Tutorials

Many online shop owners need to be able to take and place WooCommerce manual orders for customers. This could either be phone orders, email, or chat. Typically, this involves creating an account for the customers, filling out their orders, and taking payment in person or over the phone.

The only problem is that WooCommerce manual orders aren’t supported out of the box. Shop owners need an easy way to be able to place customer orders efficiently.

In this article, we’ll introduce you to a WooCommerce manual orders plugin that you can use and configure to quickly place customers' orders. We’ll also walk you through a step-by-step tutorial to help you integrate this functionality into your own WooCommerce store. We'll do this by creating a simple, one-page order form that's searchable, sortable, and filterable.

Why you might need to take WooCommerce manual orders

Many online businesses cater to customers that would prefer to place orders in person, over the phone, by email, or live chat. In other words, they provide their order details and payment information like billing address, shipping method, and shipping address to a salesperson.

Since the ecommerce plugin doesn’t support WooCommerce manual orders out of the box, shop owners resort to other measures:

• Accessing their online store from a private (or incognito) window or from the online store's backend to place the customer’s order.
• Logging in and out of their admin user account to place orders for customers.
• Placing the customers’ order only to find that they’re a new customers and, therefore, need a user account first.

Aside from the fact that this isn’t a user-friendly approach to placing orders, it’s also incredibly inefficient. Instead, shop owners need a way to be able to:

• Create a WooCommerce order form that’s hidden from regular customers so they’re able to place new orders without logging out of their admin user accounts.
• Make it easy for multiple salespeople to place customer orders through the hidden order form and choose from all of the available payment methods. It's a good idea to make all payment gateways available.
• Place WooCommerce phone orders on behalf of their customers – whether they’re existing customers or new customers.

With the right WooCommerce manual orders plugin and implementation, you’ll be able to do all of this and much more.

Taking manual orders in WooCommerce: 2 methods to consider

While ecommerce is the preferred method of shopping for many customers today, some may still prefer to place orders by phone or email or may face technical difficulties when trying to order online.

To accommodate these customers, it's important to have a system in place for taking manual orders. If you're using WooCommerce as your ecommerce platform, you have several options for taking manual orders, including using a dedicated WooCommerce manual order plugin or adding orders manually in the back end.

In this section, we'll explore these two methods in more detail, and discuss some best practices for taking manual orders in WooCommerce.

Method #1: Introducing the WooCommerce manual orders plugin

Taking WooCommerce orders from customers manually – either over the phone, email, or live chat – is incredibly important for some online businesses. One of the easiest ways to implement this sort of functionality into your own online store is by using a WooCommerce manual orders plugin such as WooCommerce Product Table Pro.

WooCommerce Product Table lets shop owners create a dynamic, front-end WooCommerce order form that’s hidden from public view. Salespeople will then be able to access the order notes (without having to log out of their own account) and place the customer’s existing order.

With WooCommerce Product Table, you’ll be able to create a searchable, sortable order form with filters that makes it easy to quickly find the product(s) customers would like to purchase. At the minimum, the WooCommerce manual order plugin lets you:

• Add products to the cart without navigating to single product pages.
• Select product variations directly from the order form or from a quick view lightbox.

Additionally, salespeople will also be able to place orders for customers with existing user accounts and new customers. You’ll also have the option to automatically create an account for new customers or offer a guest checkout option.

How to take WooCommerce phone orders manually using WooCommerce Product Table Pro

With WooCommerce Product Table, you’ll be able to create a hidden page where admins and salespeople can take WooCommerce phone orders or add orders from paper order forms, emails, or live chat.

Assuming you already have a WooCommerce store setup with some products added to it, here’s what you need to do to take WooCommerce phone orders from customers.

Step #1: Install and activate the WooCommerce Product Table plugin

To get started, get the WooCommerce Product Table plugin and install it to your WordPress website. Once that’s done, head over to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Product tables to activate the license key.

Click the Save changes button at the bottom of the screen to continue.

Step #2: Create a WooCommerce order page

Create a new page (by navigating to Pages → Add New) where you’ll add the WooCommerce manual orders form.

To do this, simply enter the shortcode [product_table].

Once you’re done, preview the page on the front end. It should look something like this:

The key benefit of using WooCommerce Product Table to create an order form is that it allows employees and salespeople to quick-find products, select variations, and place the customer’s order.

Pro tip for selecting products more quickly

If you sell a lot of inexpensive products or find that customers typically purchase multiple products from you at a time, you might consider replacing Add to Cart buttons in the table layout with add to cart checkboxes. Here’s how:

1. Head over to the WooCommerce Product Table plugin’s settings screen (WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Product tables).
2. Scroll down till you reach the Add to cart column section and set the Add to cart button option to either Checkbox only or Button and checkbox.
3. Click the Save changes button to continue.

For example, if you go with Checkbox only, it should look something like this:

Step #3: Hide the WooCommerce order form from public view

Since we don’t want the WooCommerce manual orders form to be accessible to regular customers, we’ll use an SEO plugin (such as Yoast SEO) to noindex the order form page.

1. Simply open up the page you created in Step #2, and scroll down till you reach the Yoast SEO widget.
2. Click the cog icon to access the Advanced settings.
3. Set the Allow search engines to show this Page in search results? option to No.
4. Click the Publish button to proceed.

This way, the WooCommerce manual orders page won’t appear in search results. You can share a link to this page with salespeople and employees. However, you shouldn’t add a link to it to your online store’s navigation menu so that it remains hidden from public view.

Step #4: Take manual payments in WooCommerce

Next, you need a way to take WooCommerce manual payment from customers. It needs to work whether you're doing face-to-face sales, WooCommerce phone orders, or something else.

There are a few options here:

• Enter their payment details manuallyThis is best for WooCommerce phone orders. Just choose a normal payment gateway such as Stripe, and enter the customer's credit card details on the checkout page. This is just as if the customer was ordering directly on the website, but you're doing it on their behalf.
• Use WooCommerce In Person PaymentsWooCommerce has launched a service for the US and Canada where you order a card reader which takes credit card payments from customers.
• Use a PayPal card readerIn the last few years, PayPal has introduced card readers which provide an affordable way to take face-to-face credit card payments. These are called "PayPal Here" card readers. Use the free WooCommerce PayPal Here plugin to take website payments using a PayPal card reader.

