Since building WooCommerce Lead Time - the first ever WordPress plugin to show product dispatch times on the product page - we've been researching how different ecommerce stores display this information. We're sharing this with you so that you can show product dispatch times on your own WooCommerce site.
Keep reading for a sneak peek at how some high profile sites are displaying dispatch times. This can be a fantastic way to get inspiration for your own site!
1. Etsy handmade and personalised products
Etsy brings together independent sellers and craftspeople from all over the world. The items are typically handmade or made to order, so Etsy displays a dispatch time on the product page. This provides clear information on how long the customer can expect to wait for their order.
Etsy show the estimated dispatch time alongside the other product information, close to the add to basket button. They use the wording 'Ready for dispatch in...', which is generic enough to work for the wide range of products on Etsy.
If you sell a wide range of e-commerce products on your WordPress site, then this wording could work for you too.
2. Made.com non-stock furniture
Furniture store Made.com sells furniture with varying lead times. They display the dispatch time immediately above the add to basket button on the product page. This makes it clear how long the customer should expect to wait, so they can make an informed decision on whether to place an order.
3. Personalized products on Amazon
Amazon sells just about everything under the sun, including personalized products with longer lead times. Marketplace sellers can choose to display lead times on their products.
The extra information appears with the stock status, making it clear that there is a processing time on top of the delivery time. Wording such as "Usually takes between 1 and 2 days to create" reassures the customer that the product is genuinely personalized to order, while letting them know the expected dispatch time.
Add dispatch times to your own WooCommerce products!
I hope these examples provide some new ideas on displaying WooCommerce dispatch times for your own products! To add the same information to your own site, get the WooCommerce Lead Time plugin today.
As an online store owner, there are many reasons why you might want to add charitable donations to your e-commerce checkout page. It helps you support a worthy cause and motivates customers to donate a fraction of their cart value. One way to do this is by using a WooCommerce donation plugin.
In this article, we’ll show you:
How you can add charitable donations to your online store using a WooCommerce donation plugin.
An easy way to list a range of donation products or options for customers to choose from.
How you can add donations to your checkout page using WooCommerce extensions.
How to let people choose between a selection of donation products before directing them to the checkout.
Let’s put everything into context before we begin.
Why you might want to offer charitable donation options to your customers
Did you know that it’s easier to find donations in retail verticals as compared to other spaces? This is mostly due to the fact that, at checkout, customers have their card or cash out and are ready to pay for their order. According to a recent survey, 71 percent of consumers said that they had made donations to charities at the register.
Another reason for adding donations to your checkout is that people prefer to do business with companies that give back to society and feel positive about them. According to a study, 65 percent of customers remembered the last retail business that asked them for donations, whereas 60 percent said that the experience made them feel positive about the retailer.
It’s easy to see that customers favor businesses that collect donations for a worthy cause and associate more trust with those brands. This is precisely why charity websites, as well as e-commerce stores wanting to make a difference, should encourage customers to make a donation at checkout.
This is incredibly easy to do with a WooCommerce donation plugin. Another reason for using a WooCommerce donation plugin to accept donations at checkout is that it can serve other purposes too. For example, it can also be used to enable a restaurant’s ordering system to take tips online or by service-based businesses that need a way to implement Buy me a cup of coffee!.
3 ways to offer charitable donation options
There are 3 main ways to offer charitable donation options through your website:
Percentage of your order valueThis is calculated by taking a percentage of the customer’s order value. For example, 2% or 5% of their total purchase. This is a great option for store owners that want to donate a portion of their sales to charity.
Fixed sum This involves asking customers to donate a fixed amount (for example $5 or $2.99) or in multiples of a base amount (for example $5, $10, $15, etc…) regardless of their order value.
Offer a choice of donation productsAlternatively, you can list a range of donation options in a table before the customer visits the checkout page.
Of course, if you're a charity website, you might consider taking things a step further and accepting recurring donations. Now that we’ve discussed the importance of offering charitable donation options to your customers, let's talk about how you can let customers choose which charity they’d like to support.
How to select a charity to collect donations for
As an online store owner, you might want to gather donations for multiple charities or non-profit organizations that use WooCommerce. This way, you can give your customers the option to select which charity they’d like to donate to. Letting customers donate to a charity of their choice can help you gather more donations and make customers more likely to leave a donation at checkout.
To do this, you’ll need to set up drop-down options on the checkout page that let customers pick a charity of their choice. You’ll also have to keep track of how many donations were collected for each charity. For example, Charity A got $250 at the end of the month, Charity B got $150, and Charity C got $125. This will be done in the back-end though some WooCommerce donation plugins let you display progress bars on your site’s front-end, as well.
Best way to encourage customers to donate
While there are many ways you can ask for donations from paying customers, we recommend that you follow tried-and-tested methods when speaking to prospective donors. This is because customers who leave a donation will only be able to interact with your website unlike a real-life scenario where you can talk to them face-to-face.
Here are some of the best practices for encouraging customers to donate to charities:
Share the impact of donations You need to let people know how their donations will make a difference. For instance, sponsoring children’s education, building a community center, or feeding the homeless. In simple words, let them know where their money will go.
Use social proof Social proofing is all about everyone does it, you should too!. When people see other customers making donations to a worthy cause, they’re motivated to do the same.
Give customers control over donation amount You should let your customers choose how much they’d like to donate. Some customers might want to donate $5 while others might want to donate $1.99 – every little bit helps!
Now that we have a better understanding of why you might want to accept donations from customers at checkout, let’s take a closer look at how you’d go about doing this in WordPress.
How to add charitable donations to your checkout page
It’s easy for customers to make donations when they’ve reached the checkout page since they already have their card (or alternative payment option) ready to go. It’s often easy for them to make a relatively small donation compared to their cart value. For example, if they purchase products that add up to $22.99, they might leave a donation of $2 without hesitation.
Another benefit of adding a donation option to your checkout page is that you don't need to create a new donation button. Instead, customers can pay for their order and donate to a charity in one go.
It’s worth mentioning, however, that you should make charitable donations an opt-in option. In other words, customers who want to donate should be able to do so by ticking a checkbox or entering the donation amount. And the rest of them can proceed to complete checkout without having to opt-out manually. They shouldn’t have to untick a checkbox as that would negatively affect their shopping experience.
GiveWP: The best WordPress donations plugin
GiveWP is a free WooCommerce donation plugin that makes it easy for WordPress site owners to accept donations regardless of whether they’re using WooCommerce or not.
This WooCommerce donation plugin is designed to help WordPress users easily create donation forms. You can quickly add fundraising campaigns to your e-commerce site as stand-alone web pages, display donation forms in your theme’s sidebar as widgets, or embed them using a shortcode.
GiveWP offers several options to customize the donation form templates along with extensive documentation to help you personalize the look and feel of your website. You can use GiveWP forms as widgets or add them to the checkout page. The plugin also lets you accept recurring donations from customers.
How to use GiveWP with WooCommerce
You can use the Donation Upsells for WooCommerce add-on to use the GiveWP plugin with your WooCommerce-based online store. This way, you can add donation options to your WooCommerce checkout (or cart) based on your GiveWP forms and form options.
One of the key benefits of using this add-on is that all payments made during the checkout process will be processed with the WooCommerce payment gateway you’ve enabled. In addition to this, the donation details you gather through your donation form will be saved in your GiveWP donation records in the back-end for reporting and donor management purposes.
The plugin delivers a seamless donation experience to your customers. When they click to view their shopping cart, they'll see a donation option directly under the products they've added to cart. This way, they can select which charity they'd like to donate to and select a donation amount. This will depend on how you've configured the plugin.
