Articles About WooCommerce

As an online store owner, you might consider adding product quick view to improve search engine visibility, increase conversions, and boost sales.

The easiest way to do this is by using WooCommerce quick view shortcodes to add quick view buttons anywhere on your site. Use this guide if you need; quick view buttons on blog posts, product lists on custom pages, or advanced shortcode implementations.

Choosing a quick view plugin? See our comparison of best WooCommerce quick view plugins.

With this in mind, in this article, we’ll explain how to use a WooCommerce Quick View shortcode to add quick view buttons to on your product pages, normal pages, blog posts, widgets or anywhere else. We’ll also explore three different methods for showing quick view buttons outside of the main shop and category pages.

3 ways to show WooCommerce quick view buttons outside of the main shop page

Using WooCommerce quick view shortcodes to showcase products outside of your shop page and category pages is a great way to simplify the buying process and improve your customers’ shopping experience.

For the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll assume that you already have a WooCommerce store set up with some products added to it. Here, we’ll explore 3 ways to use shortcodes to display products with quick view buttons:

1. Use the WooCommerce Quick View Pro shortcode to insert quick view buttons
2. Use WooCommerce quick view shortcodes to display products (with quick view)
3. Use WooCommerce Product Table to list products in a table (with quick view)

Read about each approach and choose the one that best fits your needs, or use the jump links above to skip directly to each section. You can also implement all three methods on your WordPress site at the same time!

Method 1: Use the WooCommerce Quick View shortcode to add quick view buttons

The WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin comes with a shortcode that you can use to insert quick view buttons anywhere on your site. It adds a simply quick view button for a specific product, with whichever text you'd like to display in the button.

This is perfect for providing a quick way to buy a specific product, for example within a blog post. The customer uses the quick view button to view product details in a lightbox. They can choose quantities and variations, and add the product to the cart - all without leaving the page.

How to set it up

Step 1: Install WooCommerce Quick View Pro

1. To get started, get the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin and install and activate it on your WordPress website.
2. Next, head over to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Quick view to activate the plugin license.
3. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen to proceed.

WooCommerce Quick View Pro automatically adds quick view buttons to your main shop page and category pages once you activate it. Whenever a customer clicks on the Quick View button, it will display each product in a quick view lightbox like this:

However, since we want to add quick view buttons elsewhere on our site, we’ll use the WooCommerce Quick View Pro product shortcode.

Step 2: Add the WooCommerce Quick View Pro shortcode

1. Now, go to the page or post where you want to add a quick view button and add the shortcode [quick_view id="123"] shortcode.
2. Replace "123" with the ID of the product (you can get this by hovering over a product in the main Products list in the WordPress admin).
3. The button text will come from the Quick View plugin settings page. You can change this for each individual button by adding the text option to the WooCommerce Quick View Pro shortcode like this: [quick_view id="123" text="Buy Hoodie"]
   

   

4. Repeat steps 1-3 for each quick view button that you'd like to add. For example, if you're writing a blog post about 5 featured products then you would use the shortcode 5 times, each with a different product ID.

Step 3: Choose which product details to display in the quick view lightbox

With WooCommerce Quick View Pro, you can choose which product details to display in the quick view lightbox. Here’s how:

Navigate to the plugin’s settings screen (WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Quick view) and scroll down till you reach the Product details section.

From there, you can choose to display any combination of product details in the quick view lightbox including:

• Reviews
• Price
• Short description
• Add to cart button
• Meta information (like product SKUs and categories)

For example, if you only wanted to display the product’s price, variations, and add to cart button, your quick view lightbox would look like this:

Method 2: Using shortcodes to add products (with quick view) to any page or post

This method uses shortcodes to display WooCommerce products on product pages or anywhere on your online store.

Unlike method 1, it displays extra information about each product including the featured image, name, price and add to cart button. If you use these shortcodes with WooCommerce Quick View Pro installed, then it will include a quick view button for each product. You can also use this method to list multiple products at once, each with its own quick view button.

How to set it up

First, install WooCommerce Quick View Pro on your site - as described in Method 1, above. Next, you can start listing products using the built-in shortcodes. If you've got the quick view plugin installed, then each shortcode will include quick view buttons as well as the product image, name and add to cart button:

1. Open the page, post or widget that you want to add the selected product(s) to.
2. Next, use the [products] shortcode to display products by ID, SKU, categories, or attributes.

The [products] shortcode is pretty flexible, so let’s take a look at some examples:

Example #1: Single product

If you want to showcase a specific product, you can use the product’s ID or SKU with the shortcode:

[products skus="woo-hoodie-with-logo"]

It would look something like this:

To list multiple products, just add the ID or SKU or multiple products, separated by commas, e.g.: [products skus="woo-hoodie-with-logo,blue-tshirt"]

Example #2: Featured products

If you want to showcase featured products with quick view buttons, you can use this shortcode:

[featured_products per_page="3" columns="3"]

It would look something like this:

Example #3: Best-selling products

If you want to showcase your best-selling products, you can use this shortcode:

[best_selling_products per_page="3" columns="3"]

It would look something like this:

Example #4: Recent products

If you want to showcase your recent products, you can use this shortcode:

[recent_products per_page="3" columns="3"]

It would look something like this:

This WooCommerce quick view shortcode makes it easy for users to add products anywhere on their site. This way, whenever a customer lands on your blog post, they can use the Quick View button to launch the quick view lightbox and:

• View product details – including product name, description, reviews, price, and meta.
• Select variations and set quantities.
• View order details and add products to cart.

Further reading: Check out the official documentation for WooCommerce product shortcodes for more ideas! You could, for example, add your top rated products or related products to a blog post.

Method 3: Using WooCommerce Product Table to display products in a table layout on any page or post

By following the step-by-step instructions below, you’ll be able to list WooCommerce products in a table layout (with quick view) in blog posts and pages.

We’ll explain how you can add a product table to a blog post. However, you can follow the same steps to list products anywhere on your online store. For example, you might consider adding a product table shortcode to your WooCommerce checkout page (or WooCommerce cart page) or list sale products on a landing page.

Step #1: Install WooCommerce Quick View Pro and WooCommerce Product Table

To get started, get WooCommerce Quick View Pro and the WooCommerce Product Table plugin and install and activate both to your WordPress website. Next, head over to:

• WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Quick view (for WooCommerce Quick View Pro)
• WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Product tables (for WooCommerce Product Table)

… to activate the plugin licenses.

Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen to proceed.

Step #2: Configure the product table settings

From the WooCommerce Product Table settings screen, scroll down till you reach the Columns option under Table content. Enter image,name,description,price,quick_view,add-to-cart into the Columns option. Make sure you include a quick_view column.

Check out the complete list of available column options to customize your product table! For example, you might want to include product categories as a column. This way, customers could sort the product table based on product category.

Optionally, you can scroll down to the Quick View Pro section on the same screen to replace all links in the product table with quick view links. All you have to do is tick the Product links checkbox.

Click the Save Changes button to continue.

Step #3: Add a product table

Open the page or post where you want to add the product table. Next, use the following shortcode to list products in a table layout:

[product_table]

This will list all your products. You can also edit the shortcode to list specific products only.

Finally, click the Publish button and preview it on your site’s front-end. It will look something like this:

Customers can use the filter options above the table to view products based on product attributes such as color or size.

Further reading: For more ideas on how to use WooCommerce Quick View Pro, be sure to check out this in-depth guide!

Where to get the plugin

With a WooCommerce quick view shortcode, you can add featured products anywhere on your site and make it easier for customers to buy from you. Customers can learn about your products, choose variations, set quantities, and add products to cart without leaving the page (or post) they’re on.

Let’s quickly recap the two different options we covered above:

• If you simply want to insert quick view buttons for a specific product, then you can do so with the WooCommerce Quick View Pro shortcode provided in the plugin.
• Those of you looking to add featured products to pages, posts, widgets, or sidebars (with quick view) can use the built-in WooCommerce shortcodes with WooCommerce Quick View Pro.
• And if you’re looking for an easy way to showcase WooCommerce products in a table layout then you can use the WooCommerce Product Table plugin with WooCommerce Quick View Pro.

How do you want to use WooCommerce quick view shortcodes in your store? We’d love to hear from you so let us know in the comments section below!

Whether you’re a professional event organizer or need to host a few events every now and then, you need an easy way to be able to share important event details with your site’s visitors. A WordPress event list plugin is a simple way to get started.

While most event plugins (like The Events Calendar, Events Calendar, EventOn, and Event Espresso) are all-in-one solutions that offer neat features like …

• Online registrations,
• Integration with Google Maps,
• Saving events to personal calendars (such as Google Calendar), and
• Various event management options

… they’re not always the best (or most efficient) option for those looking to create a simple event listing without slowing down their site.

By creating an event list, you’ll be able to share details about upcoming events directly through your WordPress website. This may include the event’s name, venue, date and time, and registration information. To take things up a notch, you can even let prospective attendees make bookings.

With this in mind, in this article, we’ll cover the three best options for a WordPress event list plugin. More specifically, we’ll show you how you can:

• Create an WordPress event list or event page with WooCommerce - with (or without) an events plugin.
• Use the Posts Table Pro plugin to create a searchable event list, including integration with an event calendar plugin.
• Use WooCommerce Bookings plugin to take bookings for events.

Let’s get right to it!

Solution #1: Create an events page using a WordPress event list plugin

If you use your website to sell upcoming events then you probably need an easy way to display them and share important event details with your site’s visitors. However, using a full-fledged WordPress events calendar plugin might not always be the best option. For starters, it could weigh down your site causing increased page loading times.

So, if you’re looking for an easy way to create an events page where you can list upcoming events, you can use the lightweight WooCommerce Product Table plugin. The plugin lets you list events in an organized way on your website. You can also use it to sell tickets to your training courses or events.

The easy way to sell events on your WordPress website

WordPress is an ideal platform to showcase upcoming events, promote them to site visitors, and let prospective attendees purchase event tickets or make reservations online. Paired with WooCommerce, you can create a dedicated event page (as a WooCommerce product) for each event you organize.

However, the default WooCommerce store layout isn’t the best option for selling upcoming events. This is because it requires prospective attendees to navigate to single product pages (or event pages, in this case) in order to view details and add an event to the cart.

Instead, you need a way to display your events in an organized table layout on a single page. This way, you’ll be able to share important information about each event and make it easy for prospective attendees to learn more about them and take action.

You can even make your WordPress event list searchable, sortable, and filterable in order to make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for. What’s more is that they’ll be able to compare different events (without navigating to single event pages) and buy tickets for multiple events at once.

Create an events page (without using an events plugin)

The WooCommerce Product Table plugin allows users to create a fully functional, front-end product table to create a WordPress event list. In other words, it works as a lightweight WordPress event list plugin that lets you create event pages and showcase upcoming events in an organized way.

For this, you’ll need a WordPress website with WooCommerce installed on it. Once that’s done, you’ll simply add each event as a WooCommerce product. The reason behind adding events as WooCommerce products is so you’re able to:

• Create custom fields. You can create custom fields to share details about the event venue, date and time, theme, when tickets go on sale, etc….
• Offer variations and add-ons. You can offer different types of tickets (e.g. general admission or VIP pass) or collect information (e.g. dietary requirements) using WooCommerce product add-ons.

