Improvements?

At EUX Digital Agency, we help WooCommerce stores improve performance, conversion, and customer experience. Whether it’s smart tweaks like this or custom development—we’ve got you covered.

📩 Reach out here if you need support or customizations!