Step #5: Taking orders from customers

Now that you’ve set up the online order form using WooCommerce Product Table, there are two main ways you can place orders on behalf of the customer.

For customers with an existing account:

Install the WooCommerce Login and Shop as Customer plugin to your WordPress website. You can use it to switch to the customer’s user account before placing their order.

For new customers:

When taking orders for new customers, you can either offer them a guest checkout option or place an order as a new customer. For the latter, you’ll need to ensure you’re logged out. You’ll be able to create an account for the customer automatically since entering their email address is part of the order placement process.

Method #2: Adding new manual orders in the back end

We'll show you how to add manual orders in the back end of your WooCommerce store and provide some tips for establishing a clear manual ordering process. By following these steps and guidelines, you can ensure that your customers can place manual orders easily and that your staff can process them efficiently and accurately.

Steps in creating manual orders

Here are the steps to add new manual orders in the back end of your WooCommerce store:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the "Orders" section.
2. Click the "Add Order" button. This will take you to the "Add New Order" page.
3. Enter the customer's details in the appropriate custom fields, such as their name, email address, and phone number. You can also select whether the order is for a registered customer or a guest.
4. Add the items the customer wishes to order by clicking the "Add item(s)" button. You can search for products by name or SKU and select the quantity and any relevant variations.
5. Set the pricing details, including the product price, tax, and shipping costs. You can also add any discounts or coupons if applicable.
6. Select the payment method the customer will use to pay for their order. If they are paying by credit card, you can enter their details manually or use a payment gateway integration.
7. Set the shipping details, such as the shipping method, address, and any notes or instructions for the delivery.
8. Review the order details and click "Save Order" to complete the process.

While adding manual orders in the back end of your WooCommerce store can be a useful option, it's worth noting that it may be more time-consuming than using a dedicated plugin, particularly if you have a high volume of manual orders.

If you're using a plugin such as WooCommerce Wholesale Pro, you can take advantage of features such as the automatic calculation of wholesale prices based on the customer's role. Regardless of whether you use a plugin or not, it's essential to establish clear processes for manually creating orders to ensure that they are processed efficiently and accurately.

Tips for streamlining manual orders in your online store

Here are some tips for establishing a solid manual ordering process:

1. Set up a dedicated phone line or email address for manual orders to ensure that they are tracked separately from online orders.
2. Train your staff on how to WooCommerce create order for customers manually and provide them with clear guidelines and procedures to follow.
3. Use a centralized system to manage and track manual orders alongside your regular online orders. This could include using a spreadsheet or order management software.
4. Ensure that you have a clear process for handling WooCommerce manual payment and shipping details, such as verifying credit card information and selecting the appropriate shipping method.

Bonus: For orders with lots of variations

If you’re selling products with lots of variations, they’ll likely take up a significant amount of space on the one-page order form. Instead, you can use the WooCommerce Product Table plugin with WooCommerce Quick View Pro to add quick view lightboxes.

By doing so, salespeople will be able to choose product variations. As well as add them to cart directly from the quick view lightbox.

The WooCommerce manual orders process

Once that’s all done, your WooCommerce phone orders process will look something like this:

1. Whenever a salesperson receives a phone call (or paper order form), they’ll log in as the relevant customer, add a new user account on their behalf or select the guest checkout option.
2. Next, they’ll place the customer’s order using the order form, select products and variations, and add them to the cart.
3. Finally, they can head over to the main WooCommerce checkout to complete the order. From there they can choose from the available pending payment gateways to complete the transaction (or use a card reader for in-person payments).
4. Customers will receive the usual email order confirmation email letting them know that their order has been placed along with other important details (such as the order status link).

Conclusion

Enabling customers to place WooCommerce phone orders can be a beneficial strategy for online store owners who wish to increase their sales. By using the WooCommerce create order for customer feature, store owners can improve the overall customer experience.

With a WooCommerce manual orders plugin – like WooCommerce Product Table – you can make it easy for customers to place orders over the phone while making the order placement process seamless for salespeople.

Do you have any questions about how to take WooCommerce manual orders – over the phone, by email, or via live chat? Let us know in the comments section below! And see this tutorial if you want to create a WooCommerce one page order form and checkout for your customers to use.

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.

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.

What are shortcodes, and how can they be used in WooCommerce?

Shortcodes in WooCommerce allow users to add functionality just about anywhere on their website. For example, you could add a shortcode to your homepage, landing pages, blog posts, widgets, or sidebars.

The key benefit of using WooCommerce shortcodes is that you can add extra features without having to write code. You can choose to display a single product, selected products, or a range of products based on product categories.

For example, a WooCommerce quick view shortcode will insert quick view buttons for a particular product wherever you add it. This lets customers quick-preview your products in a lightbox popup.

What can you do with WooCommerce shortcodes?

WooCommerce comes with a number of shortcodes out of the box. You can use these shortcodes to insert content or functionality inside posts and pages. For example, you can also use shortcodes to achieve WooCommerce-specific functionality such as:

• Add products to cart using the [add_to_cart id="5"] shortcode.
• Show the order tracking form using the [woocommerce_order_tracking] shortcode.
• Show the user account page using the [woocommerce_my_account] shortcode.

Example use cases

Here are a few use case scenarios where it makes sense to use WooCommerce shortcodes to showcase products anywhere on your online store:

• Add featured products to the homepage You could use WooCommerce shortcodes to display featured products on your site’s homepage. This could be useful for all kinds of stores whether they sell high-end goods or inexpensive products.
• Add selected products to blog posts If you have a blog page on your online store where you review products, discuss specific product features, or share news, you could add a single product, selected products, top-rated products, or related products to your product review.
• Showcase best-selling products on sales pages Whether you’re selling physical goods or digital products, you can create a sales page on your online store to showcase some of your best-selling products. WooCommerce product shortcodes makes this incredibly easy.

Once you’ve added products to your website’s pages or posts, customers will be able to click on the quick view buttons and:

• Learn more about the product. (They can view product details include its price, description, and reviews.)
• View product image (with zoom) and the full product gallery.
• Choose product variations (if available).
• Set product quantities.
• Add products to cart.

And the best part is that your customers will be able to do all of this without having to leave the page they’re on! This is a great way to encourage visitors and prospective customers to learn more about your featured product and add it to their shopping cart. Not to mention, it can potentially help you improve your bottom line.

