WooCommerce takeaway plugin

If you run a pizza delivery, Chinese, Indian, or other types of fast food restaurant, you know how important a quality takeaway ordering system is. A huge variety of paid services exist to help you accept takeaway orders. But if you're looking to cut costs, consider using a WooCommerce takeaway plugin for your WordPress site. This plugin allows you to handle everything in-house and avoid paying commissions to third-party platforms.

If you've peeked at a third-party takeaway service like Uber Eats or Grub Hub, then you've probably seen that using one of those tools will cost you at least ~$100 per month, plus a hefty setup fee. For example, ChowNow costs $149 per month plus a $399 setup fee for every single location. Yikes - hopefully you're selling a lot of takeaway food!

If you run a restaurant with a takeout business - e.g. pizza shops, sandwich shops, etc. - you need a better option. It must be convenient for your customers, and profitable for your takeaway restaurant.

To make that happen, we're going to show you how to use the WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering plugin to create your own WooCommerce takeaway plugin setup with no monthly fees or commission to pay. You'll have full control to customize it, and it costs a fraction of what you'd pay for ChowNow's setup fee alone. In the end, it will look something like this:

WooCommerce restaurant plugin

Example of a WooCommerce online takeaway ordering system

Importance of having a restaurant takeaway ordering system

Having a restaurant take away system is crucial for any restaurant that wants to offer takeout or delivery options services. It allows customers to browse the food menu, place their order, and pay online, all from the comfort of their homes or office. Here are some reasons why having a restaurant take away ordering system is important:

  1. Convenience: Customers can place their order whenever they want, without having to wait on hold or in a long line. They can also choose to pick up their order at the restaurant or have it delivered to their door.
  2. Increased Sales: A take away system can help increase sales for restaurants by making it easier for customers to order food. Customers are more likely to order online than over the phone, which can lead to more orders and higher revenue.
  3. Order Accuracy: With a take away system, there is less room for error when taking orders. Customers can select their items and customize them as they like, which reduces the chance of miscommunication or mistakes.
  4. Customer Loyalty: Offering a convenient and efficient ordering experience can help build customer loyalty. When customers have a positive experience, they are more likely to return to the restaurant and recommend it to others.
  5. Data Collection: A take away system can also provide valuable data to the restaurant, such as popular menu items, peak ordering times, and customer feedback. This information can be used to improve the restaurant's menu, marketing, and overall operations.

Using WooCommerce to create a restaurant takeaway ordering system

By using WooCommerce takeaway plugin, You can take advantage of its robust features, customization options, and flexibility to build an online food ordering system tailored to their specific needs.

It offers a wide range of features that make it easy to manage orders, track inventory, accept different payment gateways, and even set up shipping options. This means that restaurant owners can have all the tools you need to manage you online ordering system in one place.

Restaurant owners can also easily customize your online ordering system to match your brand and the specific needs of your business. You can choose from a wide range of templates and themes to create a unique look and feel for your online ordering system. You can also add custom fields to your order forms to collect specific information from customers, such as dietary restrictions or special requests.

All you'll need is a WordPress website and the WooCommerce takeaway plugin. And the best news is that it only takes a few minutes to set up your WordPress takeaway order system!

What you need for a WooCommerce takeaway system, plus how much it will cost

WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering plugin - page layouts

To create a successful WordPress takeaway order system, there are a few tools you'll absolutely need. There are others that are optional and can help you refine how the WordPress takeaway plugin functions.

On the must-have front, you'll need:

  • WooCommerce - free WooCommerce will handle organizing your different menu items. It can also let you accept online payments if desired. But, most people will probably pay for take away orders in person anyway, so you can skip the payment functionality if you want to accept payments in person.
  • WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering - premium By default, the way WooCommerce displays items isn't good for a takeaway menu. The WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering plugin fixes that by listing your entire takeaway menu on one organized page, divided by food category. It also has other essential features such as setting delivery times and preventing customers from ordering while you're closed.

Those two plugins comprise the core of your WordPress takeaway plugin stack. Later in this article, I'll tell you about some extra plugins you might like for adding extra features such as opening hours, delivery slots, and automatic order printing.

Here's how to put it all together…

How to create a WooCommerce takeaway order system

Below, you'll find a full written tutorial about how to take fast food orders online with WordPress takeaway plugin or WooCommerce takeaway plugin. Alternatively, watch this video and watch me set it up in 10 minutes, or sign up for my free online course for restaurants.