Here's an example of a website using the Donation Upsells for WooCommerce add-on to accept charitable donations at checkout:
Notice how customers can choose which charity they'd like to donate to and enter their donation amount. Customers can also choose to donate to multiple charities in one go.
How to use GiveWP without WooCommerce
You can use the GiveWP plugin to accept donations even if your website doesn’t use WooCommerce. This is especially useful for online store owners that:
Website owners that don’t use a WooCommerce plugin at all but would like to be able to accept charitable donations.
GiveWP offers several payment gateways right out of the box. These include PayPal Standard and Stripe in addition to offline donation options.
Let customers make a donation on the product page
The WooCommerce Product Options extension lets you set up donations in a way that lets customers decide how much they’d like to donate. In other words, instead of setting a fixed donation amount, you can let customers donate as much as they’d like.
It also gives you the option to configure donation amounts in multiples of $10, $20, and $50. This is in addition to a name your price option which simply allows customers to enter their own donation amount.
This perhaps the easiest way to accept donations at the checkout page. It gives you the option to:
Suggest a price.
Enforce a minimum acceptable donation amount.
Let customers decide how much they'd like to donate.
How to sell a choice of donation products before the checkout
So far, we've talked about how to let customers to make a donation at the checkout. But what if you want to give customers a choice of donation options?
For example, maybe you offer a choice of charities or projects to donate to. Maybe you sell charity gifts, such as 'Send a Cow' or 'Pay to immunise a child'. If so, then it's best to create a quick order form listing all the donation options before taking customers to the checkout page.
You can easily do this with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin. This handy plugin takes your donation products and lists them in an interactive table with search box and filters. Customers can quickly find and select the projects or charities they want to donate to, and then add them to the cart. They can then check out as usual and pay for the donation products along with any other products in their cart.
How to set it up
It's easy to list donation products with WooCommerce Product Table:
Install the plugin on your WordPress site. (Make sure you install the free WooCommerce plugin too.)
Go to Products → Add New and add all your donation products. Use 'Simple Products' for donations that don't come with any options; or 'Variable Products' if you're offering a choice. For example, if you're selling a 'Choose Your Donation' product then use variations to list the available donation amounts.
Go to the WooCommerce Product Table settings page (WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Product Tables). Enter the license key from your order confirmation email, and choose your options. To sell charity donation products, we recommend the following options:
Choose columns that will give people the information they need to know. For example, an image illustrating what the donation will be used for, the name, the price, and add to cart column.
Choose the add to cart 'checkbox' style. This lets people quickly select multiple donation options and add them to the cart together. This encourages them to donate more.
If you've created any variable donation products, then select the 'Dropdown' variation option.
If you have a long list of donations, use filters to help people to find projects they care about more easily.
Create a new page and add the shortcode [product_table]. This will list all your products in a table. If you've created a specific category for your charity donation products then use the category option to list those products only.
Where to get the plugins
Customers are more willing to buy from companies who support charities. The easier you make it for them to leave a donation, the more likely they’ll be to do so!
We explained how you can collect donations for charities at the checkout using a WooCommerce donation plugin like:
WooCommerce Product Table - to let customers select from a list of donation products, which gives them more choice.
Are you thinking of using a donations plugin? Will you let customers enter their own donation amount or set a fixed donation amount? Let us know by commenting below.
If you're looking for something that isn't specific to WooCommerce, then you might also like this guide to WordPress donation plugins.
If you're a graphic designer, learning how to sell fonts online is a great way to generate some passive income from your skills.
There are plenty of font designer marketplaces that will happily sell your fonts for you like MyFonts, Fonts.com, etc...but those resellers will typically take half your sales as a commission and might require that you exclusively sell through them.
WordPress and WooCommerce provide a better way to sell fonts online that cuts out the commission and gives you full control. With the right WooCommerce plugins, you can create a store that's optimized specifically for fonts. You'll get a convenient table layout, complete with font previews and Ajax category filters to help your shoppers find the right font:
At the end, I'll also show you how to add the WooCommerce Product Options plugin to display the font license options as checkboxes like this:
Why WooCommerce Product Table is the best way to sell fonts online
WooCommerce is the world's most popular way to create an ecommerce store and is fully capable of selling both physical and digital products. It makes a great option for a solo font designer, font shop, or type foundry.
However, the default styling of most WooCommerce themes displays products in a more "traditional" ecommerce layout that looks something like this:
Now, that might work great if you're selling physical products. But if you're selling your own fonts, that kind of shop layout...
Doesn't display the important information about a font, like how it looks, its different font weights, etc.
Wastes space and makes it hard for shoppers to browse all your available fonts.
WooCommerce Product Table is a flexible plugin that fixes those issues by letting you display your fonts in a table layout like you saw above:
This gives you a compact way to help people shop your fonts. Visitors can:
See a graphic preview of the font to see kerning, glyphs, ligatures, calligraphy, etc.
Choose different weights for each font family from a drop-down.
Use checkboxes to add multiple fonts to their carts.
Use filters to find specific types of fonts. For example, serif font vs sans serif font, or OpenType fonts.
View license options.
Plus whatever else fits your business - the plugin gives you full control over what information you display.
Integrate your table layout with product quick view
If you want to display more information about each typeface than the table layout allows, you can add a product quick view button to the table that lets shoppers browse more information in a lightbox.
For example, you could use this product quick view to show:
A description of the typeface and its inspiration.
More detailed licensing information.
More images of your typography in action (or different font weights in action).
Font bundles or upsells.
How to sell fonts online with WooCommerce: Step-by-step
Below, we'll take you step-by-step through how to sell fonts online with WooCommerce and WooCommerce Product Table.
To manage your fonts, you'll use the regular WooCommerce product system. The simplest approach is to create one unique WooCommerce product for each new font family that you want to offer. You can then add different font weights or licensing options as product variations within that product.
To do that, go to Products → Add New.
First, enter basic details like the font family name and description. You can also use product categories and tags to add other pertinent information, like whether the font family is serif or sans serif.
You can also add an image to preview how the font looks - the way that Google Fonts handles things is a good starting point:
Next up:
Scroll down to the 'Product data' box
Choose 'Variable product' from the drop-down (unless you're only selling a single font weight - then you can use simple product)
From there:
Go to the 'Attributes tab' and select your attributes (you can set these up by going to Products → Attributes).
Select the 'Used for variations' box.
Click 'Save Attributes'.
To finish setting up the variable product:
Go to the 'Variations' tab.
Select 'Create variations from all attributes' from the drop-down and click 'Go'.
Check the 'Downloadable' and 'Virtual' boxes for each variation.
Enter the price. If you want to offer free fonts or other freebies, you can mark it as zero.
Upload the font file in whatever format you want to offer.
Once you've configured all of your variations, publish your product. Then, repeat the same process for all the different font families that you want to offer.
2. Configure WooCommerce Product Table
Once you've added all your font families as WooCommerce products, you're ready to create the front-end interface that you'll use to sell fonts online.
Install and activate the WooCommerce Product Table plugin. Then, go to Products → Product Tables to create a list of the fonts you're selling.
The easiest way is to enable the 'Display on a shop page' option. This will replace the standard layout on all your main shop pages (which is terrible for selling fonts!) with a font-friendly product table view:
You can explore all of the plugin's settings, but here are the specific settings you'll definitely want to configure.
First, use the 'Columns' page to configure what information you want to display for each font. You can include basic columns like this:
And you can also include other product data, like custom fields or taxonomies. View all the column options.
Next, go to the 'Add to Cart' page:
Choose Button and checkbox from the 'Add to cart method' dropdown. This will allow shoppers to select multiple fonts to add to their cart. That's important if you sell whole font families a la carte.