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

Using WooCommerce product 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 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 WooCommerce 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 WooCommerce 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.

Get Quick View Get Product Table

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!

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

Nico composes and sells background music tracks through his Woo audio store – Nico Backing Tracks. Nico's customers need to be able to listen to snippets of tracks before purchasing so he needed audio players embedded into the product list.

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

Boom Bap Labs sell individual sounds with WooCommerce audio previews through their sister site called Paypersample.

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

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

1. Get WooCommerce Product Table and install it on your site

You can get the plugin by clicking here:

After completing your order, you will be taken to a download page for the plugin. This is also where you'll get your personal license key.

To install the plugin on your site:

• Log in to your WordPress dashboard, and go to Plugins → Add New.
• Click on the Upload Plugin button.
• Select the ZIP file of the plugin, click on Install Now, and follow the on-screen instructions to enable the plugin.

As mentioned above, you can use any WordPress theme for this, including one which works with a page builder such as Elementor. Make sure your theme is responsive so your music store WordPress can be accessed from mobile devices (such as iPhone and Android). WooCommerce Product Table itself is fully responsive out of the box.

2. Configure your WooCommerce audio plugin

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.

Basically, no matter if you want to sell physical CDs or digital products, the audio plugin store will cope. It all comes down to the configuration.

This is what you should do to use WooCommerce Product Table for a WooCommerce audio store:

First, from your WordPress dashboard, go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Product tables:

Start by entering your personal license key and clicking on Save Changes to enable the audio plugin store.

Now, go through the rest of the options on the configuration page one by one and set them accordingly:

Music store columns

The structure that seems the most effective for a WooCommerce audio library is this: description:Listen Now,name,categories:Genre,price,buy

• description:Listen Now - we're using the main description field of the product to display a live audio embed - meaning, the buyer is going to be able to listen to the track before buying it,
• name - the name of the audio track,
• categories:Genre - it's a good idea to categorize your audio products based on the genre; we're using the product category for that, with the label changed to "Genre",
• price
• 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. 

Shortcodes

Make sure the box is checked. Otherwise, the live audio embeds won't work.

Product links

I like to set this to none a WooCommerce audio store. However, you can leave it set to all if that's what you prefer.

When set to none, this makes sure that the actual product page of the audio track isn't linked to the table. Meaning, in a setup like this, the only clickable things within the table are the play buttons and the "add to cart" buttons, which should improve sales.

Product filters

The Product Table plugin lets users filter the table based on various attributes of the products. For a WooCommerce music store, it makes sense to enable filtering based on genres.

Filter dropdowns above the list of audio products

To achieve that, set the Product filters setting to Custom, and the Custom filters setting to categories.

The rest of the settings on the page are up to you. It's best to experiment with those once you already have a live audio store table on the site.

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.

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 execute. Just go to any page or post and edit it, then add a [product_table] shortcode to the page.

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.

How to customize your WooCommerce audio library

The way your audio product table is presented can be further customized by altering the plugin's shortcode directly.

Just to remind you, this is what the shortcode looks like by default:

[product_table]

Here are a couple of useful things you can do with it:

• Perhaps you have other products in your store - not audio - and you want to prevent those from appearing in your audio store module. Or maybe you want to show a specific category of audio products only. Either way, you can use the "category" parameter for that. The following will only display products categorized under audio: [product_table category="audio"]. There are also options to show audio products with a specific tag, custom field value, custom taxonomy term, etc.
• Want to encourage your users to buy more than one track? You can switch the standard "add to cart" buttons to checkboxes. Like so: [product_table cart_button="checkbox"]

Here's the full documentation on how you can customize the default shortcode.

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.

Get Quick View Pro

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 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. Password protects 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:

A lot goes into building and running a successful online store. Although hosted e-commerce platforms like BigCommerce take care of much of the heavy-lifting, they don’t always offer the best shopping experience to customers.

The good news is that you can use a BigCommerce product table to make your online store more effective and user-friendly. Essentially, you’d be listing BigCommerce products on a WordPress site in a searchable, sortable table layout with filters. This way, customers will be able to browse your store and make purchases directly from one convenient location.

With this in mind, in this article, we’ll explain what a BigCommerce product table is and how it can benefit your online store. We’ll also show you how to create a product table in WordPress using BigCommerce and Posts Table Pro.

What is a BigCommerce product table and who needs one?

BigCommerce is a hosted e-commerce platform. Out of the box, BigCommerce lets users display products in a standard format. Typically, products are displayed in a grid where each product takes up a considerable amount of screen real estate - like this:

While this certainly adds to your store’s visual appeal, this simply isn’t the best solution for every online store. More specifically, online stores that sell more than a few products or products that aren’t image-centric need a more user-friendly way to showcase their offering.

Grid layouts make it difficult for customers to browse through products, find exactly what they’re looking for, and compare product details. In contrast, displaying your inventory in a product table allows you to showcase more products per page while making it easy for customers to search, sort, and filter through them:

Who needs a BigCommerce product table?

The short answer is that anyone who’s looking for an intuitive and user-friendly way to showcase lots of products in their online store can benefit from a BigCommerce product table. It allows you to display products in a neat table layout with important product details. This makes it easy for customers to be able to view more products (with product details) per page.

For example:

BigCommerce restaurant ordering system

With a BigCommerce product table plugin, you can create restaurant ordering systems that allow customers to place orders online (or at the table). It essentially doubles as a BigCommerce order form.

This resembles a real-world menu in that you simply list out the dishes you offer along with additional details such as ingredients and price. In addition to this, you can also display quantity selectors and add-to-cart buttons directly in the product table layout.

With a BigCommerce order form, you can also allow customers to customize their orders. For example, if you serve pizza at your restaurant, customers would be able to select their crust, sauce, and toppings directly from the product table.

BigCommerce wholesale stores

Generally speaking, people who shop at wholesale stores have a good idea about what they’d like to buy. For this reason, a BigCommerce product table is an ideal implementation for wholesale stores. Here’s why:

• Customers are able to find exactly what they’re looking for by using the search, sort, and filter options.
• A BigCommerce product list makes it easy for customers to make bulk purchases.
• Since wholesale stores sell lots of products, store owners are able to display more products per page then they would be able to with BigCommerce’s default shop layout.

