What are the options for selling product samples?
WooCommerce Product Sample is incredibly flexible and gives you full control over how sample products are sold in your store.
- Offer free product samples or charge for each sample (with options to set the price globally or per category/product/variation)
- Enable samples globally or per category/product/variation
- Change the 'Order Sample' button text
- Choose whether to display the 'Order Sample' button on shop and category pages, as well as on the single product page
- Make sure you don't lose money on product samples by setting a maximum sample quantity per order. You can choose whether this applies to the entire order, or set a different maximum sample limit per product variation
- Choose a tax and shipping class for your WooCommerce product samples (either globally or per category/product/variation)
- Manage product sample stock separately from the full product
Which product types can I create samples for?
WooCommerce Product Sample works for all product types. For example, you can offer samples for:
- Simple products
- Variable products - with controls to set a different price and other options for each individual variations
- Virtual and downloadable products - for example, if you want to offer a shorter music or video sample to convince customers to buy the full-length version
How will I know when I receive an order for a free product sample?
When a customer orders a product sample, the product is clearly labelled as a sample in the cart and checkout. By default, "- Sample" is added after the product name (e.g. "White Wall Tile - Sample"). You can change the Sample label to anything you like.
The same label will be displayed after the product name in the order notification emails to customers and the store owner, and on order-related pages in the WordPress admin. This ensures that it is always clear that the customer has ordered a sample and not the full product.
Can I customize or disable the email reminder to customers who have ordered a sample?
The WooCommerce Product Sample plugin comes with an email reminder which can be sent to customers shortly after their receive their sample order. The purpose of the email is to remind them to order the full version of the product, and to make this easy for them. As a result, it can significantly increase your sales from free sample customers.
You can customize the following parts of the email:
- Enable or disable the email. (Note: The email is disabled by default when you first install WooCommerce Product Sample. This is because while we have added some suitable wording to get you started, we understand that you may want to customize it to your needs.)
- The email subject, heading and wording
- The number of days after ordering product samples that the email is sent
Can I force customers to order a certain number of product samples?
WooCommerce Product Sample has a maximum quantity feature built-in. This lets you set the maximum number of sample products that can be purchased per order.
When you set a maximum quantity, you can control the logic of how it is calculated. The options are:
- Set a maximum number of samples per order
- Set a maximum number of samples per category
- Set a maximum number of samples per product/variation
For even more control over sample quantities, you can use WooCommerce Product Sample with our other plugins - WooCommerce Quantity Manager. This has more advanced options for setting quantity rules for your samples or other products, including:
- Set a minimum AND maximum number of sample products
- Create minimum and maximum order values, instead of basing it on quantity
- Add quantity rules for your other products too - not just samples
Will it work with my theme & other plugins?
We have tested WooCommerce Product Sample with a range of free and premium themes and are confident it will look great with your theme. Specifically:
- The 'Add to Sample' button will use the alternate button color from your theme if available. If this isn't available then the button will reverse the colors from your main add to cart button, ensuring that it will always match your brand. You can customize the button styling further using CSS.
- The 'Sample' label which appears in the cart, checkout etc. simply adds text to the existing information and will work in all themes.
- The email reminder for customers who have ordered a sample uses the same styling as your other WooCommerce emails.
Our plugin support includes helping with theme-related conflicts. However, theme issues are very unlikely.
Will it work with my other plugins?
WooCommerce Product Sample is designed to work with any plugins which display the normal WooCommerce add to cart button. It simply displays an additional 'Order Sample' button next to the main button.
We particularly recommend using it with the following plugins to display the 'Order Sample' buttons in additional locations:
- WooCommerce Product Table - List products in a quick one-page order form. The price column will display add to cart buttons and also order sample buttons.
- WooCommerce Fast Cart - After adding a product sample to the cart, the cart and/or checkout open in a fast popup window. Customers can see which samples they are ordering and quickly complete their order without leaving the page.
- Bulk Variations - List a product's variations in a grid or price matrix. The order sample button appears next to the Add to Cart button underneath the variation grid. Customers can select the required quantity for each variation and add a sample of them all together.
- WooCommerce Quick View Pro - Provide quick view product lightboxes. Customers can view more product information and order samples from the lightbox, instead of having to visit the individual product page.
What are the purchase options?
Clicking the Buy button above will take you to the purchase options. You can choose either a Lifetime or Annual software license.
- Lifetime licenses never expire. It's a one-time payment which includes all future plugin updates, new features and support, forever.
- Annual licenses are renewed once a year. As long as you have an active license, you will receive support, plugin updates and new features. If your license ever expires then you can continue using the plugin, but won't receive any further updates or support.
You can also choose the number of sites that you can use the plugin on.
Does it work in my language?
WooCommerce Product Sample is designed to work with any WordPress translation plugin such as WPML, WeGlot and TranslatePress. This makes it easy for you to translate the plugin into any language and use it on multilingual websites.
If you just need to change the plugin into your language then you can translate all the text directly on the plugin settings page, without needing a translation plugin. This includes the 'Order Sample' button text and the label which appears on the cart/checkout/emails. Similarly, you can translate the email reminder for customers directly in the WooCommerce email settings.
What are the minimum requirements for running the plugin?
WooCommerce Product Sample is fully tested with the latest versions of WordPress and WooCommerce. We always recommend running the most up-to-date version, but we also support older installations:
WooCommerce 6.5 or greater (tested to 8.3.1)
WordPress 6.0 or greater (tested to 6.4.1)
PHP 7.4 or greater (tested to 8.1.22)
MySQL 5.7.8 or greater / MariaDB 10.3 or greater