Choose how to handle variations. You can either display each font weight as a separate row in your table. Or, you can display a drop-down next to each font family that lists all of the weights.
Displaying variations as separate rows makes it easier for shoppers to purchase multiple font weights, while using the drop-down lets you display more font families in less space.
Finally, add some product filters. You can use these to let shoppers filter by font category/tag (e.g. serif vs sans serif) and/or attribute (e.g. font weight):
Pro tip: For even more advanced filtering, use WooCommerce Product Table alongside its sister plugin WooCommerce Product Filters.
3. View your font shop page
Once you've finished creating the table, visit your store's main shop page or a category page. You should see the table that will help you sell fonts online:
4. Add product quick view buttons (optional)
If you want to display more information about each font, you can add a product quick view column to your table using the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin.
Once you've installed and activated the plugin, you can then go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Quick view to configure how the quick view box works:
Then, you can add a Quick View your product table to achieve this effect:
Tips for selling fonts more effectively
Once you've set up your basic online font store, you'll want to consider implementing some more advanced sales tactics to boost your revenue and sell fonts online more effectively.
Display font license options as checkboxes
Above, I showed you how to list each font license option as a separate row of the table. But what if you want to list each font on a row, with options to select a license?
Product variations as useful for letting customers select a license option. However, you can only select one variation at a time. That's not much use because customers often buy multiple font licenses at once (e.g. web and desktop).
The solution is to use the WooCommerce Product Options plugin to display the font license options as checkboxes, like this:
Simply install WooCommerce Product Options, go to Products → Product Options and create a 'License' option group with the checkboxes.
Choose which products the license options will appear on. These will then appear in the 'Buy' column of the product table.
Sell font bundles
People who purchase fonts online love bundles - there are even entire sites dedicated just to selling font bundles. For example, you could bundle different font weights together or fonts that pair well together.
The WooCommerce Product Bundles plugin lets you bundle together as many fonts as you want. You can then display your bundle options in the product quick view box in your fonts table. The bundles will not display in the table itself - but they will appear in the quick view box if you use WooCommerce Quick View Pro.
Create upsells
Another good option is font upsells, which let you recommend a similar font/bundle in place of the font a shopper is looking at.
By creating your own WooCommerce store to sell fonts online, you eliminate the middleman and ensure you don't have to give up 50% of your sales as a commission to a third-party font marketplace.
However, if you want to use WooCommerce to sell fonts online, you'll also want to use some extensions to create a more optimized font shopping experience.
WooCommerce Product Table lets you create an optimized, table-based shop layout page to display your fonts. You'll be able to share previews, list pertinent details like font weight and type, and allow shoppers to purchase multiple fonts at the same time.
Get started today and create your own WooCommerce store to sell fonts online!
Do you have any questions about how to sell fonts online with WooCommerce and WooCommerce Product Table? Ask away in the comments!
If you're displaying WooCommerce product lead times in your store, it's important to adapt it to your specific needs.
While the WooCommerce Lead Time WordPress plugin has 'lead time' in its title, that doesn't mean that you have to use these exact words on your site!
The purpose of the plugin is to tell customers how long they'll be waiting before the product is sent. There are many possible ways to do this, depending on what types of products you sell, and the setup of your business.
Alternative ways to describe WooCommerce product lead times
Here are some examples of popular alternatives to 'lead time', with advice on when to use each one:
Available on
Use this for non-stock products, for example if you are awaiting an order from the supplier. This is a good option for products that are normally in stock, where you have chosen to display the lead time text for out of stock or backorder products only. When the product goes out of stock, you can add the date when it will become available again. This tells the customer when to come back and place their order, resulting in more sales for you!
Ready for despatch in
Popular with websites selling handmade or made to measure products like Etsy, this wording is good for products that need some manual work to get them ready to send.
Handling time
Consider using this wording if you're showing WooCommerce product lead times for items that require some sort of handling or processing to get them ready for sending.
For example, you might use this for custom hampers or gift boxes which you compile based on the customer's selections.
Processing time
This text has a similar meaning to 'Handling time', but sounds slightly more formal because it removes the human element that is implied by 'Handling time'.
Made to order
You guessed it! This wording is good for made to order products. It indicates the reason for having to wait, which helps the customer to understand and reassures them that the product is worth waiting for.
You could also use 'Handmade' or 'Built to order'. They're both good alternatives for showing WooCommerce product lead times for this type of item.
Waiting time
This indicates how long the customer will be waiting before the product is dispatched.
Personally, I find it slightly negative. Customers don't want to view themselves as waiting! As a result, I would suggest choosing something that positively indicates when the product will be sent, rather than how long the customer must wait. However, it might work for some scenarios.
For example, you might add a note saying 'Standard delivery times' or 'Delivery time: 2 weeks'. Customers get frustrated at having to add products to the cart just to find out the delivery time, so showing it in the lead time field is an excellent solution.
Lead time
Of course, sometimes 'Lead time' is the best wording. Use it for non-stock products where there will be a wait before it becomes available to despatch. For example, this might include made to order products.
Are you managing stock?
When you choose your lead time label, remember that a stock message might be displayed next to it.
If you're actively managing stock for a particular product, then the stock text 'In stock', 'Out of stock' or 'On backorder' will appear before your lead time text. This might affect how you choose to word the lead time message.
How to set it up
Before we close, here's a quick video tutorial on how to display lead times for your WooCommerce products:
Where to get the WooCommerce Product Lead Times plugin
If you haven't started displaying WooCommerce product lead times in your store yet, then get the plugin today. You can set it up in minutes. Customers will instantly be able to make a more informed decision based on your lead times.
Customers are much more likely to order from your ecommerce online store if they know how long they'll be waiting to receive the product. That's where the WooCommerce Lead Time plugin comes in. Keep reading to learn all about it.
Typically, before customers buy anything online, they check to see:
If the product is in stock.
The approximate date of arrival of their order.
Expected delivery date and/or delivery time.
Available shipping methods.
This is one of the most significant parts of the customer’s purchase user flow and greatly influences their buying decision.
Out of the box, WooCommerce lets you mark products as in stock, out of stock, or on backorder. However, there's no way to add information to indicate when the customer will receive their order. This is called displaying a WooCommerce lead time, and is not available in WooCommerce as it comes.
Fortunately, you can easily do this using the WooCommerce Lead Time plugin. This is the only plugin which provides an easy way to add a lead time to the single product page in order to let customers know when the product will be sent.
Keep reading to discover:
Why you should display a lead time on product pages.
What types of products need lead time information.
How to set it up using the WooCommerce Lead Time plugin.
And how to display lead time information in other parts of your online store.
Why should I display a lead time on product pages?
Most ecommerce online stores sell items that aren't always in stock for any reason. This might be because they’re made to order or simply because the store doesn’t hold all of their products in stock at all times. As a result, store owners (and customers) can benefit hugely from showing an estimated waiting time on WooCommerce product pages.
Think about the situation from the customer's perspective. Have you ever been shopping online and looked for information about when the item will be sent? Have you ever struggled to find this information? I bet you have!
Have you ever been shopping around and ordered from one website rather than another simply because it told you when you would receive your order?
That's right - customers need to know the wait time, and might not order unless they have this vital information. This is important for all online purchases, and becomes even more essential when buying with a specific deadline in mind such as a birthday gift or anniversary.
Key benefits
Here are some of the main benefits of displaying handling times for WooCommerce products:
Improves customer experienceDisplaying the lead time enables you to deliver enhanced customer experiences and simplify the purchasing user flow. In addition to this, it minimizes uncertainty about your WooCommerce backorders, increases transparency, and helps build trust with your customers.