BigCommerce stores selling products that don’t require large images

BigCommerce store owners that sell products that don’t require big images can also benefit from a product table layout. Since the standard format for displaying products in BigCommerce is image-centric, it doesn’t suit products that don’t require big images. Stores like these would benefit more from a BigCommerce product list instead.

These include digital goods such as audio lectures, music sheets, and software. It can also include hardware products like bolts, screws, washers, and fasteners where it’s more important to display product information than it is to display a product image.

How a product table can benefit your BigCommerce-based online store

With BigCommerce, the standard way to display products in your online store is by showcasing them in a grid on your shop page while also giving each product its own individual page.

The problem with this implementation is that it makes it difficult for customers to browse products, compare them, or purchase a lot of different items at once. While this may not be an issue for large products (like furniture) or expensive products (like jewelry), this approach doesn’t offer the best shopping experience for many other types of products.

So, if you’re looking for a way to showcase products in an intuitive, user-friendly way then consider creating a product table. With a BigCommerce product table, you can display more products in an organized way in a neat table layout along with all important product details.

BigCommerce product tables are incredibly beneficial to e-commerce stores, because:

• Customers are able to see everything your store offers at a glance.
• They allow store owners to curate a selection of products to display on their site (e.g. all organic products).
• They make it easy for customers to be able to compare products quickly and make a buying decision.
• Product tables take up less screen real estate as compared to other methods of organizing products.
• They simplify the purchasing process since customers are able to add multiple products to their cart from a single screen. In other words, they don’t have to visit individual product pages to view product details and add products to their cart.

Introducing Posts Table Pro: The e-commerce product table plugin for BigCommerce stores

Posts Table Pro is a BigCommerce product table plugin that lets you display items in a dynamic table layout with built-in options for searching, sorting, and filtering products.

As a WordPress plugin, Posts Table Pro lets you list BigCommerce products on any WordPress website. The products are still added and maintained via BigCommerce - and orders are still managed via BigCommerce. However, it's a fantastic opportunity to list your products in WordPress - ideal if your main company website uses WordPress, or you want to list products outside of BigCommerce instead.

With Posts Table Pro create customizable product tables easily that improve the customer’s shopping experience and simplify the purchasing process. Specifically, you can tweak:

• How each table will appear on the front end.
• What information (product details) will be presented and in what order?
• Whether you want to display product variations, quantity selectors, and add to cart buttons.
• How customers can filter through products e.g. by product category.

Using Posts Table Pro, you can improve the user experience your BigCommerce-based store delivers and potentially improve conversions and increase sales.

How to create a BigCommerce product table in WordPress

If you’ve connected your BigCommerce store to your WP website, you’ll need a way to display BigCommerce products in an intuitive and user-friendly way. With the Posts Table Pro plugin, you can easily list products in a neat table layout.

Assuming you have a BigCommerce store set up with some products and the BigCommerce for WordPress plugin installed on your WordPress website, here’s what you need to do to create a product table:

Step #1: Install and activate Posts Table Pro

To get started, purchase the Posts Table Pro plugin and install it on your WordPress website.

GET POSTS TABLE PRO

You will receive a zip folder containing all the necessary files upon purchase. Navigate to the WordPress dashboard, select Plugins → Add New, and click on the Upload Plugin button to proceed with the installation.

Go to the Plugins section in your WordPress dashboard and click on "Add New." Then, click on "Upload Plugin" and select the zip folder containing the plugin's contents. Click on "Install Now" to start the installation process, and once it's complete, activate the plugin. Upon activation, the setup wizard for Posts Table Pro will launch and guide you through entering your license key.

Step #2: Customize your table

Start by giving your table a name and select the post type BigCommerce has created for you. And then follow the steps below:

1. Select the posts or pages you would like to include in the table. The available options will vary based on the post type you selected in the previous step. For instance, if you chose a post with custom taxonomy, the relevant taxonomies will be listed for you to select.
2. Customize your table to suit your preferences. You can determine which columns to display and in what order. To add a new column, choose the column type from the dropdown menu and click "Add". You can also reorder columns by dragging and dropping the sort icon or column heading.
3. Filters appear as dropdowns above the table, and you can add as many as you like. It is important to note that available filter options will vary depending on the post type selected on the first page.
4. Enable lazy loading to improve the table's performance, even when containing hundreds or thousands of items.
5. Choose how to sort the table. You can set the default sorting option and the sort direction.
6. Finally, the wizard will confirm that you have finished creating your table and provide instructions for inserting it onto your site.

Step #3: Add the product table to your website

Once you've finished creating your table using the Post Table Pro plugin, the setup wizard will confirm that you're done and give you instructions for displaying the table on your WordPress site.

You have two options for displaying the table:

1. Use the 'Post Table' block found in the Gutenberg editor.
2. Copy the shortcode from the table builder and paste it anywhere on your site. This gives you the freedom to place the table on any page, no matter its content.

When you view it, it should look something like this on your site’s front end:

Conclusion

You can use a BigCommerce product table plugin to list products in a neat table layout that’s searchable, sortable, and filterable.

This makes it easy for customers to browse products and see everything your store offers at a glance thereby improving their user experience. As a result, you’ll be able to increase product visibility and, ultimately, boost sales.

We showed you how to create a BigCommerce product table in WordPress using Posts Table Pro. Hopefully, you’re in a good position now to take the next steps.

What are some of the ways you improve your customers’ shopping experience on your BigCommerce website? Let us know in the comments section below.

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.

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 over alternatives 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.

• Want to add a description column that marks vegan or gluten-free options, or the calorie count? You can do it! 🥗
• Want to show, hide or reposition the image of each food? Yup, you can do that, too! 💯
• What's more, WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering comes with a shortcode that allows you to incorporate your food ordering system anywhere on your site.
• You can even add opening times and prevent people from ordering while you're closed.

[/checkmark_list]

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

Do our FREE restaurant ordering e-course!

FREE COURSE

This online course is 100% free of charge. You'll learn everything you need to know about making your restaurant pandemic-proof by taking food orders online - no experience needed.

Start Learning

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:

• Delivery Slots 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.

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!