So, if you’re looking for an easy-to-use event list WordPress plugin that won’t slow down your site then be sure to check out the full tutorial for step-by-step instructions.

It walks you through a simple, four-step process to create an events page and add a WordPress event list to it. Optionally, you can also choose to add quick view to your event listings to share event galleries. This is an easy way to give prospective attendees a feel for what they can expect while adding visual appeal to your event listings!

Create an events page (using an events plugin)

While WooCommerce Product Table is a simple WordPress event list plugin, you can also use it with a full-blown events plugin if you’re looking for advanced functionality. This way, you could add neat features to your event site such as:

• Creating an event calendar that displays all upcoming events in a calendar view.
• Providing iCal download links that attendees can use to save upcoming events to their personal calendars such as Google Calendar.
• Making it easy to see recurring events. This is a great option for organizations that host seminars, conferences, and meetings.
• Integrating Google Maps to make it easy for attendees to find the event venue.

The key benefit of this approach is that you’re able to leverage advanced event functionality while being able to use a WordPress event list plugin to showcase upcoming events in a dynamic table layout.

The full tutorial shows you how to set this up using popular WordPress event plugins such as Events Calendar, EventOn, or Event Espresso.

Solution #2: List upcoming events with The Events Calendar plugin

If you’re already using a WordPress event calendar plugin – like The Events Calendar – then you can enhance your event site’s layout by creating a searchable events table to list upcoming events. This method works for both the free plugin or the pro version of The Events Calendar plugin.

Why the default event layouts don’t cut it

As an events manager, you’re probably using a WordPress event plugin (such as The Events Calendar, Events Calendar Pro, or EventOn) to display upcoming events. However, the default event layouts on offer with these plugins have limitations which prevent you from delivering the best possible user experience.

For example, with the Events Calendar plugin, you’re able to list events in a basic list or in an event calendar view. And with Events Calendar Pro, you also get a map view for displaying Google Maps.

While this works fine for organizations that host a handful of events, larger event organizations that have loads of events need a better way to showcase them. Ideally, they need a way to be able to display their WordPress event list in a compact format. One way to achieve the perfect balance between displaying all important event details and showcasing more events per page is by using a WordPress event list plugin to create a compact table view.

WordPress event list plugin to display events in a compact table view

If your event WordPress plugin creates a custom post type for each event you add to it (such as Events Calendar Pro) then you can use Posts Table Pro as a WordPress event list plugin. This way, you’ll be able to display events in an interactive list or table view.

Customers can view the events in a table and click through to the single event page to learn more. If you're using the Events Tickets add-ons, then they can also add the event to their cart and book a place.

Here are some of the key benefits of using a WordPress event list plugin to showcase upcoming events in a table view:

• Lets you display more events (with event details) on the same screen.
• Allows prospective attendees to sort events to quickly find the type of event they’re looking for.
• Search for events using the table’s search bar.

With Posts Table Pro, you’ll have full control over the front-end table layout. You can decide which columns to display based on the sorts of events you’re organizing. For example, you could include any combination of the following columns:

• Event image
• Event name
• Brief description (what the event is and who it’s for)
• Links to single event pages
• Event categories
• Ticket prices
• Add to cart buttons (for selling event tickets) along with options to add multiple tickets to cart

Another neat use case for using a WordPress event list plugin is that you can make it easy for prospective attendees to browse and compare events. When they find the event they’re looking for, they can simply click from the events table to the single event page created by whichever WordPress event plugin you’re using. In other words, it acts as a directory listing of events!

Listing WordPress events in a table layout

If you already have your event website setup, you can use the Posts Table Pro plugin to list all of your events in a front-end table layout.

The neat thing about this WordPress event list plugin is that it lets you add the compact events table to any page or post on your website. You can even create multiple tables, for example, one table per event category.

Additionally, you can use it to create a standalone event listing (or directory) or as a layer on top of viewing options that are already provided by the WordPress event calendar plugin you’re using.

Be sure to check out our step-by-step tutorial which explains how to list WordPress events in a table and explores various configuration options. You’ll also learn how to include options for taking bookings for events, allowing prospective attendees to purchase event tickets, and listing recurring events from Events Calendar Pro.

Solution #3: Use WooCommerce Bookings to sell bookable events

A WordPress events plugin lists each event separately on your website. If you run the same event on multiple dates, then each date will be listed individually.

This is different from a WordPress bookings plugin, which allows you to sell multiple dates for each event. Each type of event will be listed as a separate product.

The official WooCommerce Bookings extension works seamlessly with WooCommerce, allowing you to add events as bookable products. With this solution, you’ll also be able to add multiple dates for each event, and have a separate booking calendar for each type of event.

Create your bookable products and use WooCommerce Product Table to list them on your website. The booking calendar for each bookable product will appear in the add to cart column of the product table. Attendees can choose a date and add the event to the cart, directly from the main list of events.

Bonus: Selling memberships

If you’re running a membership site, you might consider selling products or event bookings to deliver value to members, diversify your offering, or leverage upselling opportunities. You can extend all the solution discussed above to allow customers to purchase memberships along with WooCommerce products and event bookings.

There are two easy ways of implementing this sort of functionality in WordPress:

• Groups (free plugin) with Groups for WooCommerce. This is an ideal option if you want to create a membership product or multiple products for different membership levels.
• WooCommerce Memberships plugin. This is similar to the Groups plugin with some subtle differences.

If you’re interested in implementing any of these solutions for taking bookings for events, be sure to check out the complete guide! It explains two ways to use WooCommerce to take bookings for both courses and events. You'll also find actionable tips on how to enhance your event site and improve user experience.

Conclusion

If your organization arranges a handful of simple events throughout the year (or even just one or two), chances are you don’t need all of the advanced functionality on offer with most of the popular event plugins out there.

Instead, you can use a WordPress event list plugin to showcase event listings in a neat and organized way. You can do this by creating a dynamic, front-end table layout. We shared three different solutions for a WordPress event list plugin along with some actionable tips on how to implement them.

Let’s quickly recap the main options available to you:

• Posts Table Pro If you’re looking to create a simple event listing, we’d recommend using the Post Table Pro plugin. You can choose to integrate it with an all-in-one event management plugin, a calendar plugin (like The Events Calendar) or use it as a standalone plugin. There is also a free Posts Data Table plugin for listing standard posts, though event custom post types call for Posts Table Pro.
• WooCommerce Product Table This is the ideal option for anyone who’s looking to showcase event listings in a simple, dynamic table layout. It also lets you to take bookings for events or courses. This works great for membership sites, training programs, and businesses that need to sell products along with event bookings.

Hopefully, you’re in a good position now to take the next steps.

Which one of these three options are you looking to implement? Do you have any questions on how to pick the right WordPress event list plugin for your specific needs? We’re happy to help so let us know in the comments section below!

When it comes to ecommerce, customers like to be able to find what they're looking for and make purchases quickly. One effective way to improve navigation and organization is to display products by category on the WooCommerce shop page.

If you're wondering "How do I show my categories on the shop page in WooCommerce"? then you've come to the right place.

The free WooCommerce plugin makes it easy to organize your product catalog by structuring it into categories and subcategories. However, the built-in methods for displaying products by category are less helpful. Luckily, there are plenty of more effective ways to show categories on the WooCommerce shop page which will make it easier for customers to find what they're looking for.

In this article, I'll show you:

• How to create and manage WooCommerce product categories.
• 2 ways to display categories on the shop page in WooCommerce - both using the built-in settings and the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.
• How to add WooCommerce category filters to the shop page with the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin.

Let's get started!

Creating and managing WooCommerce categories

Categories in WordPress group together similar content, like posts, pages, and products. This makes it easier for visitors to navigate your site by searching a particular category.

Better navigation can significantly increase sales for online stores. Studies show that customers are more likely to leave a store without buying if they can't find what they want. That's why it's crucial to display categories on your WooCommerce shop page.

You can see an example of this on Wavelength Electronics' shop page where each category's products are listed in separate tables:

Also, by adding search, sort, and filters to your product catalog, customers can easily find what they want without scrolling through long pages.

Ecommerce stores can improve their product category displays by organizing products for easier navigation, improving the shopping experience, and increasing conversions. The Product Table plugin allows stores to tailor these displays to specific customer needs, enhancing usability and sales.

Katie KeithFounder & CEO

How to create product categories in WooCommerce

It's simple to create WooCommerce product categories:

1. Go to Products → Categories in the WordPress admin.
2. Click 'Add New'.
3. Add the category name, description etc. as needed.

Adding subcategories and organizing your product hierarchy

If you have more than a few categories, then you can use WooCommerce subcategories to organize your site even further. Look more closely at the above screenshot, and you'll notice 2 ways to manage subcategories:

• Use the 'Parent category' dropdown on the 'Add new category' form to create subcategories in WooCommerce. For example, if you wanted to create a 'High heels' subcategory then you would choose 'Shoes' as the parent category.
• The category tree on the right shows the current WooCommerce category hierarchy. In the screenshot, you can see a 3-tier category structure. Top level 'Clothing' category has 'Men' and 'Women' subcategories. In addition, the 'Men' category has subcategories such as 'Tops' and 'Bottoms'.

WooCommerce supports an unlimited number of category levels. This means that you can create category structures which are as simple or as complex as you like. I recommend writing a list of your desired categories before you start creating them. Think about the best way to structure them for the most effective category management which will make things easier for customers.

Basic methods for displaying categories on your WooCommerce shop page

How to show categories with WooCommerce's default settings

Used alone without any extra plugins, WooCommerce provides a couple of ways to display categories on the shop page.

To to display products by category in WooCommerce simply find the setting by going to Appearance → Customize → WooCommerce → Product Catalog → Shop page display. Then change the dropdown selection to show categories, or categories plus products.

It's not possible to show subcategories on the shop page. However, you can set it up so that clicking on a category will display the subcategories. Do this using the Category display → Show subcategories setting in the WordPress Customizer:

The product category widget

WooCommerce also provides a basic 'Product categories' widget which links to all your categories:

Add this widget at Appearance → Widgets or in the full site editor, depending on your theme. Please note that this is not a category filter widget - you need the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin for that, which I'll tell you about in a minute. This widget is just a basic list of links to each category archive page.

Using blocks and shortcodes to display categories on any page

Want to show categories away from the shop page? You can do this using either WooCommerce blocks or shortcodes, depending on whether you're using the block editor.

This approach is especially useful for users who prefer working in the visual editor and want to see how the category layouts will look as they build the page.

There’s a choice of 2 blocks you can use to display categories on any page:

Product Categories List block

The Product Categories List Gutenberg block creates a basic list of categories. It's similar to the WooCommerce Product Categories widget shown above, but has a few extra settings. You can show or hide the product count, category images, subcategory hierarchy, and empty categories. As with the widget, this looks like a filter but it's not - it's just a list of categories with links to the category archive pages.

Product Category block

The Product Category Gutenberg block lists products by category. It's pretty flexible and you can choose which products and subcategories to display, and what product data to show for each product. However, it doesn't change the layout in a way that would improve conversions.