Customers can make informed decisionsIn an event where your stock runs out but will be available soon, you’ll still be able to share the approximate time of arrival of those products with your customers. This way, the customer can decide whether the estimated date works for them or not.
No need to call for product availabilityDisplaying the estimated time directly on your product page also saves your customer service representatives from having to manually look up the lead time for individual products while a customer is on the phone with them. In other words, customers won’t have to call your support staff as they’ll be able to find out when the product will be available directly through your website.
Clearly displaying the lead times of your WooCommerce products therefore helps to reduce your cart abandonment rate, remove friction from the checkout process, and improve the customer’s buying experience.
>What types of products need lead time information
I would say that any physical product would benefit from having lead time displayed. It's less relevant for digital products which are emailed to the customer immediately, although a lot of stores display a message like "Instant Delivery" to reassure customers. However, this isn't the main use case for displaying a WooCommerce lead time.
Here are examples of products which will benefit more than most from displaying lead time information.
Scenario 1: Mde-to-order or handmade items 🛋️
If you sell products which are made to order - for example made-to-measure or handmade goods - then it's essential that customers know the waiting time.
Let’s say, for example, that an online store selling handmade carpets made to order may require a 6 week lead time. You’ll need to let customers see this preparation or processing time on the product page. As a result, the customer can decide whether or not the time frame works for them.
Here’s how Etsy displays a lead time notice "Ready for dispatch in 1-2 weeks" on one of its product pages:
Scenario 2: Stores that don’t hold all items in stock 📆
Lots of stores only order products after they receive an order, instead of holding inventory in stock. They may order in regular batches. This is common for large furniture items like sofas, and for small stores without a warehouse. Non-stock items may take longer to arrive with the customer, so you need to display the lead time.
It’s also important to keep in mind that the order dates might vary per product. Factors like the supplier’s location and processing times typically influence expected order dates.
Scenario 3: Out of stock or backorder products 🙁
This is different from non-stock products and means that the product is normally held in stock, but is temporarily unavailable.
Fluctuations in product demand - or problems with supply - happen all the time. When product orders are high, you might run out and need a way to let customers know when a popular product is expected to become available again. For example, if you sell t-shirts and a particular SKU is out of stock, you'd want customers to know when the next batch will arrive. This way, potential customers will be in a better position to make an informed decision on whether they should place the order.
To deal with this, you could display an Out of stock | Available: August 31, 2019 WooCommerce Lead Time message on the single product page.
However, I think you can do even better than this! Instead of marking products as out of stock, I recommend selecting the 'Backorder' status and displaying the lead time. That way, the customer can still place the order while knowing how long they will be waiting. This is a way for you to guarantee the sale, so they don't look elsewhere - everyone wins!
Products with fast despatch times 🏃♂️
And conversely, you can improve your conversion rates by displaying a lead time on products that are in stock and will be despatched quickly.
This is a less obvious use case for a WooCommerce lead time plugin, but can have real benefits. That's because displaying a short lead time will impress customers and make them much more likely to buy from you. For example, imagine how much customers will like to see a message saying "Order before 4pm, and we'll send your order today" on a product 🚀.
As you can see, all sorts of ecommerce products can benefit from having the lead time displayed. Next, I'll tell how how to add this to your WooCommerce online store.
Introducing WooCommerce Lead Time
WooCommerce Lead Time is a lightweight plugin that allows you to display information about when the customer can expect to receive their order. This makes it easy for customers to decide whether they should place an order right away or wait.
There are two ways of setting the lead time:
Static lead time - Add some static text which will be displayed on the product page. You can add different text for each stock status and the message will change automatically when a product goes out of stock or is put on backorder. This is useful for showing information about permanent lead times, for example "Handling time: 2 working days".
Dynamic lead time - Alternatively, you can select a date from a calendar and let the WooCommerce Lead Time plugin automatically display the number of days or weeks until it becomes available. This is useful for products that you are expecting in stock on a particular date.
Either way, you can set lead times globally or per product, category, or even variation. That way, you can either share lead time information across multiple products, or have more fine-grained control if each item has a different wait time.
How to add lead times to your WooCommerce products
The WooCommerce Lead Time plugin makes it easy to display waiting times on the single product page. This is how to set it up:
Use the setup wizard to choose any global settings that will apply to all your products. For example, you can set a prefix (e.g. "Waiting time:" which will appear before all your product lead times. You can also set a global lead time which will appear on all your products, except where you have overridden this by setting product-specific lead times. There's a further setting to customize the WooCommerce lead time text color.
To set lead times per category, go to Products > Categories and click on a category to edit it. Fill in the lead time for each category to override the global lead time (if set).
To set lead times per product or variation, go to Products in the WordPress dashboard and click to edit a product. Scroll down to the 'Product Data' section, find the 'Inventory' tab, and enter the lead time as needed. (Or for variation lead times, go to the 'Variations' tab instead.
How the WooCommerce waiting time looks on the front end
Once you have added a lead time, it will look like this on your WooCommerce product pages:
If you have enabled the option to manage stock for the product, then the handling time note will appear after the stock availability text, on the same line. For example, it might be: 'On backorder | Waiting time: 3 months'.
3 ways to display lead time information elsewhere in your store
So far, we've learned how to use the WooCommerce Lead Time plugin to display waiting times on individual product pages. However, that's not the only place that you can display this information.
Before we finish, I'm going to tell you 3 other ways to display the product lead time in your WooCommerce store.
On your main shop pages
Sometimes, the waiting time is so important to customers' buying decisions that it's worth displaying it before the customer even clicks on a product. If that applies to your store, then you can enable an option in WooCommerce Lead Time to also display lead times on your shop pages. This adds is to your main shop page, category pages, and so on - in addition to the single product page.
In a one-page product order form
The default shop page layout doesn't suit every type of products. Some products sell better if you list them in a quick one-page order form. This displays extra information about each product, along with a 'Buy' columnn so that shoppers can quickly add multiple items to their cart.
You can do this with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin. It integrates with WooCommerce Lead Time so that you can display the waiting time for each product in a dedicated 'Lead time' column of the order form.
In a quick view product lightbox
You can launch quick view lightboxes from the main shop page and allow customers to learn more about each product without having to visit a separate page. The WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin integrates with WooCommerce Lead Time and displays the lead time directly in the product lightbox. It therefore provides another way for customers to view lead time information away from the product page.
Start displaying lead time information today!
By using the WooCommerce Lead Time plugin on your WooCommerce-based online store, you’ll be able to:
Let customers know when the product will be back in stock before the reach the checkout page.
Build trust with customers, increase transparency, and help them make informed purchasing decisions.
Improve the customer experience your online store delivers.
Allow customers to place orders for products that are currently out of stock or on backorder.
WooCommerce Lead Time is the only plugin out there that displays waiting times. Install it today, and empower your customers to make more informed buying decisions.
Do you agree that displaying product lead times on your single product pages can improve customer experience? Let us know by commenting below.
There are many reasons why you might want to change the default number of WooCommerce products per page on your store’s main shop page. For example, you may be selling lots of (or very few) products, you may want to display more information with each product, or you might want to change the layout of the WooCommerce shop page.
And, of course, there are many benefits of changing the number of products per page on your product site. Depending on the type of products you sell, it could enhance the visual appeal of your website, increase product visibility, or streamline the purchasing user flow.
Unlike other tutorials, I'll show you how to change the number of WooCommerce products per page without having to code. This is a non-technical guide that explains how you can change the default number of products per page using a plugin.
We'll do it using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin, which displays your products in a conversion-boosting order form. You get full control over every part of the order form including - you guessed it - the number of products per page.
Why you might want to change the number of WooCommerce products per page
Most WooCommerce stores use the default page layout that displays 3 to 4 products per row. For each product, there’s typically a large product image, product name, price, and an add to cart button to go with it.