As an online store owner, the easier you make it for customers to find what they’re looking for, the greater the chance of landing a sale. One way to achieve this is by making the process of buying from you as easy and efficient as possible, for example, by creating a WooCommerce product gallery lightbox.

Practically speaking, if visitors are interested in looking at product images, you might consider implementing quick view functionality into your e-commerce store that allows them to view product images and galleries without having to navigate to the single product page.

In this article, we’ll show you how to display your WooCommerce products in a lightbox along with the:

• Product image (with or without extra product information),
• Image zoom functionality, and
• Full product image gallery (with a choice of 2 gallery styles).

We’ll also step through some advanced display options to help you fine-tune your WooCommerce product gallery lightbox.

What is WooCommerce Quick View Pro?

WooCommerce Quick View Pro is a WordPress plugin that allows users to display product information and product images in a lightbox view. This makes it easy for customers to browse products and make purchases – without having to navigate to the single product page. Essentially, it works like a WooCommerce product image lightbox plugin.

The plugin adds a quick view option directly to your WooCommerce store’s main shop page and category pages. You also have the option to launch a gallery lightbox whenever a customer clicks on the product image or product name. This automatically disables links to the single product page i.e. the links are replaced with the quick view links.

With WooCommerce Quick View Pro, you’re able to choose exactly which information from the product’s single product page (for example, product variations and attributes) you’d like to include in the quick view lightbox.

As a result, you’re able to display the information a prospective customer would need to make a buying decision without any distractions or additional steps while delivering an outstanding user experience.

How to create a lightbox containing product images, image zoom, and the full product image gallery

Assuming you have a WordPress-powered website with ...

• WooCommerce installed, activated, and set up.
• Some products added to your online store.

… follow the step by step instructions outlined below to create a lightbox containing product images, image zoom functionality, and the full product image gallery.

Step #1: Install and activate the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin

If you haven’t done so already, get the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin and install and activate it on your WP website. I'll tell you how to set it up as a WooCommerce product gallery lightbox plugin.

Next, head over to WooCommerce -> Settings -> Products -> Quick view from the admin panel to activate the plugin license.

Click the Save changes button to proceed.

You’ll notice that the Woo Quick View plugin automatically displays products in a quick view layout as soon as you activate it. Your main shop page (and category archives) should have Quick View buttons under each product.

It should look something like this:

When customers click the Quick View button, the quick view lightbox opens and displays the following information:

• Product name
• Product image
• Reviews
• Price
• Quantity selector
• Add to cart button
• Product information (SKU, category)

Step #2: Choose what information to display in the product quick view lightbox

Out of the box, the plugin displays the above-mentioned information in the lightbox view.

However, you can choose exactly what you’d like to display from the plugin’s settings page. Specifically, you’re able to display images with (and without) the product image and product details. Product details include product name, variations, attributes, SKUs, and categories. Here’s how:

From the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin’s settings screen (WooCommerce -> Settings -> Products -> Quick view), scroll down till you reach the Quick View contents option. Use the dropdown menu next to it to decide what to display inside the quick view lightbox:

• Image only
• Product details only
• Image and product details (default setting)

For example, if you set the Quick View contents to Image only, the lightbox will only display the product gallery. It will look something like this:

However, if you decide to go with the Image and product details setting, you can choose which product details to include in the quick view lightbox. The available options include:

• Reviews
• Price
• Short description
• Add to cart button
• Meta information

Simply tick the checkboxes next to the product details you’d like to display in the quick view lightbox.

Step #3: Select a gallery thumbnail style

With WooCommerce Quick View Pro, you can choose how to display product gallery images in the quick view lightbox. You can decide between Thumbnails and Bullets.

From the same screen (WooCommerce -> Settings -> Products -> Quick view), scroll down till you reach the Gallery thumbnail style option. Use the dropdown menu next to it to decide between displaying product gallery images as thumbnails or bullet navigation in the quick view lightbox.

If you decide to go with Thumbnails, the quick view lightbox will look something like this:

And if you decide to go with Bullets, the quick view lightbox will look like this:

With the bullet navigation option, customers can click through the bullets to browse the product gallery.

Use WooCommerce Quick View with product tables

WooCommerce Quick View Pro integrates seamlessly with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin. Use them together to list products in an interactive table or order form layout, complete with add quick view buttons or links.

As a result, customers will be able to open up the full product image gallery in a WooCommerce product image lightbox directly from the table. Add quick view buttons or links to the wholesale order form.

You can choose to add a Quick View button to the table. Or you can choose to have it launch whenever a customer clicks on the product name (or image) in the table.

When both the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin and the WC Product Table plugin are installed and activated to your website, you’ll see a new Quick View Pro option the the WooCommerce Product Table plugin’s settings screen (i.e. WooCommerce -> Settings -> Products -> Product tables).

Ticking the checkbox next to the Product links option makes it so the product page links in your table layout open the quick view box instead of linking to the single product page. This is the perfect option for users who want to completely disable the individual product page.

Get WooCommerce Product Table

Case study: Ink This and That’s product table with quick view functionality

Ink This and That sells different sorts of matching products including backpacks, dresses, t-shirts, swimsuits, and leggings. They use WooCommerce Quick View Pro along with WooCommerce Product Table to showcase their product galleries in a lightbox view.

Whenever a customer clicks on the product image in the table layout, the product gallery opens up in a lightbox view. Customers can then zoom into the image and browse other images in the gallery. The e-commerce store chose to go with the Thumbnails gallery style for their WooCommerce gallery lightbox.

Further reading: Discover the best WordPress lightbox plugins.

Where to get the plugin

Integrating quick view into your main shop page and category archive pages makes it easy for customers to view product images and product galleries without having to click through to the single product page. It effectively optimizes the purchase process and helps you deliver a professional and enhanced user experience to your customers.

Do you have any questions about how to use a WooCommerce gallery lightbox plugin in your own online store? Let us know in the comments below!

As the WordPress content management system has grown and evolved over time, more and more websites are using their own custom post types (CPT). You can use them for any type of website content, from documents to events, and from products to portfolios. However, visitors may find it difficult to search for and navigate to your custom posts via WordPress' typical blog-style layout and default WordPress search feature.

Displaying your WordPress content in a CPT table can help address that problem. Creating a dynamic, searchable list for your custom posts ensures that users can quickly find what they're looking for. Plus, an easy-to-navigate list of custom post types makes for easy browsing, which encourages users to spend more time on your site.