 

You can divide the process into three rough steps:

  1. Adding your menu items to WooCommerce
  2. Creating your takeout order menu with WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering
  3. Extending your WooCommerce takeaway system with other plugins (optional)

Step 1: Add your menu items as WooCommerce products

To get started, make sure you've installed and activated the free WooCommerce takeaway plugin, as well as configured basic information using the plugin's setup wizard. During the setup wizard, either follow the onscreen instructions to set up PayPal or Stripe (credit/debit card) payments, or just choose 'Local Pickup' and have customers pay when they pick up their order at the restaurant or curbside.

Once you have WooCommerce running, you'll need to add each item on your menu as a WooCommerce product.

To do that, go to Products → Add New in your WP dashboard. Because WooCommerce is a general eCommerce plugin, not all of the settings here will apply to your takeaway order system.

Essential product data
  • Title - the name of the food item as it appears on your menu.
  • Long description (optional) - the full description of that menu item if you want to display extra text in a lightbox popup for each product.
  • Product data - this is where you'll add the price and, if needed, let people customize the dish with their own toppings, substitutes, etc. (more on this in the next section).
  • Short description (optional) - if you want, you can create a separate shorter description that will appear on the fast food ordering system page.
  • Category - this helps you divide your menu into different categories. For example, you could have one category for "Pizza", another for "Subs", etc.
  • Image (optional) - the image for your menu item. Make it as mouth-watering as possible!
  • Publish - once you finish configuring everything, you click this button to save your menu item and make it live.

Once you're done, you'll need to repeat the process for all of your takeaway food items. And you can also give your customers options, which we'll talk about next...

Use product variations or add-ons to let shoppers customize their food choices

You'll probably have some menu items where your customers get to pick different toppings or sizes as part of their takeaway orders. Or, you might even have items where a customer needs to pick both.

For example, if you're setting up a WooCommerce pizza ordering online, then customers will want to:

  1. Choose what size pizza they want
  2. Add their own toppings (for an extra cost)

To give customers the power to customize their own orders, you can use two more options called variations or add-ons:

  • Variations - variations are good for core options - like a food item's size. Variable product are built into the free WooCommerce plugin.
  • Add-ons - product add-ons are better for upgrades - like toppings to add on to a pizza. You'll need the official Product Options plugin to add these extra options to your takeaway meals.

You can see the difference between variations and add-ons in the screenshot below:

Step 2: Create your WooCommerce takeaway order form with the Restaurant Ordering plugin

Once you've added all of your takeaway food items as WooCommerce products, you need a user-friendly way to display them. This makes it easy for your shoppers to browse your entire takeout menu and build their order without needing to click around to different pages.

That's where WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering comes in. It will let you:

  • Display all of your menu items in one list, divided by category (just like your printed takeaway menu!).
  • Control exactly what information displays, like product images, descriptions, and so on.
  • Prevent customers from ordering outside of your opening hours.

And your customers will be able to:

  • Customize menu items
  • Add all the food they want to their cart without leaving the page

To get started, make sure you've purchased and installed the WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering plugin:

Configure the takeaway order form

When you install WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering, it instantly creates a food ordering page listing all your products. The page is structured by category.

You can customize this page on the plugin settings page. For example, you can choose which information to display about each food item, and change the order form layout to 1, 2, or 3 columns.

WooCommerce resturant plugin flexible food order forms
WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering provides flexible layouts for your takeaway order forms

For even greater flexibility, the takeaway plugin comes with a shortcode that you can use to add different food order forms anywhere on your restaurant online store. This is handy if you want each category to be displayed differently, or on different pages.

Customers can click on each food item to add it instantly to the cart, or if you prefer then they can open up a lightbox to view more information, select options and add to the cart from there.

WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering plugin integration
Customers can learn more and choose options from a product lightbox

Add a cart to the takeaway ordering page

Most online takeaway order forms show the contents of your cart on the page.

While you could add a sidebar to the page and add the standard 'Cart' widget, this wastes valuable real estate. Most takeaway food order forms look best if they take up the full width of the page. Installing WooCommerce Fast Cart is a better solution.

A fast cart pops up on the page - either automatically, or when the customer clicks on the floating cart icon. Either way, hungry shoppers can quickly review their selections, pay and order takeout food without leaving the page.

WooCommerce restaurant floating cart
Use WooCommerce Fast Cart to add a popup cart to the takeaway ordering page

Add any type of extra options using WooCommerce Product Options + filter plugin

You can create a seamless restaurant takeaway ordering system with the help of two WooCommerce plugins. The WooCommerce Product Options plugin is the perfect choice for adding extra options to restaurant menu items, with the ability to create and manage customizable product options in various formats, including checkboxes, radio buttons, clickable images, and text boxes. It works by adding groups of options globally to selected products or categories, streamlining the process of creating combinations of options, and eliminating the limitations of creating variations.