While this may work for small stores that sell a dozen or so products, it isn’t the ideal solution for every online store. This is partly because the default shop page layout can make it difficult for shoppers to find what they’re looking for. Shoppers can quickly get up due to having to scroll through so many pages of products. As a result, everyone loses!
You don’t need code to change the number of WooCommerce products per page
Typically, you’d have to mess around with code to change the number of WooCommerce products per page. This involves modifying your theme's functions.php file and using a variety of advanced functions (such as cols or add_filter). The problem with this is that it's not an easy and intuitive option for users who aren't particularly tech literate.
Another way to change the number of WooCommerce products per page is to use your active theme’s built-in settings or customization options. However, not all themes have built-in settings for changing the number of WooCommerce products per page.
Thankfully, with WooCommerce Product Table, you can easily change the number of products per page without having to code. It’s an incredibly easy option for users who aren’t particularly tech-savvy, or those using themes that don’t come with built-in options to change the default number of WooCommerce products per page.
Next, I'll show you how to use WooCommerce Product Table to list any or all of your products in a quick order form with the number of products per page that you require.
How to change the number of WooCommerce products per page
For the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll assume you already have a WooCommerce-based online store set up with some products added to it.
Step 1: Install and set up WooCommerce Product Table
Get the WooCommerce Product Table plugin and install it on your WordPress site. The table builder will open when you activate the plugin for the first time. We'll need this for step 2.
Step 2: Choose which templates to change the number of products per page
On the first page of the table builder, select the 'Display on a shop page' option:
Use the next page to choose exactly which shop pages you want to change the number of products per page. Generally, I'd recommend ticking all the boxes:
Proceed through the remaining steps to create your product order form. For example, you can choose which columns of product data to include.
Step 3: Edit number of products to display on the front-end
WooCommerce Product Table allows you to control the number of products that appear in the front-end table as well as how many products are displayed on each page of the table.
Head over to the WooCommerce Product Table plugin’s settings page by going to Products → Product Tables → Settings. Change the following options:
Products per page
The 'Products per page' option lets you control the number of products that will be displayed on each page of the product table. The default number of rows per page is 20. Setting it to -1 will display all the products on a single page.
Product limit
The 'Product limit' option lets you control the maximum number of products that’ll be displayed in the product table. The default number of products is 500.
If you need to display a few dozen products at a time in your product table, I’d recommend enabling the lazy load option to deliver optimal performance. That way, you can have a high number of products in the overall table (even if you have a low number of products per page).
Pagination
WooCommerce Product Table will, by default, add pagination buttons at the bottom of your table. You can choose to show or hide this on the settings page, or disable it to force all products to display at once.
You're now all set to change the number of WooCommerce products per page!
When you've finished, view your shop pages and you'll see a product table with the customized number of products per page like this:
Examples of stores that would want to change the default number of products per page
Here are some examples of online stores that might benefit from changing the number of products per page on their main shop page:
Stores that sell many products. Stores that sell lots of products need to be able to effectively showcase dozens of products per page. These include wholesale stores where shoppers frequently purchase the same products. Since they already know the products they’ll be buying, they shouldn’t have to click through to individual product pages for each item.
Stores that sell a handful of products. Micro stores that sell a handful of products (i.e. between 5 to 10 products) might want to showcase only 2-3 products per page. This enables them to improve both the visual appeal and usability of their online store. For example, Casper’s product page displays only three different types of mattresses.
Online course and memberships. Online course instructors and membership site owners might want to display course previews along with important course details. Typically, an online course site or membership site sells 3-4 courses (or membership tiers). Displaying a preview of course content in a table layout is a great way to attract students and boost sales.
Next, we’ll explain some of the different ways you can change number of products on your main shop page.
How you're changing the number of WooCommerce products per page
The WooCommerce Product Table plugin lets you change the number of WooCommerce products per page without having to code. This is a great way to enhance your main shop page’s usability, increase product visibility, and improve the purchasing user flow.
Do you agree that changing the number of WooCommerce products per page can help you improve your conversion rate? Let us know by commenting below.
WooCommerce customer-specific pricing is a powerful strategy where you charge unique pricing to specific users in your online store. Discover the easy way to set it up - no technical knowledge needed!
In the bustling world of e-commerce, where every click counts and customer loyalty is paramount, businesses are constantly seeking innovative ways to enhance user experiences. Customer-specific pricing is a strategy that can significantly impact sales and customer satisfaction. Imagine tailoring your product prices to individual shoppers, offering personalized discounts and creating a sense of exclusivity - all while boosting your bottom line. It’s not just a dream; it’s a powerful reality 🔥
Keep reading to discover how to add WooCommerce customer-specific pricing to your store. We'll do it using Discount Manager, an easy-to-use WooCommerce plugin that makes it easy to add and display flexible pricing rules for specific users.
What is WooCommerce customer-specific pricing?
As online retailers, we’ve all faced the dilemma: How do we cater to diverse customer needs without compromising profitability? Traditional pricing models treat everyone the same. However, in reality, each customer brings a unique set of preferences, behaviors, and purchasing power. A first-time buyer may need an extra nudge, while a loyal VIP deserves special treatment. And what about those high-volume wholesale clients who keep our revenue flowing?
It's ideal for any website that wants to charge different amounts to different types of customer. For example, WooCommerce wholesale stores often need to charge different amounts to retail and wholesale user roles, or even different amounts to each wholesale customer.
And most importantly - select which individual user accounts and/or user roles the pricing will apply to.
Unlike other WooCommerce customer-specific pricing plugins, Discount Manager actually lets you display unique information to each individual user. This helps to create a truly personalized user experience, boosting customer loyalty.
Next, I'll tell you how to set up user-specific pricing with the WooCommerce Discount Manager plugin.
How to charge different prices per customer in WooCommerce
To learn how to implement customer-specific pricing, either watch the video or follow the step-by-step written tutorial below:
Go to Plugins → Add New in the WordPress admin and install and activate the plugin.
The plugin setup wizard will open automatically. Use it to activate the license key from your order confirmation email.
Now the plugin is installed on your WooCommerce site, it's time to set up customer-specific pricing.
2. Create customer specific pricing rules
Go to Marketing → Discounts and click the 'Add Discount' button.
Choose the type of discount that you'd like to create for the user. There are several to choose from, each of which has a helpful explanation and examples. For example, you can choose a simple percentage pricing change, discounts based on the quantity ordered, and so on. All of these work with customer-specific pricing, so choose whichever one best fits the type of pricing rule you require.
Next, fill in the information about how the customer-specific discount should work. This includes adding a name for the pricing rule, choosing how the user-based price will work, and selecting which products and categories it will be used on. The exact options depend on which type of discount you're creating.
In the 'Applies to' section, select the individual user accounts or/roles that should receive the special pricing. For example, in the below screenshot I have selected a user called Ben. You can select as many users as you like, or entire user roles in order to give the same customer-specific prices to multiple people.
In the 'Availability' section, you can optionally set dates when the customer-specific discount will run. For example, to give a personalized discount to Shanaz during her birthday month, you would select the start and end of that month.
If you'd like to display a notice on the product page, then fill in the 'Product page content' and choose a location for it to appear:
If required, you can also add a 'Cart notice' which will appear on the cart page for all users who the pricing rule applies to.
Save the discount.
Repeat the above steps for each customer-specific discount that you wish to create. There's a 'Duplicate' option for each discount to save you time. Simply copy an existing discount and change the details for the next user as needed.