In this article, we'll discuss custom post types and explain why listing them in a WordPress CPT table is a smart move. Then, we'll provide steps on how to easily create a searchable list or search form of any WordPress custom post type. Alternatively, watch us creating and listing WordPress custom post types in this video:

An introduction to custom post types

Custom post types are used for content that's similar to a standard WordPress post but has different organization and/or information. For example:

• Many e-commerce plugins include a 'products' custom post type. This is built on top of the familiar WordPress editor, supplemented with additional fields for displaying pricing data, shipping methods, and so on. For example, WooCommerce has a 'products' custom post type, and Easy Digital Downloads has a 'downloads' custom post type.
• WordPress events plugins create an 'events' new post type. This makes it easy to add upcoming courses and events to your website.
• Most WordPress themes come with one or more custom post types. This can include new default post types for portfolios, testimonials, real estate listings, etc.
• You can also create your own new custom post types to store any other type of content. For example, if you want to create your own document library then you'll want to create a 'documents' post type. We recommend using a plugin to do this rather than messing around with register_post_type code snippets.

With custom post types, you can improve your site's organization and navigation. For instance, if your e-commerce site had a blog with regular posts in addition to products, then it would be a nightmare if both were stored as 'posts'. Your single posts and products would be mixed together in one archive, which would be difficult for you to manage, and unintuitive for your users.

The same is true for any kind of new content, whether that's recipes, encyclopedia-style articles, or something completely unique. Custom post types also change your permalinks. For example, if you create a recipes CPT, the permalink of your egg salad recipe might be www.example.com/recipes/egg-salad.

By creating different types of content and listing each one separately on your website, you can help your site's visitors find information for more easily. Using WordPress custom post types also opens the door to listing each post type in a suitable layout, instead of using the same blogging layout for everything. You'll learn how to create WordPress CTP tables in this article.

The benefits of listing custom post types on your WordPress site

The possibilities for custom post types are nearly endless. Listing them in a CPT table makes it easier for users to navigate and browse your site. By quickly searching and filtering your custom posts, visitors can quickly find what they're looking for.

You can list custom post types with our WordPress CPT plugin, Posts Table Pro:

We've received a lot of feedback about how Posts Table Pro has helped people to list CPT more effectively:

Case study: How Nova Group list custom post types with Posts Table Pro

Nova Group used Posts Table Pro to make their portfolio project listings accessible and navigable for potential clients. The WordPress plugin saves them time by automatically listing the 'Projects' custom post type in a readable, searchable format:

This site uses a WP custom post type to display the company's case studies and organize those studies into a searchable table or search form. That helps site visitors find the projects that are most relevant to them.

Keep reading to learn how to list custom content types on your own WordPress website in a CPT table. (Hint: It's really easy!)

How to easily list WordPress custom post types in a searchable table (in 3 steps)

The easiest way to list WordPress search custom post types is by using a plugin. This way, you don't have to mess around with code snippets like register_post_type, pre_get_posts, add_filter, add_action, or wp_query in your functions.php file or template files or hire a WordPress developer.

Another of our customers said it best in their review:

I chose the plugin because I couldn't find any other plugins on the market that would display a custom post in a table.

We recommend the free Easy Post Types and Fields plugin for creating your custom post type. You can learn how to set it up in our custom post types tutorial.

Once you've created your WordPress custom post type, you can use Posts Table Pro to:

• List WordPress custom post types in a dynamic table.
• Create custom columns, so your table displays your content's most important features (including custom fields and taxonomies).
• Add search, sort, and filter options for easy navigation.

Without further ado, let's find out how to list custom post types with Posts Table Pro!

Step 1: Install and activate Posts Table Pro

To start, you'll need to purchase, download, and install the plugin:

Get Posts Table Pro!

Once you have the zip folder, go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to the Plugins section, and click on "Add New." From there, click on "Upload Plugin" and select the zip folder containing the plugin's contents.

Then, click on "Install Now" to start the installation process, and once it's complete, activate the plugin. When you activate the plugin, the setup wizard for Posts Table Pro will launch and guide you through the process of entering your license key.

Step 2: Configure Post Table Pro's settings

Upon installation of the plugin, an automatic setup wizard will be launched to assist you in creating your first table. However, if you are already familiar with the plugin or would like to get started immediately, you can create new tables at any time by navigating to Post Tables → Add New.

Follow the steps below to finish creating your first table:

1. Start by giving your table a name and selecting the post type you wish to display. If you do not yet have a content type, you can create one using the free Easy Post Types and Fields plugin.
2. On the page for adding posts or pages to your table, you can select from posts, pages, and Custom post types. The available options will depend on the post type you selected in the previous step. If your post type has custom taxonomies, they will also be listed here for you to select.

   

3. You can determine which columns to display and in what order. To add a new column, choose the column type from the dropdown menu and click "Add". For example, title, content, event start date, and event categories. You can also reorder columns by dragging and dropping the sort icon or column heading.
4. Filters appear as dropdowns above the table, and you can add as many as you like. For example, you can add categories and locations as filters. It is important to note that available filter options will vary depending on the post type selected on the first page.
5. Enable lazy loading to improve the table's performance, even when containing hundreds or thousands of items.
6. Choose how to sort the table. You can set the default sorting option and the sort direction.

Step 3: Add the posts table to your site

To display your table created with the Post Table Pro plugin on your WordPress site, follow the instructions given by the setup wizard once you've completed creating the table. You can choose from two options for displaying the table:

• Using the 'Post Table' block available in the Gutenberg editor, or
• Copying the shortcode from the table builder and pasting it anywhere on your site. This allows you to place the table on any page regardless of its content.

And your list of custom post types will look something like this:

Or maybe your WordPress CPT table will look more like this on the front end:

Of course, you may want to use Posts Table Pro to display multiple tables on your site. For example, you might have more than one custom post type and want to create a separate list for each of them.

There are also lots of options to list specific post types, custom posts, or specific custom post types in the table, instead of all of them. For example, you can list custom posts by category, tag, and more. Users will still be able to search it using the text input type.

Then, your list of custom post types will look more like this:

The sky's the limit when it comes to the different ways you can list your content types!