WooCommerce restaurant order form with extra options

In addition, the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin can enhance the browsing experience for customers by allowing you to create filters for menu items based on categories like appetizers, entrees, desserts, or dietary restrictions like gluten-free or vegetarian. The plugin offers the flexibility to create multiple filter layouts, including display filters above the list of products or as sidebar widgets, with filter visibility options and mobile-friendly slide-out panels.

WooCommerce restaurant plugin with filters
Add filters with [WooCommerce Product Filters](https://barn2.com/wordpress-plugins/woocommerce-product-filters/?utm_source=barn2&utm_medium=salespage&utm_campaign=salespage&utm_content=salespage-wro-wpf)

With the ability to customize the filter styles and layouts, you can create a seamless ordering experience that matches your restaurant's branding and WordPress site design. Together, these two plugins can help you create a streamlined and efficient restaurant takeaway system like a WooCommerce pizza ordering system.

Step 3: Extend your Woo ordering system (delivery slots, order notifications to the kitchen, etc.)

At this point, you have a working WooCommerce takeaway ordering system. But there are still a few potential problems:

  • People will always receive their takeout order as soon as it's ready - they can't schedule an order in advance.
  • You have to pay attention to your email or refresh the website to see when a new takeaway order comes in.

To refine your WooCommerce takeaway system's functionality and fix some of these issues, you can optionally use some of the plugins we discussed earlier to change how things work.

Again, consider:

  • WooCommerce Delivery Slots to let customers choose when they want to pick up or collect their order.
  • Twilio SMS Notifications to receive SMS notifications whenever a customer places a new takeaway order. Or, optionally, to send automatic SMS notifications to customers when their order is ready to be picked up.
  • WooCommerce Automatic Order Printing prints takeaway orders direct to the kitchen.
  • If you have a smartphone or tablet, you can also install the free WooCommerce iOS mobile app. This app allows you or your staff to mark orders as fulfilled when the customer picks the order up without needing to hop on your computer.

Bonus: Increase your average order value by taking tips on your WooCommerce takeaway website!

When you accept takeaway orders online via WooCommerce, it's easy to miss out on tips. This is because ordering and paying in person is personal and people are in the habit of adding a tip to their order. To increase the average order value from your takeaway restaurant customers, you need to replicate this on your website.

Fortunately, you can do this using the WooCommerce Donation Or Tip On Cart And Checkout plugin. It adds a 'Tip' field, pre-filled with a suggested tip amount, to the checkout page. This is a great way to increase your revenue and accept tips from your online takeaway orders.

Save money with this WordPress takeaway plugin stack today

By creating a WooCommerce takeaway system, you both gain the flexibility to create a truly custom takeaway order system and bypass huge setup fees and monthly fees for other restaurant ordering systems.

That means happier customers and a better bottom line for your restaurant! Whether you need a WooCommerce pizza ordering and food delivery system or automated ordering for Chinese fast food, it's the perfect solution.

Get started today with WooCommerce and WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering.

If you want a more in-depth look at any of the topics we touched on in this post, be sure to read our complete guide to creating a restaurant ordering system with WordPress takeaway plugin.

If you use your WordPress website to sell upcoming events, you’ll need an effective way to display them. While you can use a dedicated WooCommerce events plugin, these can be complex and weigh down your site – which is the last thing you want. Keep reading to learn the pros and cons of both options, and how to set them up.

Are you looking to create an events page for your WooCommerce store but not sure where to start? Look no further! In this comprehensive guide, I'll walk you through the process of creating a dynamic and engaging events page, with or without using an events plugin.

Surprisingly, there are several ways to add events to WooCommerce. Some involve using a fully featured events plugin, and others are simpler alternatives which achieve a similar result. You can either:

Whichever method you use, you can then list your events in a searchable table to help people find them more easily. The best way to do this is by installing the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.

In this post, I'm going to tell you all about both ways to create a WooCommerce events page. I'll also show you how to list your events in a table so that more people will find and book your events.

Let's get started!

Method 1: Add an event date field to your WooCommerce products

The easiest way to convert any WooCommerce product into an event is to add a simple date field to it. The WooCommerce Product Options plugin is perfect for this because it lets you add a wide range of extra fields to your products.

You can add a date field where customers choose a date and time from a calendar. In addition, you can add lots of other event-related fields, for example to collect extra information from attendees.