How to add the Product Category block:

1. Edit the page where you want to display product categories

2. Click the ‘+’ icon to add a new block

3. Search for ‘Products by Category’ and select it

4. Choose the categories you want to display from the checkbox list

5. Use the block settings panel to customize:

   • Layout options - Set the number of columns

   • Content display - Choose which product information to show (title, price, etc.)

   • Ordering of products - Control how the products are sorted

This makes it easy to visually control how your category-based product displays look - without touching any code.

WooCommerce category shortcodes

Sites not using the block editor can use shortcodes instead:

• [product_category category="clothing"] lists products from a specific category.
• [product_categories] lists your WooCommerce categories or subcategories.

These look just like the WooCommerce category blocks, but you add them via a shortcode instead. For a full list of the options available to customize the shortcodes, check out our complete guide to WooCommerce shortcodes.

How to retrieve and display product categories with code

For store owners with development knowledge or access to a developer, using custom code to retrieve and display product categories offers greater flexibility and control over the layout and functionality.

You can use the WooCommerce function get_terms() to fetch product categories and then display them anywhere on your site. Here's a simple example you can add to your theme’s functions.php file or a custom plugin:

function custom_display_product_categories() {
	$args               = array(
		'taxonomy'   => 'product_cat',
		'orderby'    => 'name',
		'order'      => 'ASC',
		'hide_empty' => false,
	);
	$product_categories = get_terms( $args );

	if ( ! empty( $product_categories ) && ! is_wp_error( $product_categories ) ) {
		echo '<ul class="custom-product-categories">';

		foreach ( $product_categories as $category ) {
			$category_link = get_term_link( $category );
			echo '<li>';
			echo '<a href="' . esc_url( $category_link ) . '">' . esc_html( $category->name ) . '</a>';
			echo '</li>';
		}
		echo '</ul>';
	}
}

To display the list of product categories on a page or template file, simply call the function:

custom_display_product_categories();

This will output a basic list of product category links. From here, you can style the output with custom CSS to match your theme’s design.

Advanced techniques for displaying WooCommerce categories

So far, I've shown you how to use WooCommerce to display categories on shop pages without any extra plugins. That will get you part of the way there, but it's pretty limited because:

Next, I'll share advanced techniques for displaying categories on the shop page more effectively. This includes:

How to show more product information in the category display

The problem with the default WooCommerce store layout is that it doesn't display much information about your products. It's just a basic grid.

This means that it doesn't even display what category each product is in. As a result, you have to restructure your store by category, for example by displaying categories first and products underneath 🙃

Instead, it makes more sense to list products as usual, while providing clear information about their category and the ability to filter by category. You can do this with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin, which displays products with category information on the shop page like this:

Customers can click the category filter dropdown to filter the shop page by category. The categories and subcategories in the dropdown are listed in a logical, hierarchical way.

Alternatively, customers can click a category in the 'Categories' column to instantly filter by that category.

As you can see from the screenshot, this way of displaying categories on the WooCommerce shop page makes much more efficient use of page. More products are visible per page, and it's easy to see which category each one belongs to. It's just as easy to find products by category.

And even more importantly, customers can select quantities and variations directly on the shop page, which isn't possible with default WooCommerce. They can then click the multi-add to cart checkboxes to quickly add to their basket.

How to display categories on the shop page with WooCommerce Product Table

First, I'll provide brief instructions on displaying categories on the main shop page. After that, I'll show you how to display products by category in order to create a separate table for each category.

1. Purchase WooCommerce Product Table and install it on your WordPress site.
2. Go to Products → Product Tables → Add New.
3. On the 'Create' page, name your table and select "Display on a shop page (e.g. main storefront, category page, etc.)".
   

   

4. You can then enable the table on the WooCommerce shop page, or other template pages such as your category archives. I recommend ticking all the boxes:
   

   

5. Choose which columns of product data to include in the list.
   

   

6. Set up the other options as required, for example by customizing the add to cart column and choosing how to sort the products.
7. Enable a category filter on the 'Search & Sort' page:
   

   

How to list products from a specific category

Above, you learned how to list products with their categories on the shop page, and on your main category pages.

Alternatively, you can use WooCommerce Product Table to create tables listing displaying by category and insert them onto any page on your site. This "WooCommerce get products by category" method retrieves all the products in a specific category and shows them in a table. Check out the Product Table plugin documentation for more specific category display options. For example, you can use this technique to create order forms structured into multiple sections like this build your own gift box website:

The instructions for this are mostly the same as above. The only differences are:

1. On the first page of the table builder at Products → Product Tables, select "Add to a page using a block or shortcode". On the next page, you can then choose which categories (or subcategories) display products from.
   

   

2. The last page will give you a WooCommerce shortcode that you can use to add the list of products displayed by category to a page. If you're not using the WordPress block editor, then copy this to the clipboard.
3. Lastly, create a new page and either add a 'Product Table' block (selecting the name of the table you created) or add the shortcode. This will display products by category on the page.

You can repeat the above steps to list products from different categories in different tables. To save time, go to the main list of tables at Products → Product Tables and duplicate an existing table. You can then edit it and change which category of products is displayed, leaving the other settings the same as required.

How to display category filters on the WooCommerce shop page

In the previous section , I showed you how to display a simple category filter dropdown above the product table. That's better than nothing, but the WooCommerce Product Filters takes this to the next level 🚀

The WooCommerce Product Filters plugin adds professional-level filters to your ecommerce store. Use it if:

• You don't want to use the product table layout shown above, but still want to add category filters to WooCommerce.
• You want more visually eye-catching category filters, such as clickable category images or checkbox filters.

For example, this store uses WooCommerce Product Table to display products, with WooCommerce Product Filters to add clickable category image filters:

Get started: Display categories on the WooCommerce shop page

I hope this article has answered the question "How do I show my categories on the shop page in WooCommerce"?

In this article, you've learned how to display WooCommerce categories on the shop page using the built-in methods. We've also looked at how you can get better results by displaying categories in more advanced ways:

• Use the WooCommerce Product Table plugin to create conversion-boosting product order forms, complete with category information.
• Use the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin to add eye-catching category filters to shop pages.

Do you have any questions about the WooCommerce product category list? Let us know in the comments below!

FAQ

How can I display WooCommerce product category names?

All of the methods discussed above will display product category names along with other data. If you just want to list category names with no other information, then you should use either the Product Categories widget or block. These are part of WooCommerce off the shelf, and display a simple hierarchical list of category names.

How can I show subcategories on the WooCommerce category page?

When you go to Appearance → Customizer → WooCommerce → Product Catalog, there's an option to show subcategories on category pages. Alternatively, you can show both WooCommerce subcategories and products. This displays subcategories as big thumbnails at the top, with individual products below.

Alternatively, use the WooCommerce Product Table plugin to list all products on the shop page with a 'Categories' column plus filter dropdown. These will both include subcategories and mean fewer clicks for the user.

How can I display a whole category of WooCommerce products?

There are 2 ways to do this, both of which I've provided instructions for above:

• Use a block or shortcode to display all the products from the selected category.
• Use WooCommerce Product Table to create a table listing products from one category only.

Creating a WooCommerce audio store doesn't have to be complicated. With the right plugins, you can have a music store up and running in under an hour - without hiring a programmer to help you out.

So if you're looking to sell audiobooks, samples of music, audio language learning materials, or even karaoke music, you're in the right place.

In this post, I will guide beginners through the step-by-step process of creating their own WooCommerce audio library. By following the instructions provided, you can easily build a user-friendly audio library for your online store, without the need for advanced technical skills.

In this post, I take you step-by-step through the process of building your very own WooCommerce audio library. The end result will be a fully operational WooCommerce audio store.

Here's the kind of final effect that we're going for:

What you need to get started building your WooCommerce audio store

Before we start, I'm going to assume that you already have the following:

• An operational WordPress site
• WooCommerce installed on that website
• Any WordPress theme (with or without a page builder such as Elementor)

There's also the third element - our WooCommerce Product Table plugin. Let me show you how to get your hands on it, install it, and use it to build your WooCommerce audio store.

But before that...

Okay, I should probably address one small thing before I discuss how to use the plugin.

That thing is, "Why do you even need a WooCommerce music store?"

The short answer is that it's going to make selling audio files more effective for you, and more convenient for user experience. We've previously published a tutorial about how to create a WordPress audio library with embedded audio players. That focuses on how to display audio and music for everyone to view in the front end, but it doesn't let you sell them. That's what I'm going to tell you about today.

A WooCommerce audio store is powered by an e-commerce plugin. As well as embedded WooCommerce audio previews, it has purchasable download files.

What will my WooCommerce music store look like?

You can use WooCommerce on its own to sell audio files. However, it displays them in a really unhelpful way. You can sell audio files online more effectively by showcasing your catalog of audio tracks in a list or table. That's why you need the WooCommerce Product Table audio plugin store too. 

Your finished WooCommerce music store might look something like this:

• With this type of WooCommerce music store, the reader/buyer can listen to a number of audio files one after the other without having to navigate to separate product pages - each for one audio file. This might be the full audio file so that people can listen without being able to download it (as they have to buy the product to actually download it!). Or it might be a short sample or snippet to convince them to buy the full version.
• The buyer can click the "add to cart" buttons directly next to the tracks that they like. This lets them purchase and download items from the music store WordPress. Again, no need to navigate anywhere else.

Keep reading to see examples of WooCommerce music stores in action, and then learn how to set it up on your own site!

Examples of music you can sell online with WooCommerce

WooCommerce Product Table lets you create a WooCommerce music store selling literally any type of music online. Here are some examples:

• Any audio file format MP3, WAV, and much more. Choose the most appropriate format for your music products, and sell them online with WooCommerce.
• Any audio or music genre You can sell original audio (audiobooks, foreign language lessons, singles, albums, podcasts, recorded lectures) or stock footage (corporate or relaxing background music, karaoke backing tracks, royalty-free music, samples, sound effects).

Before I show you how to set up your WooCommerce audio store, let's look at some case studies. You can also see our demo of an audio store in action.

Case study #1 - A WooCommerce audio store for Nico Backing Tracks

That's why Nico lists his backing tracks in a WooCommerce music store powered by our WooCommerce Product Table plugin.

Customers can sort the audio store by price, reviews, or track name. There's no clicking from one page to another to listen to tracks and add them to the cart. Everything's on one page. Once the customer knows what they want, they just have to add the track to their shopping cart before clicking view cart to choose the payment gateway.

Case study #2 - Music Drop's WooCommerce audio store

Music Drop is a music platform with a WooCommerce audio store. Set up by Louis Colaiannia, the site's mission is to be a platform where artists can sell their music to music lovers across the world.

Each artist has their own profile with tabs for information, an image gallery, and audio. The purchase tab features a product table listing all the audio tracks by that artist. Customers can sort the WooCommerce music store by price, track name, and genre. Plus, the embedded audio players mean users can listen to the tracks before they add any item to the shopping cart.

Case study #3 - Boom Bap Labs' audio sounds shop

The audio store is powered by WooCommerce Product Table, making the tracks quick and easy to find.

Each track has a sample track embedded into the table so customers can listen before they buy. To do this they installed the WordPress HTML5 Audio Player.

There are hundreds of tracks to look through, that's why customers benefit from the filter dropdowns and sort options. In a couple of seconds, the customer can filter the table by category, tag, beats per minute, and key.