The easy way to list custom post types in WordPress

Custom post types help you display your site's CPT content in a way that makes sense to your users. With Posts Table Pro, you can list your custom content in a way that's logically organized and clearly navigable. In addition, you can enable custom search for it.

In this article, we showed you how to easily list WordPress custom post types in a searchable CPT table or search form:

1. Install and activate Posts Table Pro.
2. Create and customize your table,
3. Add your table to your site wherever you want to list custom posts.

Do you have questions about how to list WordPress custom post types on your site? Leave them in the comments section below!

Looking for quick view popups or product lightboxes? Learn everything you need to know about WooCommerce quick view plugins, how to use them, and how to choose the best one for your store.

Most major e-commerce stores outside of the WordPress space have some sort of quick view functionality on their shop pages. Yet it's surprising that WooCommerce itself doesn't have anything like this built-in. Instead, shoppers have to visit a separate page to learn about and buy each product.

The solution is to use the best WooCommerce quick view plugins to add something like this to your store:

In this article, I'll start by looking at the benefits of a WooCommerce quick view plugin and how it can help different types of e-commerce store.

Then, I'll show you how to use the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin to add quick view buttons and lightboxes to your shop pages.

Let's get started!

What are WooCommerce quick view plugins?

A WooCommerce product quick view plugin does exactly what the name suggests: It gives shoppers a "quick view" of a specific product without requiring them to navigate to the product page.

Overall, product quick views are a popular tactic used by 48% of the top 50 US eCommerce sites, according to the Baymard Institute.

A custom quick view WooCommerce plugin usually displays information like:

• Full product gallery
• Short product description
• Product variations and attributes
• Quantity picker and add to cart button
• Extra product information such as reviews, price, categories, tags, and SKU

Typically, customers trigger the quick view by either:

• Hovering their mouse over the item (no click required)
• Clicking on a button or the product information (requires clicking)

ForeSee found that the latter implementation was more effective in getting customers to use quick view, but you'll still see both approaches.

Some examples

You can see a combination of the hover and button approach in action at the Fossil store - users hover over a product and click the Quick Look button to open a more detailed product quick view popup WooCommerce without leaving the page:

And for an actual WooCommerce quick view plugin demo, you can check out this demo page.

Next, I'll share some use cases for when WooCommerce quick view plugins are a good idea. After that, we'll show you how to add quick view to your store.

What types of store can benefit from WooCommerce quick view plugins?

WooCommerce quick view plugins are the perfect way to present additional information without taking up more space or sending users to a separate product page. Because the information is hidden until a customer actually needs it (i.e. they click a button or link to open the quick view), it doesn't clutter up your product lists.

Here are some great examples of stores that will benefit from a WooCommerce quick view WordPress plugin…

Show a WooCommerce product gallery lightbox without forcing people to leave the page

Most WooCommerce product list views show a single image for each product. The best WooCommerce quick view plugins let you create a product gallery lightbox. Shoppers can browse all your product images. They can view the full gallery and enjoy extra features like image zoom, without loading a new page.

Additionally, customers can quickly switch between the gallery lightboxes for different products. This helps them make a decision.

This approach works whether you're using the regular WooCommerce shop and category pages, or a WooCommerce list view plugin.

Include product reviews right away

Reviews add important social proof to your products. Unfortunately, you normally have to get a shopper to go to the individual product page before you can show them the average star rating for each product.

However, with a product quick view WooCommerce plugin, you can display reviews right away. This puts your social proof front and center.

Display food add-ons for a WooCommerce restaurant ordering system

If you're using WooCommerce as a restaurant ordering system, you probably know the struggle of trying to balance presenting a clean, easy-to-read menu with giving your customers the ability to customize their food orders.

For example, if you have a pizza delivery shop, you might have 10+ different toppings that customers can choose from, which can get cluttered on a standard WooCommerce list view menu. You can add toppings and other options like this by using the WooCommerce Product Options plugin.

With the WooCommerce quick view plugin, you can present a clean, easy-to-navigate menu and then let customers customize their order using the product quick view.

You'll still get that nice one-page ordering that restaurants need, but you won't have to compromise on usability.

Related tutorial: Create a WooCommerce restaurant ordering system

Create a detailed "build your own product" configurator

If you let customers build their own products with WooCommerce, you might have too many configuration options to display in your product list. Like the restaurant example above, a WooCommerce quick view plugin lets you offer all those options while still keeping your product list organized.

Related tutorial: Sell 'Build your own' products in WooCommerce

Display information from third-party plugins like deposits, subscriptions, etc.

Many WooCommerce quick view plugins add their own information to the add to cart section of a product page. Common examples are Deposits, Attribute Swatches, and Subscriptions.

These extras won't display on the default WooCommerce shop or category pages. They're normally only available on the WooCommerce single product page popup. However, the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin supports a long list of third party plugins, including all of the ones mentioned above. The extra product options appear in the WooCommerce quick view product popup. As a result, your main shop page remains clean while still letting visitors access the important information from the same page.

Move add-ons, attributes, and variations into the WooCommerce quick view

A WooCommerce quick view plugin is a great option for displaying product add-ons, attributes, and variations. If you want to display product options as a WooCommerce preview items popup window, then this is the best quick view plugin for you.

The custom quick view WooCommerce lightbox lets you display more information about each product as well as extra buying options - all without having to visit the individual product page.

You can even display product variations as a table in the quick view lightbox. To do this, use the WooCommerce Quick View Pro and WooCommerce Product Table plugins together. That way, you can display variations as a table in the quick view window.

Display audio or video playlists in the popup

If you use audio or video playlists at your store (either as actual products or as supplemental product information), you can display an individual media player or a full playlist in the WooCommerce quick view plugin lightbox.

All you need to do is add a media player to the WooCommerce preview items popup product short description.

You can also display audio or video media players directly in your product list if desired. We have some dedicated posts for audio and video, as well as a tutorial on how to create a WooCommerce audio store.

Show bundled or composite products in the popup

By default, your shop page or product list displays each individual product, even if it's part of a product bundle or group.

With the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin, though, you can display grouped products via the native WooCommerce functionality. This WP plugin also supports product groupings that you've created with the Bundled Products or Composite Products plugins.

You can get pretty creative with these configurations, as explained in this article about creating composite products.