WooCommerce product date picker field
A WooCommerce product with a date picker field added by the Product Options plugin

Using this method to create a WooCommerce events page is much simpler than using a dedicated events plugin. However, it's surprisingly powerful because you get everything you need to manage and sell events. For example, you can choose which dates and time slots are available. You can choose how far in advance people can book an event.

While the simple date picker field is missing some options such as setting a maximum number of attendees, it's ideal if you want a simple solution.

How to add a date field to a product

WooCommerce product add-ons date picker field
The event date field comes with lots of options for controlling your events
  1. First, create the products that you will be adding the event date field to (Products → Add New).
  2. Next, install the WooCommerce Product Options plugin.
  3. Go to Products → Product Options in the WordPress Dashboard.
  4. Create a new options group and give it a name that you will remember. Select the product(s) that you want the date field to appear on, or leave this field blank to add it to all products.
  5. Next, click 'Add Option'. Choose the 'Date' option type.
  6. Fill in all the options for your event date field.
  7. Finally, visit the product page. You will see the event date field above the add to cart button.

Now go back and add any other fields that you need for your event pages. This is an excellent way to collect information about the people who will be attending your events. You can also sell extras, such as training handbooks or lunch.

Method 2: Use a WooCommerce events plugin

As we have seen, adding date calendar fields to your event products can be surprisingly sophisticated. However, if you want extra features such as managing availability and full ticket management, then you'll need a WooCommerce events plugin.

The Events Calendar is widely regarded as the best plugin to add and manage events in WooCommerce. This is thanks to its robust features, user-friendly interface, and seamless integration with the WooCommerce platform. The plugin has been designed with both simplicity and flexibility in mind, making it suitable for both novice and advanced users. When paired with the Event Tickets add-on, you can not only create and display events but also sell tickets for those events directly through your WooCommerce store.

Features

The main features of The Events Calendar include:

  • Easy event creation: With a simple and intuitive interface, creating events becomes a breeze. Add details such as event name, date, time, location, description, and organizer information.
  • Calendar view and list view: Display your events in a visually appealing calendar view or a straightforward list view, depending on your preferences and website design. These are ok if you just have a few events, but I recommend using Events Calendar with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin for a more structured and searchable display. We'll cover this later in this article.
  • Responsive design: The Events Calendar is fully responsive, ensuring that your events page looks great on all devices, including desktop, tablet, and mobile.
  • Customizable templates: Customize the look and feel of your individual events pages using pre-built templates, or create your own with custom CSS.
  • Integration with Google Maps: Easily add location information to your events, and automatically display a Google Maps view for easy navigation.
  • Recurring events: Schedule events that occur regularly, such as weekly or monthly, without having to create each event individually.
  • Import and export functionality: Import events from other sources or export your events for use in other platforms.
  • Event Tickets add-on: This powerful add-on allows you to sell tickets for your events, manage attendees, and even offer multiple ticket types (e.g., general admission, VIP, etc.).

Using Events Calendar to create WooCommerce events

  1. Install and activate The Events Calendar plugin: Navigate to the 'Plugins' section in your WordPress dashboard. Click 'Add New', search for 'The Events Calendar', and then install and activate the plugin.
  2. Install and activate the Event Tickets add-on: Similarly, search for 'Event Tickets' in the 'Add New' plugin section, then install and activate the plugin.
  3. Now you need to purchase and install the premium version of Event Tickets. This is what adds the WooCommerce integration for selling access to your events.
  4. Configure plugin settings: Go to Events → Settings in your WordPress dashboard to configure the plugin settings, such as your preferred calendar view, timezone, currency, and more.
  5. Create an event: Click on Events → Add New to start creating your first event. Fill in the required event details, such as title, date, time, location, and description.
  6. Add tickets to your event: With the Event Tickets add-on installed, you can add tickets to your events by scrolling down to the 'Tickets' section on the event editing page. Set ticket prices, quantity, and any other relevant details. This creates a WooCommerce product, which is your 'ticket'.

As you can see, Events Calendar requires a lot more setup than simply using WooCommerce Product Options to add an event date field to your products. However, this is the best option if you need the extra features that come with a dedicated WooCommerce events plugin.

Why you need a better way to display WooCommerce events on your website

A WordPress website is a fantastic way to showcase events and gather an audience for them. You can promote them to existing customers and new visitors, provide all the information they’ll need, and let them buy tickets or make reservations online.