Pro tip for setting customer specific prices for groups
When we talk about WooCommerce customer-specific pricing, it's easy to assume that you should create a separate pricing rule for each individual user. Before you do this, think about whether that's the most efficient way to charge different prices per product for each user.
For example, if you have several users who you want to give the same special pricing, then here are some easier ways to achieve the same result:
Create one pricing rule for all those users, and select them all in the 'Applies to' section.
If you do this, then you should word the product page content and cart notice in a generic way that applies to all users who receive the group discount. For example, don't mention their individual names in it like I did in my screenshot above!
What sort of WooCommerce sites need user-specific pricing?
At first glance, charging different prices to specific users sounds a bit strange and unfair. However, personalized pricing is actually common practice in the ecommerce world.
Here are some examples of where a WooCommerce shop might need customer-specific pricing:
Loyal VIP customers
Give preferential rates to top-tier customers who consistently make high value purchases. Offer them a personalized discount or a custom price for specific products. For instance:
SuperVIP Jane gets 15% discount on all items.
Platinum customer Mark receives a fixed price of $50 for a premium product.
High-volume buyers
Recognize users who consistently order in bulk. Tailor pricing based on their historical order quantities. For example:
Wholesale partner Alex orders 100 units of a product regularly, so they get a 10% discount.
Bulk buyer Sarah purchases 500 units, earning a 20% discount.
Early adopters or beta testers
When launching a new product or feature, offer special pricing to users who participate in testing or provide valuable feedback. These users might receive a unique discount code or reduced price on all orders. This might be a permanent personalized discount, or it might be for a fixed period such as 6 months.
Referral program participants
Encourage users to refer others by offering personalized discounts. For instance:
Refer-a-friend Lisa receives a 10% discount for referring new customers.
Ambassador Mike gets a fixed price on a specific product for promoting your brand.
Birthday discounts
Celebrate users' birthdays by sending them a personalized coupon code. For example:
Birthday Girl Shanaz receives a 25% discount during her birthday month.
Customer-specific products
If you sell user-specific products, such as branded items to a school or sports team, then you might need customer-specific pricing too.
Behavior-driven discounts
Monitor user behavior (e.g., time spent on site, items viewed) and offer personalized discounts. For instance:
Frequent browser Alex gets a 5% discount after browsing specific products extensively.
Start charging different pricing per user today 🚀
As you can see, user-specific pricing is a powerful way to reward your best customers while making your ecommerce store more profitable. Discount Manager is the best WooCommerce customer-specific pricing plugin because it has everything you need to tailor your product pricing per user:
Choice of 6 flexible discount types.
Select which individual user accounts and roles each pricing rule applies to.
Display customer-specific information on the front end.
No-risk 30-day money back guarantee.
Detailed documentation, plus access to expert support.
If you're a photographer, learning how to sell photos in WooCommerce gives you a simple, affordable way to connect with customers and potential clients and grow your online revenue. Having your own online store makes you look more professional and ensures you don't have to pay a commission to a third-party just to sell your photos.
WooCommerce is a great solution for selling photography because it includes all the features you need to manage, display, and deliver your photos. However, while the core WooCommerce plugin includes all the basics, you'll want to use some add-ons to more effectively sell photos on WooCommerce, which is a big part of what we'll cover in this post.
Specifically, you'll learn how to more effectively display your photos in an easy-to-browse table layout, and you'll also learn how to restrict access to your photography, which is especially important if you're doing any kind of client-specific work.
Here's an example of what you'll be able to create by the end of this post:
Two plugins to help you sell photos in WooCommerce
In this tutorial on how to sell photos on WooCommerce, you'll see two plugins play big roles on your photography WordPress site.
WooCommerce Product Table
First, there's the WooCommerce Product Table plugin. This plugin lets you display your photos in an SEO-friendly, customizable table layout, rather than the default WooCommerce shop layout. You can control exactly which product details to display, and also add other helpful features, like sort and filter options.
This table approach has a few big benefits for WooCommerce photography websites:
Larger images - rather than relying on tiny thumbnails, a table photo gallery layout lets you display larger images without forcing people to click through to the single product page or open a lightbox gallery. This creates a much more efficient experience for people to browse lots of photos.
More details - you can display relevant photo details - like resolution or file format - without forcing people to visit the single product page. You can also let customers choose their preferred variation.
Bulk add to cart - shoppers can use checkboxes to select all the photos they want and bulk add them to their cart for an easier checkout or client proofing process.
WooCommerce Product Table works with physical products, digital products, and any WordPress photography theme.
Second, there's the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin, which lets you restrict access to categories of photos. This is great for professional photographers who don't want the public to have access to some or all of their photos. Some of the benefits here are that you can...
Use passwords to restrict access, which means you don't have to force people to create a WordPress account just to browse photos.
Create different passwords for different categories, which lets you create a private area for each individual client.
Automatically redirect shoppers to different categories of photos based on the password they enter.
What kinds of photos can you sell on WooCommerce?
There are a lot of different types of photos you can sell on WooCommerce, and the exact approach that you use to set up your store should depend on what type of photos you want to sell.
For example, if you want to sell event photos, you might want to keep your photos private and only for people who attended the event. On the other hand, if you're selling stock photos, you probably want to keep your store public.
Here are some common types of photos and the best way to approach how to sell photos on WooCommerce for each type:
Stock photos - you can use WooCommerce Product Table to create easily-browsable lists of images. You'll also want to use filters to help shoppers find the stock photos they need.
Editorial images - you could either create a public store or restrict access to specific clients with WooCommerce Protected Categories.
Client-specific photos - if you're selling any type of client-specific photos (events, portraits, school photos, etc.), you'll want to pair WooCommerce Product Table with WooCommerce Protected Categories to create private client areas.
Digital art prints - you can use WooCommerce Product Table's features to display variations right in your table. For example, you can let people choose different image resolutions.
How to sell photos on WooCommerce: Step-by-step guide
Next, let's get into how to sell photos on WooCommerce using the methods we've discussed above.
First, you'll learn how to use WooCommerce Product Table to display your photos in a customizable list view. If you want to sell photos publicly, that might be the only WooCommerce extension you need.
Second, if you have a use case where you need to make some or all of your photos private, you'll also learn how to use WooCommerce Protected Categories to restrict access to your photos on a category-by-category basis.
Finally, we'll also share some general tips for selling photos on WooCommerce, including how to add sidebar filters, add a product quick view feature, and bulk upload images as WooCommerce products.
1. Set up WooCommerce and add photos as products
If you haven't already, you'll want to start by installing the free WooCommerce plugin from WordPress.org and running through the setup wizard. Then, go to Products → Add New to add the first photo that you want to sell.
Fill in all the details, paying special attention to the 'Product data' box (like marking your photos as digital downloads). Also, make sure to use the featured image uploader to add your photo:
If you want to sell variable photos - like different resolutions or file formats - you can choose 'Variable Product' from the drop-down. You'll be able to display these variations in your table layout in the next step.
Make sure to repeat the process for all your photos. If you have hundreds or thousands of photos that you want to sell, we'll share a method to bulk upload photos as products later on.
2. Display photos as a shopper-friendly table
Once you've added your photos as WooCommerce products, you're ready to display them with WooCommerce Product Table. Here's an example of what you'll be building:
If you haven't already, purchase the plugin and then install and activate it at your store.
Then, go to Products → Product Tables to create a table listing your photo products.
While it's good to consider all the settings, there are a few key choices to make when using the plugin to sell photos on WooCommerce.
Choose which photos to include
The first page lets you choose how you will add the table to your site. Either enable it on your main shop page templates, or choose to add it to a page manually.
If you choose the manual option then on the next page, you can choose which photo products to include. For example, you might want this table to list photos from a specific category or tag only. (If you do this then you would later create more tables, each listing different photos.)
