How to create a direct checkout on your WooCommerce store (2024 Guide)

The checkout process of your e-commerce store can be the difference between a successful purchase or an abandoned cart. The default checkout in WooCommerce can be tedious for many users because of its multi-step approach. To simplify it, the solution is to use WooCommerce direct checkout.

Direct checkout is a powerful way of increasing conversions and sales on your website. It provides a much faster way for customers to skip straight to the checkout while avoiding the cart completely.

Here is a deep dive into WooCommerce direct checkouts, how they work, and how you can use the WooCommerce Fast Cart plugin to enhance your customers' checkout experience.

What is WooCommerce direct checkout?

Direct checkout speeds up the purchasing process by cutting out or skipping the cart and taking you straight to the checkout page as soon as you’re ready to complete the order.

Potential customers can take advantage of the direct checkout option, especially when you have special offers, discounts, and coupons on your shop page.

Under normal circumstances,WooCommerce takes you through a lengthy cart and checkout process. This multi-step checkout process means you may have to go through three or more web forms before paying for your products.

Sometimes, you may even be redirected to webpages offsite to fill out more information before completing your order.

In many cases, the store will require you to create an account. After that, you may need to fill out your account details, name, physical address, and shipping address. The store may also request credit/debit card details or other payment information.

But what if a customer wants to skip these stages and just buy a specific WooCommerce product? That’s where direct checkout comes in. And the direct checkout for WooCommerce feature can increase your sales if set up correctly.

How can direct checkout increase my sales?

Direct checkout has several benefits. Here are some:

Direct checkout is an added feature, so you’ll need a plugin to add it to your WooCommerce store. If you’re searching, look no further. We have just the thing for you:

Fast Cart - The ultimate WooCommerce direct checkout plugin

If you want to increase your conversions and cut the time it takes for customers to make a purchase, direct checkout is your best bet, and WooCommerce Fast Cart is the ideal way to do it.

Here are some features of the Fast Cart plugin:

• Instant on-page checkout enables your customers to complete their single product orders without leaving the page. Google Address Autocomplete makes it even easier, saving customers time in adding addresses to the form.
• You can customize it in any way you desire. That means colors, position, and absolute control over cart items and checkout pages.
• It supports popups and floating carts, allowing buyers to launch the cart anywhere on your website.
• The plugin works with any theme. It’s also responsive and meets all current accessibility standards.
• It supports multiple payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, and more.
• Supports customer upsells on your cart page and increases your average order value per buyer.

More than just a cart plugin

As you may have already noticed, WooCommerce Fast Cart has the word “Cart” in it. But, It’s more than just a cart solution. It’s also a direct checkout solution to skip the cart altogether.

You get the cart and direct checkout features in one plugin, which makes WooCommerce Fast Cart exceptional. In comparison, other direct checkout plugins do nothing more than forward your customer straight to the checkout page when they try to access the cart page. That just cuts a single step from the process but doesn’t make it as seamless as it should be.

With WooCommerce Fast Cart, you have more options than just a redirect to checkout. Instead, they can complete their order from either an on-page popup checkout. They won’t have to leave, refresh or reload the page to complete purchases.

So, what does this popout checkout look like?

Popup checkout

WooCommerce Fast Cart is pretty flexible, and you can set it up in several ways. Let’s explore them below.

Floating cart icon

With WooCommerce Fast Cart, you can add a floating cart icon to the single product page - or anywhere else on your site. Here, it serves two purposes. First, customers can keep track of all the products in their cart, and second, they can check out directly on the page they're currently on.

Here’s what the floating cart looks like:

The floating cart icon lets you auto-open a direct checkout as soon as a customer clicks the quick purchase button.

This option is ideal if you have offers or a buy now button. It encourages potential buyers to purchase one product quickly, instead of spending time buying multiple products at once.

Skipping standard WooCommerce cart and checkout pages

Let’s say the WooCommerce theme on your website supports the add cart links or checkout buttons on its header, or you have them in your primary menu. How can you change these links to support the Fast Cart plugin?