Read on to find out how to create your own WooCommerce audio store.

How to create a WooCommerce audio store: step-by-step

The great thing about WooCommerce Product Table is that it can be used for all sorts of different types of WooCommerce products, not only audio files. Whether you want to sell physical CDs or digital products, this audio plugin store can do it.

To learn how to set up a WooCommerce music store, either watch the video or read the step-by-step instructions below.

1. Get the WooCommerce audio plugin and install it on your WordPress site

1. Buy WooCommerce Product Table.
2. Install and activate it on your site.
3. The interactive table builder will open, or you can access it later from Products → Product Tables.
4. Follow the step-by-step process to set up your WooCommerce audio store.

2. Configure your audio store

Pay particular attention to the following options:

Music store columns

WooCommerce Product Table comes with a long list of columns that you can add to the table. You can add and rename columns in the table builder. I recommend these columns for selling audio and music:

• Description - We're using the main description field of the product to display a live audio embed. This allows the buyer to listen to the track before buying it. Click on the pencil icon for the Description column and rename it to "Listen Now" or similar.
• Name - The name of the audio track.
• Categories - It's a good idea to categorize your audio products based on the genre. Use the product category for that, and change the column name to "Genre".
• Price - The price of each audio product.
• Buy - The "Add to Cart" button.

Of course, the above settings are just a suggestion. You are free to experiment and pick other columns when building your WooCommerce audio library.

Disable links to the product page

By default, columns like the product name will link to the individual page for each product. I like to disable these for a WooCommerce audio store because customers already have all the information they need to buy. Keeping them on the main audio store page helps to prevent distractions.

You can do this in the advanced settings for each column when you edit an existing table at Products → Product Tables:

Product filters

The table builder also lets you add filter dropdowns above the audio store. WooCommerce music store, it makes sense to enable filtering based on genre.

Add a category filter and click the pencil icon to change the name to 'Genre':

Plugin settings

To create the ultimate WooCommerce audio store, you also need to go to Products → Product Tables → Settings and enable the 'Shortcodes' option. This ensures that the embedded audio players in the table will work.

Add filter sidebar widgets to the music store

Some WooCommerce audio stores like to allow their users to filter by multiple tags, for example, to find all songs that are 'romantic' and 'classical'. The filter dropdowns above the table only let you select one option at a time (although you can have as many different dropdown lists as you like, for example, so that users can choose a genre, a composer, and so on).

If you'd like people to be able to select multiple items from the same category (e.g. multiple composers) then you can do this using filter widgets. These appear in the page sidebar. Add the options as product attributes, and users can tick as many as they like.

Add advanced filters

For even more advanced filters, you can also use WooCommerce Product Table with the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin. This has a huge range of filter options that you can tailor to your music store's exact needs.

You can add these advanced filters to your default store layout, your WooCommerce Product Table-powered audio store pages, or anywhere else where you sell products.

3. Add products to your WooCommerce audio store

WordPress and WooCommerce make this part very simple. Here's what you do:

1. Start by going to your Products panel normally, from the WordPress dashboard.
2. Click on Add New.
3. Give your audio product a representative name. Keep it brief, though.
4. Assign the product to a category. As I mentioned earlier, it's a good idea to use categories for genres.
5. Decide where you want to add the embedded audio player. Most people add it to the main product description or short description. Alternatively, you can add it to a WYSIWYG custom field. Either way, click the Add Media button above the toolbar (or insert a Gutenberg block) and upload or select an audio file from the media library. (Alternatively, insert the file from an external URL if you're web hosting your audio elsewhere.) Where it says, Embed or Link, pick Embed Media Player. Like so:

5. Mark the product as Downloadable, enter its price, and pick the file that the buyer will get access to after completing their purchase. (This will most likely be the exact same audio file you've embedded above.)

Repeat this step for each of your WooCommerce audio store's products.

Tip: If you don't like how the default WordPress audio player shortcode looks, don't worry. Keep reading to learn about other audio player plugins you can use in your WooCommerce audio library.

4. Add your WooCommerce audio store library to any page or post

So far you've configured the WooCommerce plugin and added audio tracks to the product catalog. Next, you just need to show this WooCommerce audio store module to your buyers.

This is very simple to do. Just edit any page or post, and use one of these methods to insert the audio store:

• Insert the 'Product Table' Gutenberg block and select your table.
• Add the table's shortcode. You can find this at Products → Product Tables.

When you publish the page or post, this shortcode will be converted into a live WooCommerce audio store table containing all your products with embedded audio tracks.

Depending on the options you chose on the audio table plugin settings page, your buyers can navigate the table easily, listen to any of the tracks or sort it by any column. They can also add audio tracks to the cart, and filter the entire table to only display tracks of a given genre.

Bonus tip #1 - Show audio previews in a quick view lightbox

So far, you've learned how to list your WooCommerce audio store products in a table layout with a column containing embedded WooCommerce music players. If you prefer, you can provide the audio samples in a quick view lightbox instead of directly in the product list.

You can achieve this by installing the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin. This adds 'Quick View' links or buttons to your product tables, or to the default store layout if you prefer. Customers can open the quick view for a product and listen to the WooCommerce music player from a lightbox popup.

To set it up, simply install the plugin and add the embedded audio players or playlists to the product's short description. This will appear as a music player for WooCommerce in the quick view popup.

Bonus tip #2 - Boost conversions with faster checkout mechanism

For any ecommerce store, cart abandonment is a big issue. One of the primary reasons for cart abandonment is the long and complex checkout process. For this, having a simplified and quick checkout set up on your store can greatly increase conversions and bring down the cart abandonment rate.

The WooCommerce Fast Cart plugin is specifically designed for this purpose. The plugin features an intuitive one-page checkout mechanism that lets customers complete the checkout process without leaving the page at all. They can review their orders, add their mailing details, and complete the payment on the same page.

To set it up, simply install and activate the WooCommerce Fast Cart plugin on your WordPress website. Configure plugin settings for your store, and that's it. The plugin will begin working independently and help customers easily place orders on your WooCommerce store.

Enhance your WooCommerce audio library with other audio plugins

In the instructions above, I explained how to add music players for WooCommerce audio store using the basic audio shortcode that comes with WordPress. If you don't like how this looks, then you can embed your audio files using third-party audio plugins instead.

There are lots of audio plugins available. We particularly love:

• The free or premium version of Presto Player, which adds easy-to-use yet attractive video players that look fantastic in WooCommerce Product Table:
  

  

• The free

  

  Compact WP Audio Player plugin because it's so incredibly simple. It lets you add a circular play icon that customers can click on to listen to tracks directly in the WooCommerce audio library. This takes up less space than the default WordPress audio player and looks really neat.

The plugin author has packed a lot into this small audio plugin, as it has the main controls you need. While you're playing an embedded audio track, the icon turns to a pause button so that you can stop and resume as needed.

To add a compact WooCommerce music player to any of the fields in your WooCommerce audio store, simply install the plugin. The only other step is to add the shortcode [sc_embed_player fileurl="URL OF THE MP3 FILE"] to the field where you want to display the customizable audio player for each product. This will display correctly in WooCommerce Product Table.

Create a WooCommerce audio store with free downloads

So far, we've talked about how to create an audio library with add-to-cart buttons. This is ideal if you want to sell your audio products. But what if that's not what you want?

Fortunately, you can also use this WooCommerce audio plugin to provide free downloads. There are several ways to do this:

Option 1 - Create free audio products

Create a download product and set the price to 0. Users can add the free download to the cart in the usual way, and complete the WooCommerce checkout without having to pay. WooCommerce will then send them a secure link to the free download via email.

Option 2 - Add direct download links to the audio library

Alternatively, you can add a direct link to the download to the short description, long description, or a custom field. You can style this as a button if you like, or leave it as plain link text. Call it something like 'DOWNLOAD NOW'.

People can click to download the file to their computer immediately, bypassing the cart and checkout. For instructions on how to add a link or button to the audio library table, please see the knowledge base.

Can I create a WooCommerce audio store without free audio snippets?

Absolutely. You don't have to include audio players with the full track or a short sample snippet.

Instead, you can just list the other columns without an embedded audio player. Or alternatively, add an image (watermarked if required) as the main product image and add an 'image' column to your product table. This will show the image instead of an audio player. The customer will receive an email with the actual audio file after purchasing.

Can I sell non-downloadable audio tracks?

So far, I've assumed that you want people to receive a link to download the full audio file after purchasing. If you don't want people to be able to download the audio - for example for copyright reasons - then that's fine too.

Here's a nice simple way for you to sell audio products, without making them available for download. Customers can only listen to them on a hidden page on your online store.

This is how to set it up:

1. Create a new page and use the 'Add Media' button to upload the audio file. WordPress will automatically convert this into an embedded audio player that you can listen to on the page, but which can't be downloaded.
2. Use WooCommerce Password Protect to restrict the page where you've added the audio player. This is easy to do - just click 'Edit' next to the 'Visibility' option in the 'Public' section of the Add/Edit Page screen.
3. Add the audio track as a 'Virtual' WooCommerce product.
4. Now, install Woo's official Follow Ups plugin. Use it to create an email that will be sent to customers after they purchase this specific product. The email should contain a link to the password-protected page where you have embedded the non-downloadable audio track. It should also contain the password so that they can unlock the hidden page.

Repeat this process for each audio product.

Go the extra mile and sell entire audio playlists

With the following setup, you can not only sell individual audio tracks but also entire playlists.

To do that, you first need to create some new products. The process starts normally by going to Products → Add New and naming your new audio playlist product accordingly.

Next, click on the Add Media button, but this time instead of adding an individual audio file, click on Create Audio Playlist and pick the tracks that should go into the playlist. When you're done, click on Insert audio playlist.

Lastly, mark the product as Downloadable, and assign all the files that the buyer should be able to download once they complete the purchase.

This is what the playlist looks like for the buyer:

Your turn!

Now you know how to create a fully functional WooCommerce audio store with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin! The best thing is that the whole process can be carried out in less than an hour (reading this tutorial included). If you have lots of products then you might need longer to add them all, but an hour should be realistic to set up the basic WooCommerce audio store.

Get this WooCommerce audio plugin today and begin your adventure with it:

If you’re running an online business selling courses or information products, you’ll want to build some private areas where only your customers or subscribers can access premium content and digital product files. Password and membership protection prove useful in these cases.

However, there is a serious loophole in these protection methods that often result in your digital product files being leaked out.

In this article, we’re going to show you two easy ways to protect both your WordPress content and digital products without any technical knowledge.

Why you should protect WordPress media files

Did you know that even though your website content is protected with a password or membership plugin, the media attachments embedded in those pages are still accessible to anyone who has direct links to those files?

That's because password and membership plugins don’t protect your file uploads - they're designed to protect content instead, such as pages, posts or products. As a consequence, if someone shares these file URLs on other forums and social platforms, others will be able to access them without having to purchase membership or log into your website.

Even worse, Google and other search engines could potentially index these private documents, videos, and images. So people can just find and access them directly through some simple search with the right keywords.

If you're selling courses or digital products then this puts you at risk of losing all your efforts, digital product files, and a lot of money...