Whichever of the above methods you use to turn WooCommerce products into bookable events, they involve setting up a dedicated page (i.e. a product) for each event. This is the best way to add and manage events. However, it does mean that visitors will need to navigate through a lot of different pages to see all your WooCommerce events, which isn’t ideal. The default WooCommerce store layout simply isn't appropriate for selling courses or events.

The solution to this problem is to create a searchable table-based WooCommerce events page like this:

A fully-customized WooCommerce events page.

Why list events in a WooCommerce table?

There are lots of reasons why a product table is ideal for creating a WooCommerce events page:

  • You can include the essential information about each event, providing visitors with what they need to make a decision without overwhelming them with details.
  • Customers can quickly search and filter the list of events to find what they're looking for.
  • Plus, they’ll be able to make comparisons easily, choose the number of places they want to book, and even purchase tickets to several events at once.

This plugin lets you create a product table organizing all your WooCommerce events into one place. You can include whatever information you like about each event. It’s a fantastic way to peak your visitors’ interest and encourage them to sign up for more events.

How to create a WooCommerce events page

Putting together a WooCommerce events table is simple. Before you do this, make sure you have created your events using one of the methods described above. WooCommerce Product Table works with either method.

Follow the simple steps below to display your WooCommerce events effectively. The end result will look similar to our events list demo page.

Step 1: Install the WooCommerce Product Table plugin

Naturally, the first thing you’ll need to do is get your hands on WooCommerce Product Table.

When you purchase the plugin, you’ll be provided with a zip folder containing all its files. You’ll want to save this to your computer. Then, in your WordPress dashboard, click on Plugins → Add New, select Upload Plugin, and use the Choose File button to locate that zip folder:

After that, select Install Now to add the plugin to your site. When you see a link labeled Activate, click on that as well.

Next, navigate to WooCommerce → Settings → Products, and click on Product tables. 

Here, enter the license key you were given in your purchase confirmation email. This will get WooCommerce Product Table fully set up on your site.

Step 2: Create your WooCommerce events page

Now, it’s time to create the page where your WooCommerce events will be displayed. To do that, just navigate to Pages → Add New:

The next step depends on whether you're using the Classic Editor or Gutenberg:

  • Classic Editor - Click the 'Insert Product Table' toolbar button. This adds a [product_table] shortcode to the page.toolbar button
  • Gutenberg - Add the [product_table] shortcode to a 'Shortcode' block.
    WooCommerce Product Table Gutenberg Block

You’ll see a shortcode added into your page. This is a small snippet of code that tells WordPress to display a product table wherever it’s placed. It will automatically apply any settings you’ve configured as well (more on this in the next step).

For now, you can select Preview to see your WooCommerce events page in action:

A basic WooCommerce events product table.

It may look a little bare-bones right now, and some of the labels used don't quite make sense (for example, the Buy column will need to be renamed). However, don't worry! Next up, we’re going to show you how to customize your WooCommerce events list.

Step 3: Configure your WooCommerce events table

At this point, save your new WooCommerce events page as a draft. You may want to keep it open in its own tab, so you can refresh it to see the effects of the changes you’ll be applying. Then, navigate back to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Product tables.

On this page (where you entered your license key earlier), you’ll find lots of settings that let you customize exactly how your product table looks and functions. You can check out all the options in the plugin’s documentation, and find instructions for how to configure them.

For now, let’s touch on the settings that are most important when building a WooCommerce events table. Your first stop should be the Columns option:

The WooCommerce Product Table columns setting.

Here, you can list out each column you want in included in your table. Try to strike a balance between providing all the necessary information, and not overwhelming your visitors. For an events table, we’d recommend the following columns at a minimum: image, name, summary, categories, price, and buy.

Right below that, you’ll definitely want to check the Quantity selectors box. That way, if people want to bring along friends or family to the event, they can reserve multiple places at once.

Next, check out the Add to cart button option:

The WooCommerce Product Table add-to-cart setting.

If you choose Button and checkbox, customers will be able to purchase tickets for more than one event at a time, and add everything to their cart with a single click. This is a smart way to streamline their experience.

Then, take a look at the Filter dropdowns field:

The WooCommerce Product Table filters setting.

You may want to select Show based on columns in table here. This will place one or more drop-down menus above your WooCommerce events table. Especially if you offer more than a few events, this makes your page much more user-friendly.

Finally, you may want to rename some of the labels in your events table. For instance, instead of using Buy above the final column, you could use something more events-specific, such as Book Now. To do that, scroll back up to the Columns field, add a colon after buy and then type in whatever label you'd like to use:

Renaming a label in the events table.