Simple. On the Fast Cart plugin settings, you can enable the option to replace the default cart and checkout pages on WooCommerce. Once done, the popup checkout will open up any time a customer clicks on either the cart or checkout buttons.

Layouts

The popup checkouts come in a couple of layouts. You can have a right-hand side popup or a central popup. What does that look like? Here are two examples:

Right-hand side popup layout

 

It's a WooCommerce floating cart instead of a sidebar widget. That's a good thing because it doesn't matter whether or not the page has a sidebar or a full-width layout. It's also better than the default WooCommerce cart widget because you can skip the cart and create direct checkout, and it uses AJAX to open without reloading the page.

Central popup layout

 

As you can see from the examples above, WooCommerce Fast Cart is coded cleverly, bringing the content of your main checkout page to the checkout popup.

No matter your website template, payment gateways, or any other WordPress plugins modifying your checkout experience, Fast Cart won’t create any compatibility issues. You can also use it with any product type, including simple and variable products. The variations appear in the direct checkout, just like any other WooCommerce product. It works with all your product categories.

Moreover, Google Addresses can autocomplete physical address details and speed up your buyers' checkout process. And if they’re returning customers with accounts on your website, the popup checkout page comes pre-filled with their information.

Further reading: How to add WooCommerce one page checkout to your store.

How to add direct checkout to WooCommerce

Looking for tutorials on how your customers can skip the cart and go straight to checkout? Here’s how to go about it:

WooCommerce Fast Checkout plugin setup

1. First, buy the premium version of WooCommerce Fast Cart. It's a premium-only plugin, so you won't find it on wordpress.org.
2. Download the Fast Cart plugin and install it on your WordPress website. For this plugin to work, ensure the free WooCommerce plugin is installed and active.
3. On your first run, WooCommerce Fast Checkout will take you through a quick and easy setup wizard. To begin, add the license key that came with your purchase and click the check button to activate it.
   

   

4. Once your license is active, the next stage is to choose the layout of your cart button. You may choose a side or centered cart. You may also choose where the floating cart icon will go.
   

   

5. Afterward, select the stages of the ordering process where Fast Cart will become available.
   

   

6. On the next wizard page, select as many cart features as you'd want to appear in the popup cart. You can choose as many or as few as you like.
   

   

7. If you want to replace your entire cart or checkout page with Fast Cart, you can do so here. Check one, both, or none of the boxes to continue.
   

   

8. Would you like to add more features to your store with other Barn2 plugins? Select any or the all-access pass to continue. You may also opt to finish the setup.
   

   

9. After the Finish setup button, you're good to go!
   

   

Testing the direct checkout

Once you've finished, visit the frontend of your store and test out the WooCommerce direct checkout feature. It will work straight away, and you don't need to add shortcodes to a page or anything.

You can access the plugin options any time in the WooCommerce settings. Just go to WooCommerce → Settings → Fast Cart and tweak until it's perfect!

Bonus tips

Here are some extra things to remember:

Maybe you don’t have to skip the cart after all

If you’re looking for a way to set up direct checkout on WooCommerce to cut the annoying multi-page shopping process your customers hate, then Fast Cart is ideal. It solves that problem by allowing you to keep the cart button on your site still.

Using the floating cart to show the cart in a popup can have several benefits. For instance, you still get a one-page checkout from the popup. Moreover, customers can add or edit cart contents from the popup and still increase their average order value from one page.

You get the best of both worlds: A shopping cart and a one-page checkout process, regardless of the number of items a buyer chooses.

You can simplify your checkout fields for even faster shopping

Are there non-essential checkout fields on your checkout page? With the Checkout Field Editor plugin, you can remove them and make your checkout seamless and more direct for your customers.

Final thoughts: Where to find the WooCommerce Fast Cart Plugin

Your customers shouldn't struggle with a multi-page checkout process if you can simplify it. With the WooCommerce Fast Cart plugin, you can deliver an instant single-page checkout - whether or not you want to skip the cart completely. That lets you speed up your checkout process and increase your average order value.

Check out WooCommerce Fast Cart today and supercharge your buyers' checkout experience.