2 ways to protect WordPress media attachments

We've discovered two plugins that make it easy to protect your WordPress media files. You can use either of them with plugins such as Password Protected Categories and WooCommerce Protected Categories which let you restrict access to your WordPress pages, posts and custom post types to specific users or roles. They add an extra layer of security by restricting access to the media files which are linked to from your protected pages/posts/products/etc.

The two plugins are:

• Download Monitor (DLM) - This plugin adds an additional layer of protection for your digital files. Either upload new files to WordPress and protect them one-by-one, or choose which existing files to protect.
• Prevent Direct Access (PDA) Gold - Similarly, this plugin provides many different ways to protect your WordPress media files. You can protect new file uploads automatically or on the fly under the WordPress media library. Alternatively, you can protect some specific files when editing a page or post. Instead of protecting each file individually, you can select and protect multiple files simultaneously using WordPress bulk actions under Media list view.

Plugin 1: Download Monitor

Download Monitor (DLM) makes it easy to protect your WordPress media library files. To illustrate how it works, let's imagine that you've used the following plugins to create a private WordPress document library:

• Document Library Pro for adding documents and displaying them in a searchable document library.
• Password Protected Categories for restricting access to each document category to specific users or roles.

That's a great solution, but doesn't actually protect the underlying WordPress media files - i.e. the documents that are linked to from the library. It's unlikely that unauthorised people will find them because they're only linked to from the private document library pages. However, if one user publicly shares the link to a document then they could potentially share it more widely.

If you're concerned about this then the solution is to add the Download Monitor plugin to the mix.

Securing digital files

With Download Monitor installed, let's look at how to secure our digital files. While we're using Document Library Pro and Password Protected Categories as an example, you can also use it alongside other membership plugins which restrict access to WordPress content.

For example, we've added a document using Document Manager Pro. From the 'Edit Document' screen in the WordPress admin, we've chosen to add a file upload as below:

Adding a file for download, and you'll see the media library modal with a new addition:

Clicking on the Protect button protects the file. Then we can publish our new document. Our digital file is now protected, thanks to DLM.

More features of DLM

Download Monitor (DLM) also offers hotlink protection. For example, if you have a member who wants to make a name for themselves by sharing a link to your digital files, then hotlink protection will check the referrer. The plugin will redirect the user to your homepage unless the download request has come from your site.

Hotlink protection is available in the free version of Download Monitor and is an invaluable deterrent for those looking to benefit by stealing and sharing your work.

An additional bonus of DLM is the reporting feature. You can enable/disable reports in the back end of your website; see below for an example report:

The reporting feature gives you an overview of downloads, filterable by date. Another helpful feature is user reporting:

DLM offers an extension that gives even more insight into reports called Enhanced Metrics. This extension provides even more information, such as failed/completed downloads, active users and downloads, and more.

As you can see, it builds on plugins like Document Library Pro and Password Protected Categories to give you extra protection. As an added bonus, you get built-in reporting on who is accessing your downloadable files.

Plugin 2: Prevent Direct Access

Prevent Direct Access (PDA) Gold is an alternative plugin for restricting access to your WordPress Media Library files. Like Download Monitor, it works with WordPress protection plugins like Password Protected Categories and WooCommerce Protected Categories. Simply use it to restrict access to your media files using the same type of protection that you're using for your pages, posts, and other content.

File Access Permission

While most of the options are self-explanatory, you may wonder when to use the "Anyone" and "No one" options:

• Anyone option allows everyone to access your private files while stopping Google or other search engines from indexing them. This comes in useful when you want those files to be directly accessed through your website links and not through search results.
• No one option literally stops everyone from accessing your protected files directly through their file URLs. In return, PDA Gold plugin gives you the power to create as many private download links as needed. This helps you share your protected files with some specific groups of users. And at the same time, you can track and restrict its usage by time or click.

How to protect both WordPress content and file attachments

The most bulletproof way to secure your WordPress content is to protect both your content and media attachments altogether.

Password Protected Categories - and it's e-commerce version WooCommerce Protected Categories - is one of the best WordPress password protection plugins. Both plugins allow you to protect an entire category including its sub-categories and all posts/products under that category, with a single password. You can also restrict entire categories so that only specific logged-in users or roles can access them.

Now, let’s learn how to integrate Prevent Direct Access Gold with Password Protected Categories and WooCommerce Protected Categories. It's the perfect combination to protect both WordPress categories and media file attachments on these posts/products.

Using Prevent Direct Access with Protected Categories

Follow these simple steps to protect any type of WordPress category. This could be a post category, page category, WooCommerce product category, or a category/custom taxonomy for any other custom post type.

You can protect as many categories as you’d like to while leaving the rest accessible to the public:

1. 

   Go to the 'Add/Edit Category' page.
2. Add a new category or edit an existing one.
3. Under the ‘Visibility’ section above the ‘Add New Category’ button, select ‘Protected’.
4. Set a password and/or select user roles or specific users who can access the post/product.
5. In the WordPress Media Library List view, protect your attachment file and then click on ‘Configure File Protection’.
6. Select the ‘File Access Permission’ tab and choose the same user roles as per step 4.

Where to get the plugins

Password Protected Categories and WooCommerce Protected Categories are the top WordPress security plugins. They work seamlessly with both Download Monitor and Prevent Direct Access Gold. It's the perfect way to protect both your content and WordPress private files to specific user roles.

Now, you can not only protect your private attachment files against Google and unwanted users. Simply by logging into their user account, your visitors can unlock both your attachments and protected media library files, as well as content.

Do you have any questions on how to password protect your website content and attachment files in WordPress? Please let us know in the comments section below.

Improving your online store’s interface and user flow is one of the easiest ways to increase conversions. Think of it this way: when a customer lands on your site, you want them to be able to find the products they’re looking for as quickly as possible. Right?

With a WooCommerce product lightbox plugin, you can make it easier for visitors to learn more about your products, select available options, and add them to their shopping cart. You can do just that – and much more – with the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin! It’s the easiest way to let customers open product images, galleries, details, and purchasing options in a WooCommerce image lightbox view.

In this article, I’ll show you exactly how to use a WooCommerce product lightbox plugin to implement quick view functionality in your WooCommerce store. I’ll also explain how you can take things a step further and display products in a table layout. By the time you’re done reading this article, you’ll have a clear idea of how to let shoppers open products in a WooCommerce image lightbox quick view box.

Let’s get started!

Why you need a WooCommerce product lightbox plugin

If you have a WooCommerce store then normally, the only way to learn more about each product is to visit an individual page for that product. Having a WooCommerce product lightbox plugin installed on your online store gives you the option to:

• Let customers open WooCommerce product image popups (including galleries) and product details in a lightbox.
• Allow customers to select available product options and add products to their cart.

The quick view WooCommerce image lightbox settings can be configured to display information like:

• The product image.
• Full product gallery (if available).
• Short product description.
• Product variations and attributes.
• Quantity picker.
• Add to Cart buttons.
• Additional product information including price, reviews, categories, tags, and SKU.

Now that we have a clear understanding of why you might want to use a WooCommerce product lightbox plugin on your online store, let’s take a look at how the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin lets you do just that.

Introducing the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin

WooCommerce Quick View Pro is a product lightbox plugin that makes it easy to add quick view functionality to any Woo-powered store.

You can use it to add Quick View buttons directly to your main shop page or category pages. The plugin also integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce Product Table for products that are best presented in a table layout – more on this later.

With the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin, you’re able to:

• Let customers open products in a lightboxWhen a customer clicks on the product or Quick View button, it will launch a quick view lightbox containing the WooCommerce product image popup. Customers can then hover over the image for a smooth zoom effect.
• Show the entire product gallery in the lightboxYou can also choose to display the entire product gallery in the lightbox. Customers can slide between different images in the gallery and view them with an image zoom effect.
• Display product details and purchase options in a lightbox The plugin also gives online store owners the option to display product details (such as product description, price, and reviews) in the quick view lightbox along with purchase options (such as quantity picker and Add to Cart button).

WC Quick View Pro acts as a WordPress lightbox plugin allowing customers to open products in a lightbox.

For more ideas on how to use a WooCommerce product lightbox plugin on your own online store, be sure to check out some example use cases!

How to create a WooCommerce product lightbox using WooCommerce Quick View Pro

In this section, I’ll show you how you can use the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin to let customers:

• Open images (including the full photo gallery) in a product lightbox.
• View product details and purchasing options in a lightbox.

For the purpose of this step-by-step tutorial, I’ll assume you already have a Woo-powered ecommerce stores with some products added to it.

Step #1: Install and activate WooCommerce Quick View Pro

The first thing you need to do is get the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin and install and activate it on your WP website. Once that’s done, you need to activate the plugin license key through WooCommerce lightbox settings. Here’s how:

Head over to WooCommerce -> Settings -> Products -> Quick view from the admin panel and find the License key option.

Enter your license key (that you received in the email upon purchase) and click the Save changes button to proceed.

By default, the plugin adds Quick View buttons to the main shop page and category pages on your online store. Here’s an example of what it looks like:

You’ll notice that the WooCommerce lightbox plugin displays the product’s description, image gallery, price, reviews, and metadata in the lightbox view.

Next, I’ll show you how to customize what is displayed in the WooCommerce product lightbox.

Step #2: Choose how customers open the WooCommerce product lightbox

Navigate to WooCommerce -> Settings -> Products -> Quick view from the WP dashboard and scroll down till you reach the Options section.

You can choose to lets customers open the WooCommerce product lightbox by:

• Using the Quick View button that’s positioned directly under each product.
• Clicking on the product’s name or WooCommerce product image popup.

If you decide to go with the first option (i.e. using the Quick View button), you can also change the button text and turn the button icon on or off.

Pro tip: By default, clicking on the product’s name or image will direct customers to the single product page. If you’d like to disable this option, make sure the Open from product name/image checkbox is ticked.

Step #3: Display the product image (and full product gallery) in the product lightbox

The WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin lets you choose what information you’d like to display in the product lightbox. First, I’ll show you how the controls for displaying the product image (along with the full WooCommerce product gallery lightbox) in the WooCommerce product lightbox.

Start off by using the Quick View contents option to decide whether you want the image only, product details only, or both image and product details to appear in the product lightbox.

If you decide to go with Image only, your WooCommerce product lightbox might look something like this:

However, if you’d like to display both images (with full WooCommerce product gallery ligthbox) and product details, make sure to select the Image and product details option from the dropdown menu.

Step #4: Choose which product details to display in the WooCommerce product lightbox

If you decided to go with the Image and product details option in Step #3, you can use the Product details option to select which product details appear in the quick view lightbox. The available options you can pick from include:

• Reviews
• Price
• Short description
• Add to Cart button
• Meta information (such as categories and SKUs)

For example, if you wanted to display only the reviews and prices for your products, your WooCommerce product lightbox might look something like this:

And if you wanted to allow customers to be able to add products to their cart directly from the quick view lightbox, you would select the Show add to cart button option. It would look something like this:

Use WooCommerce Quick View Pro with product tables

The WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce Product Table. This makes it possible for you to list products in an interactive table layout complete with Quick View buttons.

Get WooCommerce Product Table

Whenever a customer browses through your product listings, they’ll be able to open up the product image (and full WooCommerce product gallery lightbox) in a WooCommerce product lightbox directly from the table.