Introducing the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin

Quick View Pro is one of the best WordPress quick view plugins. It makes it easy to add quick view features to any Woo store. We spent many months working to develop the best WooCommerce quick view plugin on the market. It has everything you need to speed up shopping and allow customers to learn more and buy directly in the quick view lightbox.

Within minutes, you'll be able to let shoppers open a customizable quick view box with the click of their mouse:

Add quick view buttons anywhere

You can use WooCommerce Quick View Pro with the regular WooCommerce shop and category pages. Either enable it globally or for specific categories only.

You can also use it with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin to create quick one-page order forms complete with quick view buttons:

Flexible quick view lightboxes

You can choose what information to display in the WooCommerce quick view - like opting to only include images, product details, or both.

This means that you can use it:

• As a WooCommerce add to cart popup plugin, letting customers choose variations and product options from the custom quick view WooCommerce.
• You can use it as a way to bypass the WooCommerce single product page popup.
• Furthermore, you can even use it as a standalone WooCommerce gallery lightbox plugin. This showcases the full product image gallery in a product quick view popup WooCommerce with zoom features.

And you can also control how shoppers open the product quick view, like adding a quick view button or opening the quick view when a shopper clicks on the product title or image.

More WooCommerce quick view plugin features

Beyond letting you customize how shoppers open the product quick view box, WooCommerce Quick View Pro also:

• Lets you customize what information displays in the quick view. For example, you can choose to only display images or to only display certain product details - or both. You have full control over the specific product data that displays in the quickview lightbox.
• Is responsive and mobile friendly. The quick view popup works on all devices and shoppers can open the quick view with any touch screen.
• Works with all WooCommerce product types. Simple products, variable products, external/affiliate products, grouped products... your customers can buy any of these from the quick view modal window.
• Integrates with other popular WooCommerce plugins, including WooCommerce Product Options, WooCommerce Product Bundles, WooCommerce Deposits, WooCommerce Subscriptions, WooCommerce Wishlist Plugin, and more.

When a shopper adds a product to their cart from the quick view, the plugin automatically closes the quick view box and shows a success message. This encourages people to keep browsing and purchasing additional products. Alternatively, you can use the native WooCommerce "Redirect to the cart page after successful addition" feature to send shoppers straight to their carts.

Tutorial: How to set up the best WooCommerce quick view plugin

Next, we get to the practical part of this article: the WooCommerce Quick View Pro setup tutorial.

Below, you'll learn how to use WooCommerce Quick View Pro with:

• The regular WooCommerce shop and archive pages.
• Order forms or product list views that you've created with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.

Either watch the video, or follow the written instructions underneath.

Step 1: Install and activate WooCommerce Quick View Pro

As soon as you install and activate the WooCommerce Quick View plugin on your WooCommerce store, it automatically adds product quick view features right away.

By default, it adds a new Quick View button to the main shop page and category archives. (If you like, then you can disable it for specific categories as needed.)

You can see an example of the default button below:

When users click that button, the quick view lightbox opens and displays the:

• Short description
• Add to cart button
• Image gallery
• Extra metadata such as the category, tags, and SKU code
• Price
• Reviews
• Plus various additional product data, as required

Those are the defaults - now, here's how to customize how the WooCommerce quick view plugin works.

Step 2: Choose how shoppers open quick view

To access WooCommerce Quick View Pro's settings, use the plugin setup wizard or go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Quick view.

The first setting that you'll want to configure is how shoppers actually open the quick view popup.

First, you can choose whether or not to use the dedicated quick view button. If you do want to use the button, you can also:

• Change the button text
• Turn the button icon on or off

For example, if you turn the icon off and change the text, here's how your shop page might look:

Beyond that, you can also choose whether or not to open the quick view when a shopper clicks on the product's title or image.

By default, clicking on the product image or title takes shoppers to the individual product page. But if you check the box for Open from product name/image, the quick view will open instead:

Step 3: Choose what information displays in the product quick view box

You can do much more than choose how shoppers open the WooCommerce product quick view box. Beyond this, you can also control what product information displays inside the quick view box. And even further, you can choose how shoppers can interact with that information.

First, you can use the dropdown to control whether to display:

• Only product images
• Only product details
• Both images and product details (the default)

For example, if you set the Quick View contents drop-down to Image only, the quick view box would only display the product gallery:

Further down, you can also control more about how the image and product details function. For example, you can choose which product details to include.

Using WooCommerce Quick View Pro with WooCommerce Product Table

Next, let's cover how to use the WooCommerce quick view plugin with our WooCommerce Product Table WordPress plugin. This is a super-popular combination because customers love creating quick product order forms complete with quick view buttons.

WooCommerce Product Table lets you display some or all of your products in a flexible list view. A few popular use cases are:

• Restaurant order forms
• Wholesale stores
• Audio or video stores
• Etc.

WooCommerce Quick View Pro is built to integrate with WooCommerce Product Table.

When both WooCommerce quick view plugins are active, you'll see a new Quick View Pro option in the WooCommerce Product Table settings. You can access these settings by going to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Product tables:

When you check this box, all of the product page links in your table will open the quick view box instead of linking to the individual product page. That means shoppers can:

• Click on the name of the product to open more information
• Use the add to cart button if they want to add the product straight to their carts

It replaces all links to the single product page with quick view. As a result, customers can't get from the table to the WooCommerce single product page popup. It's perfect if you want to disable the individual product page completely.

An example

Beyond that setting, you also get a new quick-view column option that you can add to your table:

Learn more about column options in WooCommerce Product Table

If you include the quick-view column, it will add a persistent quick view button for each product:

If you want to change the button text, you can use regular WooCommerce Quick View Pro button settings. You can also use those settings to customize what information is included in the product quick view box.

Get the best WooCommerce quick view plugin today

eCommerce quick views are a great way to let shoppers view more information without forcing them to visit the individual product page.

Almost half of the top 50 ecommerce stores use quick view functionality. About 45% of shoppers are likely to make use of quick view functionality.

It doesn't matter whether you're using the regular WooCommerce shop pages or you've created product list views with our WooCommerce Product Table plugin. Either way, WooCommerce Quick View Pro adds a flexible product quick view box in just a few minutes. We've designed it to be one of the best WooCommerce quick view plugins available today, and we hope you like it.

Do you have any questions about how to use WooCommerce quick view plugins at your store? Let us know in the comments!