This same method will work for any column you want to rename. You can also change the label for the button that will appear above the table, enabling customers to 'purchase' more than one event at a time. Simply find the 'Add Selected to Cart' text field, and rename it something like Book Selected Events instead.

Change the add to cart button text

Last but not least, you can also change the text on the actual Add to Cart buttons. For that, you'll need the free WooCommerce Custom Add to Cart Button plugin:

WooCommerce Custom Add to Cart Button Plugin

Install and activate the plugin on your site, and then navigate to WooCommerce → Customize. There, select WooCommerce, and then Add to Cart Buttons. There, you can include any text you'd like to use for these buttons in your events table. Don't forget to hit the Publish button when you're done.

With that, your WooCommerce events table should be looking much more professional, and will have a lot of new features. You can check it out by reloading or re-opening the page you created earlier:

A fully-customized WooCommerce events page.

You can continue to customize your product table settings as much as you’d like. When you’re done, simply publish the WooCommerce events list page. Visitors to your site will immediately be able to use it to reserve their spot in your upcoming events!

Step 4 (optional) - Add quick view to the list of events

So far, I've shown you how to list events in WooCommerce with all the information and purchase options in a table. If you want to display extra information that won't fit neatly into a table option, then you can send customers to the single product page for each event. However, this loses momentum and makes the customer less likely to book multiple events. It's better to keep them on a single page while they're choosing their events.

The solution is to add quick view buttons to your list of events. You can do this with the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin, which is designed to work with WooCommerce Product Table. This adds lots of flexibility to your WooCommerce event listings. For example:

  • If you want to show multiple images from previous events, you can show the full product image gallery in a quick view lightbox. This really brings the event to life, making people more likely to book a place. There are 2 options for how to display the image gallery (thumbnails or bullet navigation).
  • Customers can buy product variations directly from the quick view popup. For example, they can choose different ticket options for each event and add them to the cart.
  • You can show extra information such as the event short description and price.

What types of event can I sell in WooCommerce?

The fantastic thing about this method is that you can use it to sell literally any type of events. For example:

  • Live in-person events Admissions tickets, live music or comedy events, charity events, concerts, conferences, dating events, festivals, meet-ups, performances
  • Online events Livestreams, live coaching, online conferences, webinars.
  • Courses Bootcamps, classes, crash courses, test preparation or interview training, training courses, webinars.

Now let’s see what a lightweight list of WooCommerce events looks like in action.

Case study: Using WooCommerce to sell event tickets

To get a taste for what you can accomplish using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin, you can check out the website Weave The Ring:

Another events page on the Weave the Ring website.

Here, you’ll find a well-designed WooCommerce events product table. Each event is listed on its own row, along with key details such as its description, category, price, and even a featured image.

Customers can scroll through the table to see all the events on offer, or use the filter at the top to sort the table by a specific category. This helps them find what they’re looking for more quickly. They can also click on each event’s title to visit its dedicated page, in case they want more information.

When a visitor knows what event they want to see, they can use the quantity selector to choose how many people will be attending. Then, they can click on the handy Add to cart button to make their purchase. If they’re interested in multiple events, they can even select everything at once using the checkboxes under the Buy column, then use the Add Selected to Cart button at the top of the table.

You may want to visit this site yourself, in order to try out the table and get a better sense for its functionality. Then, come back here to learn how to create your own WooCommerce events page!

Case study - Selling WooCommerce events imported from Moodle

WooCommerce events table list with Moodle integration

Tallahassee Christian College and Training Center use WooCommerce to register for their higher education and training courses. They use the free Edwiser Bridge plugin to integrate their WordPress WooCommerce website with Moodle, automatically importing their courses as WooCommerce products.

They use WooCommerce Product Table to list the courses in a table layout. Students can quickly filter the table by category or tag, and click through to the single product page to register.

Bonus: How to sell entry tickets in WooCommerce

WooCommerce sell entry tickets

You can use the techniques discussed in this tutorial to sell entry tickets to a range of locations including museums, art galleries, tourist attractions, or events. Again, you only need WooCommerce and WooCommerce Product Table, and don't need an events plugin.

Simply add each type of entrance ticket as a product (with variations, if required) and list them using WooCommerce Product Table. Activate user-friendly features such as add to cart checkboxes so that visitors can select multiple ticket types and add them to the cart together. For example, a parent might select 2 child tickets and 2 adult tickets before purchasing them all together.

Bonus: Set the default ticket quantity to zero

WooCommerce Default Quantity Plugin

In WooCommerce, the default quantity for buying products is always 1. This applies to any type of products, including events and entrance tickets. However, a default quantity of 0 is actually more appropriate when selling tickets, seats for theatre shows, or places on courses or events.