Depending on your configuration WooCommerce lightbox settings, customers can open the product lightbox by clicking on the Quick View buttons or by clicking on the product name (or image).

When both plugins are installed and activated, you’ll see a Quick View Pro option added to the WooCommerce Product Table settings screen. By ticking the Product links checkbox, all of the product links that appear in your table layout will open the product lightbox instead of directing customers to single product pages.

What this means is that customers can:

• Click on the product name (or image) or Quick View buttons to open the product lightbox.
• View product details – such as reviews, price, and metadata – in the lightbox without having to navigate to the single product page.
• Add products to their cart directly from the product lightbox.

The WooCommerce lightbox plugin replaces links to the single product page with product lightboxes. As a result, customers can get information directly from the table. This is much better than having to navigate to a single product page.

Where to get the plugin

Adding WooCommerce product lightbox views to your online store is a great way to let customers:

• view product images and galleries,
• product details, and
• purchase options

... without requiring them to visit the single product page.

With WooCommerce Quick View Pro, you’re able to add this functionality to your main shop page and category pages simply by installing the WooCommerce lightbox plugin. And if you’ve created product lists using WooCommerce Product Table, you can add flexible product quick view boxes to the table in just a few minutes.

Do you have any questions about how to use a WooCommerce product lightbox plugin with your online store? We’re happy to help so let us know in the comments below!

WooCommerce product variations can be a pain to set up. However, you can make your life much easier by installing the best WooCommerce product variations plugins. Below are the ones I'd recommend, what each one does well, and where it fits.

As an online store owner, you might want to offer multiple variations of the same product. For example, you might want to sell a notebook in different colors, a cake with toppings of your choosing, a table in different types of wood etc.

In this article, we’re going to learn how to set up product variations, understand the limitations of WooCommerce, and explore a viable way to:

We will also explore the best WooCommerce product variations plugins and understand what each one has to offer.

But first, I'll show you how to set up product variations in the first place.

Quick answer: best WooCommerce product variations plugins

• Best for bulk editingWooCommerce Bulk Variations handles fast variation edits and a bulk-order display for variable products.
• Best for replacing variations entirelyWooCommerce Product Options swaps the variation system for flexible add-on fields with conditional logic.
• Best for shop-page displayWooCommerce Product Table shows variable products as a searchable, sortable table.
• Best free optionWPC Variations Radio Buttons for WooCommerce is a free WP.org plugin that replaces the variation dropdown with radio buttons.

How to set up product variations in WooCommerce

You probably already know that WooCommerce is one of the best (and easiest) ways to create an e-commerce site using WordPress. It lets you add all of your products to your store and creates an individual product page for each of them.

For each product you add to your online store, WooCommerce gives you the option to add product variations. WooCommerce products have variations whenever they come in multiple options. For example, this may include, sizes, colors, patterns, flavors, toppings, or materials – depending on the types of products you’re selling.

In order to set this up, we’ll be using attributes and variations. Let's first understand the difference between them. 

Product attributes vs variations

• Product attributes are essentially details about the product like weight, size, color etc. They give the customer a better understanding of the product before purchase.
• Product variations on the other hand are actual choices that you’re offering the customer between variations of the same product. 

Let’s understand with an example:

Here, the product variations are the color and size that a customer can choose. The product attributes are details like the category, description, SKU etc. 

With that in mind, let’s look at how to set up product variations in WooCommerce using the example of a stationery store.

Step 1: Create your product attributes

1. The easiest way to create product attributes is by navigating to Products → Attributes and adding an attribute. Let’s say you’re selling a notebook in multiple colors and with ruled/unruled options. You could set up attributes with the name “Color” and “Line” and then click “Add Attribute”.
2. Next you’ll need to click on “Configure Terms” to add details about the variations. You could add terms like “yellow”, “green” and “black” for the Color attribute and terms like “ruled” and “unruled” for the Line attribute.
3. You can set up as many attributes as you’d like in the same way.

Step 2: Assign attributes to your products

Once your attributes are created, you need to allot them to their respective products. Open your Product and navigate to “Product Data”. Click on the drop down menu next to it (it is set to “simple product” by default). Here you need to choose “Variable product”.

Now click on “Attributes” from the right side menu and add your attributes one by one.

You can see the terms that you added in the previous step listed under “Values”. Make sure to select both “Visible on the product page” and “Used for variations”.

Step 3: Create your variations

1. Now click on “Variation” from the left side menu. Select “Add Variation” from the dropdown menu and click on “Go”.
2. Now all you have to do is choose your attributes and configure settings like price, size, weight, SKU etc - as per your preference.
3. Hit “Save Changes” once you’re done. You can then create as many variations as you’d like.

2 problems with product variations

Problem #1: Difficult to edit multiple variations at once

If you follow the instructions above, you'll see that the process is fine for adding one variation.

But what if you want to add lots of variations to a product? That's when it starts to get really time-consuming.

Problem #2: Limit ways to display variations to customers

Although WooCommerce lets customers view and select product variations on the single product page, that's the only place you can display them. And the only option is to display them as variation dropdown lists (e.g. one dropdown for Size and one for Color). This isn’t the best possible solution for most store owners.

Here are a few reasons why:

The good news is that you can easily address these problems by adding a WooCommerce product variations display plugin. Keep reading for our selection of the best.

The best WooCommerce plugins to display product variations

As we saw earlier, the other problem with WooCommerce product variations is the limited way in which they are displayed.

Unfortunately, WooCommerce's default single product page isn't always the best option for displaying product variations. Let's explore the best WooCommerce product variations plugins to present product variations to customers.

Manage variations more easily and display them in a bulk variation order form

To speed up the process of creating multiple variations, simply install the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin. This handy plugin adds some extra features which allow you to filter the list of variations and apply bulk actions to them:

1. Install WooCommerce Bulk Variations.
2. Open the 'Variations' tab on the 'Edit Product' screen.
3. You will see a new 'Filters' bar above the list of variations. Use this to select all the variations that you want to edit at once.
4. Next, use the bulk actions dropdown above the filter bar (which normally says 'Add variation') to select a bulk action. For example, you can bulk-edit variation prices or set the same image for all the selected variations.

In this screenshot, we have used WooCommerce Bulk Variations to select all variations with a 'Blue' attribute. We have then quickly changed the variation price for all the blue items only.

This is much faster than setting prices and other data for each variation individually. You can do the same with other types of variation data, such as adding variation images in bulk.

Why WooCommerce Bulk Variations is perfect for displaying product variations

The WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin is great for displaying product variations for clothing and apparel, wholesale products, and products that are typically sold in large volumes. It’s also the perfect choice for products that don’t require images but may have several variations such as sweets and candies.

Using the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin, you can replace the single product page with either a bulk ordering grid or a simple price matrix. This is a great way to boost product variation visibility in your online store and make it easier for customers to buy more from you.

Instead of using dropdowns to select the correct product variation and adding items to their cart one at a time, customers can simply choose how much of each product variation they’d like to purchase, set the quantity, and add them to their cart in one go.

The key benefit here is that customers don’t have to spend time adding variations to their shopping cart one at a time. This is the most intuitive way to sell variable products in WooCommerce.

Bonus: WooCommerce Bulk Variations is the only plugin in the market that enables you to display bulk variations with 3+ attributes in the grid, instead of just 2!

Pros and cons of WooCommerce Bulk Variations

The biggest win is speed. It cuts the time spent creating and editing variations on products with lots of size/color combinations. The bulk order form also lets customers add several variations to cart at once, and it's the only plugin we know of that supports 3+ attributes in a bulk grid.

The trade-offs: it's paid only, with no free tier. It also focuses on one variable product at a time - for editing variations across many products, see Setary below. And for shop-page display you'll still want WooCommerce Product Table.

Replace the variation dropdown with checkboxes, color/image swatches, and more

If you're looking for a complete alternative to WooCommerce product variations, then it's worth considering a totally different way to set them up. The WooCommerce Product Options plugin offers an interesting alternative.

Instead of using variable products, you add the choices as product options. These are managed using a completely different interface, which is much faster to use than variations. That's because you don't to enter prices, images etc. for every possible combination of options (as you do with variations). Instead, you add each option individually and the plugin calculates the pricing etc.

To help you to visualize this, here's a screenshot of adding product options in the WordPress admin:

You can add a wide range of option styles, different price calculation options, and even use conditional logic to show and hide options depending on the user's selections. That's a real bonus because WooCommerce doesn't offer conditional logic for variations.

And in the front end, you can choose many more ways to display options than you get with variants. As well as dropdowns, you can display options as checkboxes, clickable images, text fields, file uploads, and more.

Pros and cons of WooCommerce Product Options

The strength is flexibility. You get checkboxes, swatches, text fields, file uploads and conditional logic in one interface - conditional logic alone is something native WooCommerce variations don't offer.

The trade-offs: this is a different approach to variations, so existing variable products don't migrate automatically. Pricing also calculates differently - each option adds to the base price, rather than each combination having its own price - which suits some stores and not others.

List variations in a product table on your main shop pages

WooCommerce Product Table lets you list variable products in a searchable, sortable, and filterable table layout.

Customers are able to view and select the exact product and variations they’re looking for using its extensive filtering options. In this way, it can be used as a WooCommerce product variations plugin.

The WooCommerce Product Table plugin enables you to:

1. List variable products on your main shop page, category pages or any other page in your online store.
   
2. List variable products in two different formats in your table layout. You can choose to display them as either:
   • Dropdowns in the Add to Cart column (perfect for businesses that sell clothes, shoes, or food)

• • Separate rows in the product table layout (perfect for businesses selling spare parts or large products like furniture or mattresses)

Creating product tables with proper variable products enables customers to view and select variations from any of the pages you choose to display the variation on instead of having to navigate to the individual product pages. This significantly improves the user experience your site delivers.

WooCommerce Product Table is an ideal solution for creating product catalogs, restaurant menus, order forms, and wholesale stores.

Pros and cons of WooCommerce Product Table

Best for stores where a table layout makes sense - parts catalogs, wholesale order forms, restaurant menus, B2B stores with hundreds of SKUs. Customers can compare and add multiple variations to cart without clicking through individual product pages.

The trade-off: it replaces the standard shop-page grid with a table layout, so it's not a fit for visual or fashion-style stores that need large product images as the main draw.

Save time by bulk editing product variations

The Setary bulk editing app can save you a huge amount of time if you have large numbers of variations to update. Normally in WooCommerce, you have to edit each product separately in order to add or edit variations. The WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin which I mentioned above adds better bulk editing to the 'Edit Product' screen, but you can still only edit variations for one product at a time. Setary takes this a step further.

It works by displaying all your products and variations in a spreadsheet. You can quickly filter the variations and update them, either inline or using a bulk edit form.

Let customers select variations from a quick view lightbox

WooCommerce Quick View Pro is a different type of WooCommerce variations plugin. It lets you present product variations in a lightbox view. In addition to the variations, you can also display product images and galleries, details, and purchasing options.

Customers are able to open the lightbox either by clicking on the product's name (or image) or by using the Quick View button. If you choose to enable the option to launch the lightbox by clicking on the product name or image, links to the single product page will automatically be disabled.

The WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin is ideal for variable products that are best presented with images and galleries e.g. fashion items, food, and tech products. It's also perfect for products that don't require images, but have multiple variations.

Either way, the plugin lets you replace the single product page with a lightbox. What this means is that you can display the information customers need to make a buying decision and choose variations directly in the quick view lightbox. So, instead of clicking through to the single product page, customers can select product variations and make a purchase directly from the main shop page or category pages. There's no need to visit a separate page for each product.

What information can I display about my variations?

With the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin, you can display the following information in the lightbox:

• Product name
• Product image (and full gallery)
• Reviews
• Price
• Quantity selector
• Product variation dropdowns
• Add to cart button (including variation dropdowns and quantity picker)
• Product details (such as SKUs and categories)

Pros and cons of WooCommerce Quick View Pro

Lets customers browse and add variable products to cart from the shop or category page via a lightbox, without leaving the page. Good for shops where customers compare products quickly.

The trade-off: it only solves the discovery side - you'll still need Bulk Variations or Product Options for management or setup of variations themselves. Best paired with one of those rather than used alone.

Change the variation price format

Another limitation of WooCommerce product variations is that if your variations have different prices, then they are always displayed as a range. For example: "$50 - $100."

That's pretty basic and doesn't give you any flexibility. The solution is to install the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin. This gives you total control over how to display and format variable product prices in your store. For example, you might set the price to display as "From $50" or list all the individual variation prices.

Alternative WooCommerce product variation plugins

Now you know how to add product variations in WooCommerce. You've learned how to choose the best WooCommerce variation product plugins to manage and display your variable products. You also know how to add variations in the WordPress admin, with bulk actions to save you time.

Of course, there are other ways to customize WooCommerce product variations too. Here's a selection of some other options that are worth looking at.

Other plugins to consider

1. Variation Swatches for WooCommerce: This plugin is dedicated to making attributes and variations easy to use and customize. It can be used to display products with multiple variations using neat, professional color swatches, instead of the regular dropdown box. This significantly improves the UI experience for your customers and reduces the amount of effort needed to place an order.
2. Smart Variations & Attributes Display for WooCommerce is a solid option if you want product variations to be easier to browse. It shows variations as individual products on shop and category pages, rather than hiding them in dropdowns. Shoppers can switch back to dropdowns if needed, while features like quick view, dynamic images, and AJAX add-to-cart simplify selection.

   

3. YITH WooCommerce Color And Label Variations: Display icons, labels and images instead of the default variation dropdowns. Strengths: color/image swatches with tooltip previews, free version on WordPress.org, premium adds entrance animation and per-attribute image galleries. Trade-offs: focused on display only - it doesn't help with bulk editing or shop-page listing.
4. WPC Variations Radio Buttons for WooCommerce: Replaces the variation dropdown with radio buttons so all options are visible at once. Strengths: free on WordPress.org, lightweight, simple to set up, makes ordering easier for customers who want to see all options without clicking the dropdown. Trade-offs: no bulk order form, no product table integration and no image swatches in the free version - it's a display upgrade rather than a full variations workflow.
5. Product Variations Swatches for WooCommerce: Using this plugin, you can display product attributes in different types of swatches - Colors, Buttons, Images, Variation Images or Radio. You can even customize the details of the swatch design like the name, height, width, font size, padding, mobile mode size color, box-shadow effect, hover style etc.
6. Variation Images Gallery for WooCommerce: This plugin allows users to showcase unlimited additionalimages as galleries for each product variation. It is particularly useful for stores which are selling apparel or food. It allows your site visitors to zoom into images and enables them to visualize your variation product easily. 

Frequently asked questions about WooCommerce product variations

How do I add product variations in WooCommerce?

Set the product type to 'Variable product' on the Edit Product screen, add the attributes you want under the Attributes tab and tick 'Used for variations', then generate variations from the Variations tab. The full step-by-step is in our complete guide to WooCommerce product variations.

Can I set different prices for different variations in WooCommerce?

Yes. Each variation has its own price field on the Variations tab, so a 'Small' can cost less than a 'Large'. For displaying that range cleanly on the front end (for example as 'From $50' rather than '$50 - $100'), see the WooCommerce Variation Prices plugin above.

How do I add more than 50 variations in WooCommerce?

The native 'Add variation' dropdown adds variations in batches, so you keep clicking Go until you have all the combinations. For stores with lots of variations, that gets painful fast - WooCommerce Bulk Variations or a dedicated bulk-management plugin is the practical fix.

What is the best way to manage WooCommerce product variations?

For most stores, the best approach is a combination: WooCommerce Bulk Variations for fast editing within each product, plus WooCommerce Product Table if you want variations visible on the shop or category page. Stores with hundreds of variable products often add Setary on top for cross-product bulk edits.

The best WooCommerce product variation plugins

In conclusion, it's a shame that WooCommerce on its own doesn't do a better job of managing and displaying variations. Fortunately, there are lots of fantastic WooCommerce variation plugins which can solve this. Use the one that fixes your specific pain-points with variations:

• Bulk Variations - For adding and editing variations more easily.
• Product Options - Display variations in a wide range of flexible styles such as checkboxes, color swatches and clickable images.
• Setary - For bulk editing variations across multiple products from a time-saving spreadsheet.
• Product Table and Quick View - For displaying variations away from the single product page.
• Variation Prices - To customize the way that variation prices are displayed.

What else would you like to be able to do with your variable products? Let us know in the comments below.

Looking for a way to create a WordPress order form?

To create an order form in WordPress, you'll need an ecommerce plugin to manage products and process payments, plus a separate plugin to help you create a frontend order form for your visitors to interact with.

In this post, you'll learn how you can use your choice of three different ecommerce plugins to create a WordPress order form that looks something like the example below:

The four ecommerce plugins that we'll cover are:

1. WooCommerce
2. Easy Digital Downloads
3. WP ecommerce
4. BigCommerce

You can pick your preferred plugin from the list, and you'll also have tons of options to customize how your WordPress order form looks and functions. I'll also tell you how to create a WordPress order form with any other ecommerce plugin. If you want to set up manual or phone orders you can read this article.

What you need to create a WordPress order form (in more detail)

Before we get to the full WordPress order form tutorial, let's go more in-depth into what you'll need to follow along.

If you want to create a WordPress order form, you naturally need a way to accept and process payments.

However, WordPress doesn't include this functionality by default.

To add payment functionality to WordPress, you can use one of the many free ecommerce WordPress plugins. Yes - you can use these plugins even if you aren't planning to create a "traditional" ecommerce store.

However, these ecommerce plugins are still focused on creating that traditional ecommerce look (where you have a catalog and individual product pages).

So to create the front-end of your one-page WordPress order form, you'll use either the WooCommerce Product Table plugin (if you're using the WooCommerce ecommerce plugin) or the Posts Table Pro plugin (if you're using another ecommerce plugin).

Both of these plugins are well-suited to creating user-friendly, customizable order forms:

In a nutshell, here's what will power your WP order form:

• Your chosen ecommerce plugin will handle processing payments and managing whatever "products" you're selling via your order form.
• WooCommerce Product Table or Posts Table Pro will help you take those "products" and display them in a customizable order form for shoppers to use.

Ready to get started with the more hands-on tutorial section? Here are all the ecommerce plugins that we'll cover in this post:

• WooCommerce
• Easy Digital Downloads
• WP ecommerce
• BigCommerce
• All other WordPress ecommerce plugins

What we'll assume for this tutorial

For this tutorial, we're going to assume that you've already created a store with your chosen ecommerce plugin.

That is, if you want to create a WordPress order form with WooCommerce, you've already installed WooCommerce and added some products.

Similarly, if you want to use Easy Digital Downloads, you've already installed it and added some products.

If you haven't gotten that far yet, we've collected some getting started guides for the ecommerce plugins that we're covering in this post:

• WooCommerce setup guide
• Easy Digital Downloads setup guide
• WP ecommerce setup guide

How to create a WordPress order form with WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the most popular WordPress ecommerce plugin by far. As such, it makes for a great option to power your order form.

If you're interested in a more in-depth look at this application, we have an entire post on how to create a WooCommerce order form, as well as a printable order form.

To create a WordPress order form with WooCommerce, you'll need the dedicated WooCommerce Product Table plugin.

Once you've installed and activated the plugin, go to Products → Product Tables → Add New to create your first WordPress order form.

In the Columns section, you can choose what product details to include in your order form.

Further down, you can use the Add to cart column settings to control how the add to cart functionality works. For example, if you want to create a bulk order form, you might want to use checkboxes for each product rather than having a separate add to cart button for each product:

Feel free to configure any of the plugin's other settings as well. For example, you can add product filters if you have a lengthy order form.

When you're finished configuring the table, you can use the Product Table block to add your WordPress order form anywhere on your site. If you're not using the block editor then get the shortcode from the last page of the table builder and add that instead.

Here's an example of what the WordPress order form of WooCommerce products looks like:

If you just want to display specific products in the order form, then you can use the instructions on this page. For example, this is a good way to create a separate order form for each product category.

If you're selling a choice of options for each product then you can add them as variable products. The product variations will then appear as dropdowns in the add to cart column of the WordPress WooCommerce order form.

How to create an Easy Digital Downloads order form

To create an Easy Digital Downloads order form, you'll use the Posts Table Pro plugin.

Once you've installed and activated the plugin, go to Post Tables → Settings to configure the plugin's settings.

First, select download from the Post Type drop-down to have Posts Table Pro display your Easy Digital Downloads products:

Then, you can use the Columns options to control what product information to display. Learn more about columns.

Here are the values that you'll need to insert common Easy Digital Downloads product information:

• title - the product title.
• image - the product image
• content or excerpt - display the product's long or short description
• cf:edd_price - the product's price
• tax:download_category - product's categories
• tax:download_tag - the product's tags

To add a "Buy Now" button, you can use the free Advanced Custom Fields plugin to add a new field to the Download post type. Then, you'll need to add the download's Purchase Shortcode to the custom field.

You can then add that custom field as its own column in the order form and have Posts Table Pro process the shortcode to display the buy now button.

If you need more detailed instructions, check out our full Easy Digital Downloads order form tutorial. This includes extra information, such as how to add product filters and how to display specific products only.

Once you've finished configuring the Posts Table Pro settings, you can display your Easy Digital Downloads order form by using the [posts_table] shortcode.

Tip: Don't ignore EU VAT rules!

If you're using the order form to sell any type of digital products to people in Europe, then you have to charge EU VAT - even if you're not in the EU yourself. It's the law!

You can meet EU tax rules with the Easy Digital Downloads EU VAT plugin, which makes it as easy as possible for you:

Get EDD EU VAT

How to create a WP ecommerce order form

To create a WP ecommerce order form, you'll also use the Posts Table Pro plugin.

Once you've installed and activated it, head to Post Tables → Settings to configure the plugin's settings.

First, use the Post Type drop-down to select wpsc-product. This tells Posts Table Pro to display your WP ecommerce products:

Then, you can use the Columns options to configure what product information to display. Learn more about columns.