Configure columns and image sizes
First, use the 'Columns' page to control what information to display for each photo in your table. You have a range of options, but a good starting point for a WooCommerce photography store is something like: Image, Name, Price and Buy.
If you want to display additional information about each product, you can add columns for categories, tags, attributes, and even custom fields.
Click on the pencil icon of the image column and then open the 'Advanced' toggle. Use the image size option to choose the image size that you want to use. You can either enter exact dimensions in pixels or choose from the default WordPress theme thumbnail sizes.
Configure add to cart settings
On the next page, you can use the Add to cart column settings to control:
Bulk add to cart functionality.
How to handle product variations. For example, you could add a drop-down selector to let shoppers choose a variation.
Add search and filter options
Next, you can use the 'Search & Sort' page to add product filters. For example, you could let visitors filter by a photo's categories or tags. You can also add a search box if desired:
The filters that come with WooCommerce Product Table are pretty useful for selling photos online. For even more advanced filtering, you can use it with the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin. This adds a wider range of filters, including image-based filters, color swatches, and more.
Display front-end table
If you chose the option in the table builder to enable the product table on your main shop page templates, then you can skip this step. Alternatively, to create your front-end table layout, you can add the 'Product Table' block to a page, or paste the shortcode from the final page of the table builder. That way, you can add the table of photo products anywhere on your site:
Finally, if you want to add more filter options, WooCommerce Product Table also includes dedicated Ajax filter widgets that you can add to your sidebar to let visitors filter the table by price or product attributes:
You can add these widgets by going to Appearance → Widgets.
3. Hide photos/create client-specific areas
If you want to restrict access to certain photos and/or create client-specific areas, you can use the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin to privately sell photos on WooCommerce.
Once you install and activate the plugin, go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Protected categories to configure its settings.
Here, you can choose whether or not to still display hidden photos in your public-facing store. If you're selling client-specific photos, you probably want to disable this because you don't want private image thumbnails appearing on your main store page.
You can also control the password entry page, which is where shoppers will log in:
Then, go to Products → Categories and either...
Edit an existing category that you want to restrict access to.
Create a new category that you want to restrict access to.
For example, if you just photographed a wedding, you could create a dedicated category just for that wedding party.
Then, use the 'Visibility' settings at the bottom to restrict access. You can either add a password or restrict access to specific users or user roles:
Once a visitor enters the password, they'll be taken straight to the associated category of photos, which creates a great user experience.
More tips for how to sell photos on WooCommerce
Beyond WooCommerce Product Table and WooCommerce Product Categories, there are also some other helpful WooCommerce photography plugins to help you sell photos on WooCommerce.
Add a product quick view
If you want to display more product details and even larger images without forcing visitors to go to the single product page, you can consider adding a product quick view to your photos' table layouts.
The WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin integrates with WooCommerce Product Table to let you create a user-friendly quick view feature complete with product details, gallery images, variations, and more:
Use Product CSV Import Suite for bulk photo uploads to WooCommerce
If you need to upload hundreds or thousands of photos as individual WooCommerce products, the Product CSV Import Suite plugin is a great way to save time. It'll let you bulk upload photos as WooCommerce products and configure the proper product details (like adding all the photos from a wedding to that wedding party's dedicated category).
Case study on how to sell photos on WooCommerce: Photo Studio TNK
Photo Study TNK is a wedding photography studio run by Thierry in Paris, France. Thierry uses WooCommerce to sell photos directly to his clients by using WooCommerce Product Table to display his photos in a list view.
He also adds each client's photos to a dedicated category and then uses WooCommerce Protected Categories to ensure that clients can only see their own photos.
Get started with selling photos on WooCommerce today
With WooCommerce Product Table and WooCommerce Protected Categories, it's easier than ever to sell photos on WooCommerce.
You can create a more user-friendly way for people to browse your photos via WooCommerce Product Table's table layout. And if you need to restrict access to photos on your WordPress website, you can use WooCommerce Protected Categories to create different protected categories and automatically send visitors to the right category after they enter the password.
Pick the approach that works best for you and you're ready to sell photos on WooCommerce today!
Ever wondered how to turn off a WooCommerce store? There are many scenarios where online store owners might need to temporarily disable WooCommerce. For example, around the holiday season, due to a staff shortage, or simply because the products they sell aren’t available or on backorder.
In such cases, it’s a good idea to have a simple way to temporarily deactivate WooCommerce and let customers know when it’ll open up again. Ideally, you’d want to be able to use a plugin to do this instead of disabling your entire WooCommerce store or messing around with code. For example, a WordPress maintenance mode plugin takes your whole site offline - bad idea! Just disable WooCommerce while leaving the rest of your WordPress site live.
By using the right plugin to disable WooCommerce, you can automatically hide all the links to your shop pages. The best part is that you won’t even have to edit any content or re-configure menus and widgets.
With this in mind, in this article, we’ll explain three different ways to temporarily disable WooCommerce. We’ll cover how to:
Temporarily remove your entire WooCommerce store from your public-facing website. This is often referred to as "WooCommerce temporarily disable shop".
Hide specific categories only from your ecommerce store or disable the WooCommerce Shop page.
Temporarily hide the checkout page with a WooCommerce disable checkout plugin.
Along the way, we’ll also explain which solution is best for different scenarios.
Method #1: Use WooCommerce Private Store to temporarily disable WooCommerce
The first method involves using the WooCommerce Private Store plugin to temporarily disable or hide your WooCommerce store. It's perfect for anyone searching for how to turn off a WooCommerce store or disable the shop.
Using Private Store as a WooCommerce temporarily disable shop plugin is particularly useful for ecommerce store owners who:
Are sick or on leave. For example, a WooCommerce vacation mode plugin is useful around the holiday season, for maternity leave, or travelling. When you finish the Woo store vacation, just make it public again!
Need to temporarily close the store because they’ve run out of inventory or if products are on backorder.
Are short on staff and can’t complete customer orders on time.
Simply put, this is the best method for anyone wanting to know how to turn off WooCommerce store. Once you’ve installed the WooCommerce Private Store plugin to your WordPress site and followed the tutorial, it’ll hide your entire store from your public-facing website. It will disable the WooCommerce shop page and all your other store pages such as the products, categories, and so on.
If visitors try to access your online store either by going to it directly or searching for it on Google, they'll be redirected to a different page depending on how you configure the plugin's WooCommerce settings page.
That said, you’ll still be able to access it (from the front-end and the back-end) by entering a password. As well as the password protect option, you can unlock your hidden store for logged in users or roles. This is a great option for online store owners that would like to temporarily disable the WooCommerce shop for regular customers but would like wholesale buyers to be able to make purchases. For example, it's perfect as a WooCommerce store vacation plugin.
Method #2: Use WooCommerce Protected Categories to hide specific categories and their products
The WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin lets you hide one (or more) categories within your online store. In other words, instead of disabling your entire WooCommerce shop, you can simply disable specific categories and all the products within those categories.
This is a practical option for online store owners who:
Are running out of stock on certain product categories but would like to be able to continue selling other products.
Are restocking a particular category of products and need to temporarily disable those category pages from their public-facing website.
Have decided to pause the production of a category of products.
Wish to make certain product categories private and available only to select members/users.
With the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin, you’re able to protect specific categories in three different ways:
Password protection.
Making them available to certain user roles.
Allowing specific users to access them.
This way, you can disable specific categories from your WooCommerce store while still making them available to certain users. Make them public again on your chosen end date.
Method #3: WooCommerce disable checkout
The other two methods focus on disabling the entire WooCommerce store or a complete category. Alternatively, you might want to disable checkout options or turn off ordering for specific products.