You can easily change the default quantity to zero by installing the WooCommerce Default Quantity plugin. That way, shoppers can change the required quantity for each ticket to any number they choose before adding them to the cart.

Where to get the plugins

In conclusion, creating a dynamic and engaging events page for your WooCommerce store doesn't have to be a daunting task. This guide has outlined two primary methods to achieve this goal:

To further enhance your events page, you can use the WooCommerce Product Table plugin for a searchable and user-friendly event listing experience.

By carefully considering the pros and cons of each option and assessing your specific needs, you can make an informed decision that best suits your website. Whichever method you choose, remember that the ultimate goal is to create an events page that is both visually appealing and functional. It must make it easy for your customers to discover and book your events. With the right tools and strategies, your WooCommerce events page can become a valuable asset for promoting your upcoming events and driving sales.

Do you have any questions about how to set up the perfect WooCommerce events page? Ask away in the comments section below!

WooCommerce Content Protection Plugin

The WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin is a tool that helps ecommerce site owners limit access to specific products or pages. It's ideal for creating membership programs or providing exclusive content to select customers. By using the WooCommerce restrict product by user feature, you can limit product access to specific groups of customers.

The WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin is an easy-to-use solution for safeguarding your WooCommerce categories on any WordPress site. Its functionality builds on the existing options to password-protect categories or designate them as private, allowing businesses of any size to protect their content effortlessly.

With this plugin, you can easily secure your website while ensuring a personalized and secure experience for your members. Whether you run a small business or a large enterprise, the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin offers the necessary features to meet your content protection needs, allowing you to use WooCommerce restrict product by user feature to categories by user roles and select specific individual user accounts for access. Take advantage of this plugin to protect your valuable content and provide a secure browsing environment for your users.

In this tutorial, we'll explore the best WooCommerce plugin, so you can keep your exclusive goods under wraps.

Importance of protecting content on an ecommerce website

Protecting content on an e-commerce website is crucial for several reasons. Here are some of the key benefits:

  1. Improved security: Protecting sensitive information such as customer data, financial transactions, and product pages helps to prevent fraud and data breaches.
  2. Increased customer loyalty: Restricting access to exclusive content such as discount pricing, special offers, membership levels programs, or premium add-ons can create a sense of exclusivity that encourages customers to return to your WooCommerce memberships site.
  3. Control over product distribution channels: Protecting content can help your online store maintain control over your product distribution channels by using the WooCommerce restrict product by user access to certain products and ensuring you are only sold through authorized channels.
  4. Brand protection: Protecting content can also help your store maintain your brand image and reputation by preventing unauthorized use or distribution of your products and content.
  5. Improved customer experience: Protecting content can enhance the customer experience by offering personalized or exclusive content, ensuring that customers only see relevant products, and preventing spam or unwanted promotions.
  6. Revenue growth: By restricting access to exclusive products or services using payment gateways like Paypal and Stripe, you can help your WooCommerce store generate more revenue. This creates a sense of urgency among customers, encouraging them to make purchases before the opportunity passes.

Restrict WooCommerce categories by user role

WooCommerce protect category by user role

The WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin provides businesses with an easy-to-use solution for restricting access to WooCommerce categories, which has made it an ideal choice for creating a more secure and exclusive e-commerce site. As well as select individual user accounts that can access the category. Customers have given several reasons for wanting to unlock product categories to logged in user profiles based on their role. For example:

  • If you're using password protected categories then it's a pain for administrators to have to enter the password to view the category. Now you can bypass this by automatically unlocking your password protected categories for administrators.
  • If you're creating a wholesale store, then you might want a dedicated 'Wholesale' product category that is visible to logged in B2B users with a 'Wholesale' user role but hidden from regular customers. That's possible too!
  • private WooCommerce members-only store might create a protected category and make it available to all logged in user roles, but hidden from public view. All its sub-categories and their products will automatically be restricted too. Using the WooCommerce restrict product by user feature, website owners can easily create a members-only shop with several categories that are exclusively visible to logged in WordPress users.

How to Set Up User Role Restrictions with the WooCommerce Protected Categories Plugin

To set up user role restrictions with the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin, start by installing the plugin and heading to the Add/Edit Product Category page in WooCommerce. From there, you can easily control which user roles and individual user accounts can access specific categories. This allows you to offer exclusive content, such as discounts, coupons, or membership programs, to specific groups or individuals. Whether you want to restrict access to entire user roles or grant special privileges to certain users, the plugin provides the flexibility to create a personalized and secure browsing experience for your customers.