Here are some common values to help you insert WP ecommerce product information:

• title - the product title
• image - the product image
• content or excerpt - display the product's long or short description
• cf:_wpsc_price - product price
• tax:wpsc_product_category - the product's categories
• tax:product_tag - product tags

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to add a Buy Now button for WP ecommerce products. Instead, shoppers will be able to click on the product name to go to the individual product page.

Once you've finished configuring the Posts Table Pro settings, you can display your WP ecommerce order form by using the [posts_table] shortcode.

Refining your WP ecommerce order form

By default, the WordPress order form will list all your WP ecommerce products. If you'd rather list products from a specific category only, then you can easily do this by adding term="wpsc_product_category:categoryslug" to the shortcode. (Just replace 'categoryslug' with the actual slug of your WP ecommerce category.) For example:

[posts_table term="wpsc_product_category:categoryslug"]

You can also add category or tag filter dropdowns above the order form. To do this, simply add the following to the 'Filters' option on the Posts Table Pro plugin settings page:

tax:wpsc_product_category,tax:product_tag

How to create a WordPress BigCommerce order form

Unlike the other ecommerce platforms covered in this tutorial, BigCommerce isn't a WordPress plugin. Instead, it's a hosted ecommerce platform where you create an account on BigCommerce itself, and add your products that way.

However, BigCommerce have just released a free WordPress plugin. This acts as a bridge between BigCommerce and WordPress, allowing your BigCommerce plugins to appear in a store layout on any WordPress site.

The default store layout isn't really suitable as a one-page order form. However, you can easily list BigCommerce products in a quick order form with the Posts Table Pro plugin.

How to set it up

1. First, head over to BigCommerce, create an account and add some products.
2. Next, add the Posts Table Pro and BigCommerce for WordPress plugins to your WordPress website.
3. Go to the Posts Table Pro settings page at Post Tables → Settings. Enter your license key and choose bigcommerce_product from the 'Post Type' dropdown.
4. Now use the columns option to choose which information to include in the order form. Here are some examples of the data you can display about BigCommerce products:
   • title - the product title
   • image - the product image
   • content or excerpt - display the product's long or short description
   • tax:bigcommerce_category - product categories
   • tax:bigcommerce_brand - product brands

Finally add the shortcode [posts_table] to any page on your WordPress site to create the order form.

Customers can view your inventory in a BigCommerce product table and click on a product name to see prices and purchase from the single product page.

Refining your WordPress BigCommerce order form

The instructions above will list all your BigCommerce products in an order form on your WordPress website. If preferred, then you can list specific products only - either by brand or by category. To do this, you need to tweak the shortcode slightly. (Just replace '123456' with the slug for your category or brand.)

[posts_table term="bigcommerce_category:123456"] - List products from a specific category.

[posts_table term="bigcommerce_brand:123456"] - List products with a specific brand.

You can also add categories and brand filter dropdowns above the BigCommerce order form. To do this, add tax:bigcommerce_category,tax:bigcommerce_brand to the 'Filters' option on the Posts Table Pro plugin settings page.

Creating a WordPress order form with any other ecommerce plugin

Now you know how to create a WordPress quick order form using four major ecommerce plugins. If you're using a different ecommerce plugin, then that's fine too. You can list any type of WordPress ecommerce products with the Posts Table Pro plugin. You simply need to find out the following information about how your chosen plugin stores products so that you can display them in a frontend order form:

• The name of the 'Products' post type created by the plugin - you can easily find this by reading through the 'Post Type' dropdown on the Posts Table Pro plugin settings page.
• The name of the fields used by the ecommerce plugin to store information about the products. You'll use this information to create the columns in your WordPress order form table. Most of the product data will use the standard fields that come with WordPress itself, such as the title and content columns. You can read about these in the Posts Table Pro knowledge base article about choosing your columns. The ecommerce plugin will also create some custom fields of its own, to store extra information such as the price. You'll need to send the ecommerce plugin company a support request to ask for the name of these custom fields. You can then display them in your WordPress order form using Posts Table Pro.

Where to get the plugin

To recap, you need two plugins to create a fully-functioning WordPress order form.

First, you need an ecommerce plugin that can handle managing products and processing payments. One popular option is WooCommerce, but you can also use other WordPress ecommerce plugins like Easy Digital Downloads or WP ecommerce.

From there, you need a tool to create a frontend order form from your products. If you're using WooCommerce, you can use the dedicated WooCommerce Product Table plugin. Or, for any other ecommerce plugin, you can use the Posts Table Pro plugin.
p style="text-align: center;">WooCommerce Product Table Posts Table Pro

Get started today and create a customizable WordPress order form for shoppers at your site. And if you have any questions, leave a comment and we'll try to point you in the right direction!

If you want to create a restaurant website with online ordering for home delivery, there are plenty of services built to help you do that...for a hefty commission! A WordPress restaurant plugin lets you skip the commission and keep your margins for yourself.

People want to be able to get food delivered over the Internet. Online food ordering more than doubled between 2010 and 2015, and those trends are continuing - especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers prefer ordering online rather than over the phone, and the right WordPress restaurant plugin will satisfy that demand without needing to pay a 15% commission rate.And this won't just be a desktop affair - like all the best WordPress plugins, this one works seamlessly on mobile devices as well.

In this post, you'll learn how you can use the best WordPress restaurant plugins to create your own online restaurant ordering system like the example above, complete with:

• Menus
• Delivery options and time slots
• Pickup options
• Notifications (so that you know when a new food order comes in)

You'll be able to customize it to your needs, and you won't need to be a tech savant just to get it working!

The two big benefits of using a WordPress restaurant plugin over the alternatives

There are two huge benefits to using a WordPress restaurant menu plugin as an Uber Eats alternative over services like GrubHub, JustEat and Uber Eats.

1. You'll save money

First, the big one - saving money!

Just for getting listed at GrubHub, you're giving up a whopping 15% commission rate. And if you want a sponsored listing, you'll give up 20% or more. That's crazy!

The typical margins for food just high enough to justify these commissions. Giving up 15% commission makes a huge difference to your bottom line.

With a WP restaurant plugin, there are no ongoing commissions. Instead, you'll pay a one-time or annual fee for the plugins that you need. After that, everything is profit.

So how much will it cost for a good restaurant plugin for WordPress? The two core tools you'll need - WooCommerce and WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering - will cost you under $150/year.

After that, you might want to further enhance your system with some extra plugins for delivery options or menu customization. However, even with these, you'll probably only spend $200-300 to get the whole system up and running. And again, there are no ongoing commissions after that.

2. You can offer a better user experience

Sites like GrubHub or Deliveroo are, for the most part, one size fits all. That is, your menu and listing pages look exactly like other restaurants.

However, what if your restaurant is unique? What if you make these awesome customizable burgers and you want to create a custom way for people to choose their ingredients and toppings?

With the other tools, you're out of luck. But with a WordPress restaurant plugin, you can tweak things to make them perfect, which helps you create a better ordering experience.

The best WordPress restaurant plugin system

To create your WordPress website's online restaurant ordering system, you'll need two key tools:

• An ecommerce plugin This is the backend system that will help you manage food items, accept orders and payments through Stripe, Paypal, etc.
• A food order form plugin This is the frontend system that will create a user-friendly restaurant menu for your hungry visitors to browse. It lists your foods in a one-page table layout. You can divide your menu up into different categories, offer customization options, etc.

For the ecommerce part of the equation, the most popular option is WooCommerce. This open-source, free plugin comes from Automattic (the billion dollar company behind WordPress.com) and is the most popular way to build an ecommerce store.

For the food order form, you'll use WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering. It makes it easy to create a customizable frontend food menu that you can adapt to your restaurant's unique needs:

If you want to see the process in more detail, you can also check out our complete guide to creating a WooCommerce restaurant ordering system.

Use your ecommerce plugin to manage food items and orders

To get started, you'll need to install and configure your chosen ecommerce plugin. For example, WooCommerce.

From there, you can add all of your menu items as "products". For example, if you sell a pepperoni pizza, you'd add that pizza as a product:

If your menu item is customizable, you can use either product variations or product add-ons to give visitors the option to customize their orders:

• VariationsVariations are good if people will select a single option from a list. For example, the size of a pizza.
• Add-ons Add-ons are good if people can select multiple items. For example, selecting one or more options from a list of toppings. If you want to use product add-ons, you'll need the Barn2 WooCommerce Product Options plugin.

Again, we explain this process in much greater detail in our full online restaurant ordering system guide.

Use the WordPress restaurant plugin to create your front-end menus

Once you've added all of your food items as WooCommerce products, you're ready for the next step. It's time to create your online menu using the WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering plugin.

See, by default, WooCommerce displays your "products" in a traditional ecommerce layout. For example, something like this:

Now, that's fine for an ecommerce store, but it's not a good option for a restaurant menu!

That's where the WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering plugin comes in.

This WordPress restaurant plugin lets you take all your items and display them in a user-friendly food and drink menu layout like this:

Shoppers can add simple food products straight to the cart, or open a lightbox to select variations and add-on options.

As you can see from the above screenshot, the plugin also works perfectly with the WooCommerce 'Cart" widget in the right sidebar, provided your WordPress theme supports templates that allow this functionality. You could also include a widget with a note about your site's delivery area, or even a custom Google Map that shows the area you serve.

The great thing about WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering is that you have 100% control over the information that displays.

The end result is that you can create a restaurant ordering system that's totally unique to your restaurant's needs and offerings.

Enhance your WordPress restaurant plugin system with other plugins

At this point, you'll have a working WordPress restaurant plugin system. However, you still might want to adjust things to tweak how your ordering system works.

WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering is designed to work with many different plugins - not just WooCommerce - and any WordPress theme. That means it integrates as well with your page builder, SEO or multilingual plugins (WPML, WeGlot, etc.), as it does with more obvious pairings - restaurant reservation plugins, food delivery plugins, and so on.

Here are some good options for third-party plugins to enhance your system:

• WooCommerce Opening Hours and Delivery Times Allow people to order specific time slots for delivery or collection.
• WooCommerce Fast Cart Add a popup cart so that customers can complete their order from the food ordering page.
• WooCommerce Quantity Manager Make sure every food order is profitable by setting a minimum order value.
• Dynamic Pricing Lets you create special deals, like buy one get one free.
• Twilio SMS Notifications Lets you receive SMS notifications for new orders (by default, WooCommerce only sends email notifications).
• WooCommerce BookingsLets you set up a table reservation system alongside your menu to allow your customers to fill out an online reservation form and pre-order their food at the same time.
• To make the most of your restaurant’s online ordering setup, MH Themes offers SEO-friendly WordPress themes that are both clean and responsive. Designed to deliver a great user experience, they pair seamlessly with WooCommerce-based food ordering plugins, helping your site look polished while working smoothly in the background.

Learn more in our WooCommerce takeaway guide.

Build your own WordPress restaurant ordering system today!

Stop giving up your hard-earned margins to middlemen!

With your own WordPress restaurant ordering system, you'll be able to offer the convenience of Internet ordering to your customers, without paying a 15% commission.

At a basic level, all you'll need is an ecommerce plugin (like WooCommerce) and the WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering plugin.

Finally, for a more detailed tutorial on how to set up your system, check out our full WooCommerce restaurant ordering system tutorial.

Do you have any questions about these WordPress restaurant plugins? Ask away in the comments!