A WooCommerce disable checkout plugin is useful for ecommerce business owners who:
Have run out of stock or paused production of certain products but would like to be able to nudge customers to buy other products.
Are facing a problem with a merchant or logistics and want to pause orders temporarily.
While you can disable checkout using code, it can easily get tricky and cause your site to break. Another way you could technically disable checkout for individual products is by using the External / Affiliate Product option available in default WooCommerce. This feature was built to enable store owners to showcase products on their site that customers will have to purchase on a different site. For instance, you can promote an Amazon product on your website but to purchase the product customers have to go to the Amazon product page.
While this feature can be modified to allow you to disable the checkout page, that’s not what it was created for. It could also easily break your product variations which would require troubleshooting. That's why a WooCommerce disable checkout plugin isn't necessarily the best solution.
The best way to temporarily disable checkout or turn off orders for a product is to:
A better option: Display lead times and allow backorders
The problem with disabling ordering for specific products is that - by definition - no one can buy them! It’s better for business if you continue accepting orders for products that will come back in stock. The important thing is to clearly communicate with your customers so that they know there will be a wait.
You can easily achieve this by setting the stock status of the product to ‘On backorder’, and showcasing lead times. You won’t have to say no to sales!
How to temporarily disable a WooCommerce shop using plugins
Depending on whether you activate WooCommerce Private Store or WooCommerce Protected Categories to your online shop, some or all of your WooCommerce pages will immediately disappear from your public-facing website. Keep in mind that the rest of your WordPress site (your homepage, blog pages, galleries, etc.) will remain public.
In addition to this, your WooCommerce store will remain accessible to administrators and store managers from the WordPress admin area. They will also be able to access the store from the front-end as usual by entering the password or logging into a user account – depending on how you decide to set up the plugin.
The key benefit of using either WooCommerce Private Store or WooCommerce Protected Categories is that they simply hide all the links to your shop pages. This includes the main shop page, category pages, and single product pages. This way, you won’t have to edit any content on your site or mess around with menus and widgets. It’s the easiest way to WooCommerce temporarily disable shop.
Method #1: How to turn off WooCommerce store with the Private Store plugin
Once you have WooCommerce Private Store set up, it will automatically hide all WooCommerce-created pages from your store. This includes the account page, shopping cart links, checkout pages, main shop page, and product pages.
Assuming you already have an ecommerce store, here’s how to temporarily disable WooCommerce shop:
Get the WooCommerce Private Store plugin. Download the plugin files and copy the license key from the order confirmation page or the email notification receipt.
Log in to your WordPress admin panel and head over to Plugins → Add New.
Click the Upload button and look for the plugin files you downloaded.
Install and activate the WooCommerce Private Store plugin to your WordPress website.
Navigate to WooCommerce → Settings → Private Store and paste your license key.
Set a Store Password if you’d like to let administrators and store managers access it from the front end.
Set a Login Redirect URL to redirect users to another page (such as your homepage) if they try to access a store page.
Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen to proceed.
That’s it! Your entire WooCommerce shop should be hidden.
To take things further, you can place your login form somewhere on your WordPress website. For example, on a dedicated login page or in a sidebar widget. All you have to do is paste the shortcode: [store_login] on the page or sidebar. This will automatically generate a login form based on the WooCommerce Private Store settings page. This way, administrators and store managers can easily access the shop from the front end while it's temporarily disabled.
It's an easy way to close your WordPress store until you're ready to start selling again. It basically lets you disable the WooCommerce shop page.
Method #2: How to use WooCommerce Protected Categories to hide specific categories and their products
Once you’ve installed and activated the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin, it’ll give you the option to hide specific categories from your WooCommerce store. It also hides all of the sub-categories and products that fall under those categories.
Here’s what you need to do to temporarily deactivate or disable specific WooCommerce categories:
Get the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin. Copy the license key from the order confirmation page or the email notification.
Log in to your WordPress dashboard and head over to Plugins → Add New.
Click the Upload button and look for the plugin files on your computer.
Install and activate the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin to your WordPress website.
Navigate to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Protected categories and paste your license key.
Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen to proceed.
Go to Products → Categories from the admin panel.
From the Product categories screen, you can:
Edit an existing category that you’d like to temporarily disable from your WooCommerce shop. Alternatively, you can create a new category, as well.
Scroll down to the Visibility section and select the Protected option or the Private option depending on your preferences.
Click the Add new category button to proceed.
That’s all there is to it! The category (and all subcategories and products that fall under it) should be temporarily disabled.
You can repeat these steps to hide as many categories as you’d like.
Method #3: How to hide checkout page by turning off orders
To turn off orders and essentially disable checkout, you’ll need to remove the price of the product.
Default WooCommerce doesn’t give you the option to hide product prices. You could use code to hide the prices of specific products, categories, etc. However, that comes at the risk of breaking your site as it involves editing and adding code snippets to crucial website components like your child theme, functions.php file etc.
Once you’re hidden the price of your product, you can also mark it out of stock. For this you can follow these steps:
Open the WordPress Dashboard, and go to the product you want to mark out of stock.
Navigate to the ‘Product data’ section and click on “Inventory”
Here you can change the “Stock Status” to ‘Out of stock'.
Make sure to click on ‘Update’ once done. The product is now marked out of stock!
Hiding the product price and marking it as “out of stock” is not the only way to deal with products that are out of stock. If you are in the middle of restocking products then showing lead time is a better idea as it’ll help you make a sale if customers decide to place a backorder.
Products out of stock? Don't disable your store - show lead times instead!
In the previous sections, we assumed that disabling your WooCommerce store is the best way forward. However, it's worth thinking about whether there are any alternatives to hiding it completely. This depends on why you want to disable WooCommerce.
Some people decide to temporarily close their online store due to stock availability. For example, if your products are out of stock or you have lead time issues, then you might want to take them offline until the products are ready to despatch again.
If this is your reason for disabling WooCommerce, then there's a better option. Taking your store offline can affect your SEO because your shop pages aren't consistently available to search engines. It can also lead to missed opportunities because potential customers can't find your products.
How to add product lead times
As an alternative, you can use the WooCommerce Lead Time plugin to show when the products will be ready for dispatch.
This handy plugin lets you set a global lead time that will appear on all your product pages, or show lead times on specific products. This is much better than disabling ordering for out of stock products.
You can choose which stock statuses to show lead times for. For example, you could show lead times for 'Out of stock' or 'On backorder' products only, instead of taking them offline. This way, you can stop orders in WooCommerce temporarily.
You can also choose what text to display alongside your lead times (e.g. 'Waiting time', 'Available on 1st July', etc.). The plugin even has a dynamic lead time feature where you select the date when the product will be available, and the remaining waiting time is automatically displayed on the website.
If you're tempted to disable WooCommerce because of lead time issues, then it might be better to keep your store online and display the expected lead times instead. That way, customers (and search engines) can still see your store, while making an informed decision on whether to wait. This also enables you to accept backorders!
If you need to disable WooCommerce for any other reasons, then you're probably better off using the other methods discussed above.
Where to get the plugin
Traditionally, the only way to disable WooCommerce was to either deactivate the WooCommerce plugin from your WordPress website or mess around with your functions.php file. However, if you want to know how to temporarily disable WooCommerce shop, we recommend using a plugin.
More specifically:
If you want to hide your entire WooCommerce from your public-facing website, use the WooCommerce Private Store plugin.
It’s worth mentioning that both WooCommerce Private Store and WooCommerce Protected Categories are compatible so you can use both plugins together, as well. Both plugins allow you to configure WooCommerce to stop orders.
Do you have any questions on how to temporarily disable WooCommerce? We’re happy to help so let us know in the comments section below.