For instance, if you want to create a membership program that offers exclusive discounts to certain users, you can create a new category and restrict it to only those users who have signed up for the membership program. This way, only users who are part of the program will be able to see and purchase products in that category, while other users will not have access.

Similarly, if you want to offer discounts to certain user roles (such as wholesale customers), you can create a new category and restrict it to only those user roles. This way, only users with that specific role will be able to see and purchase products in that category, while other users will not have access.

Restrict WooCommerce categories to individual logged in users

WooCommerce restrict category by user

If you're using WooCommerce to sell user-specific products, you're likely familiar with the process of creating a separate password protected category for each user. While this option has been popular, it doesn't meet everyone's needs. Asking customers to enter a password to unlock their protected category, and later enter a separate username and password to log into their user account at the checkout can be an issue.

To address this issue, we've developed the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin, which simplifies the process of selling user-specific products. With this plugin, customers can log in once to unlock their hidden products and make a purchase, eliminating the need for duplicating passwords and logins.

Steps in using the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin

Here are the steps you need to follow to use the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin:

  1. Install and activate the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin.
  2. Go to the Add/Edit Product Category screen in WooCommerce.
  3. Select the category you want to protect and choose the users who can access it.
  4. Save your changes, and you're done.

With the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin, you no longer need to create a separate password-protected category for each user registration. Instead, you can easily assign access to specific users for each category, simplifying the process for both you and your customers.

Advanced logic for creating multiple content protection rules

Advanced logic for creating conditional multiple content protection rules allows you to customize your content protection strategy and apply different restrictions to different categories and products. By combining different options, you can create complex protection rules that meet your specific needs.

You may want to protect some single products by requiring users to enter a password, while others may require registered users to have a specific user role or permissions level. You can also restrict access to certain products or categories based on geographic location, device type, or other criteria.

Examples of use cases:

  • A wedding photographer can create a password protected category and give the password to the happy couple and their guests. They can use the new user access role protection to automatically unlock the category for administrators. This lets the store owner view the customer-specific categories without having to enter a password.
  • You might create a hierarchical category structure where Category A is password protected and has 3 child categories: B, C, and D. You could leave Categories B, C, and D to inherit the same password protection as Category A.

With sub-categories, you can create a hierarchical structure for your protected content, where each sub-category inherits the protection rules of its parent category. This makes it easier to manage your content protection strategy, especially when dealing with a large number of products and categories.

Steps in creating multiple rules for your WooCommerce content

Here's how you can use the plugin to create multiple rules for your WooCommerce content:

  1. Choose the 'Protected' Option: To create custom protection rules, simply choose the 'Protected' option for any product category that you want to protect. This option allows you to apply various types of protection, including password protection, user role restrictions, and IP address restrictions.
  2. Add Protection Settings: After choosing the 'Protected' option, you can add whichever types of protection you require. The WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin lets you with several protection options that you can use to create multiple restriction rules for your WooCommerce content restriction.
  3. Test Your Protection Settings: Once you have added your protection settings, it's a good idea to test them to ensure that they are working correctly. You can do this by logging out of your store and attempting to access the protected content. If everything is working correctly, you should be prompted to enter your login credentials or password to access the content.

Choose what happens when guests try to access protected categories

WooCommerce protected categories redirect for logged out users

The WooCommerce Password Protected Categories plugin has the option to show or hide protected categories and their products from the public parts of your store. With password protected categories, guests see a password login page if they ever try to access a protected category or product.

Here are 3 other options for when a logged out user tries to view WooCommerce content that is restricted to specific users or roles:

  • Show 404 error - The guest user will see a 404 error, so it looks like a broken link. This is a good way to hide the fact that your hidden WooCommerce products exist at all!
  •  Show WordPress login page - You can redirect logged out users to the default WordPress login page (/wp-login.php).
  • Show custom post type page - This is my favorite option. It lets you redirect logged out users to any shop page on your WordPress website. For example, you could redirect them to a front-end login page. This will look more professional than the back-end WordPress login. Alternatively, you could create a 'Members Only' page that explains that the page is protected and includes a signup form encouraging them to join. The choice is yours.

Where can I get this WooCommerce protected content plugin?

Restricting content by user is a powerful tool for ecommerce store owners who want to offer personalized experiences for their customers. While there are several methods to achieve this, using the WooCommerce restrict product by user can simplify the process and provide advanced features.

If you're new to restricting content by user, there are various plugins and methods available that can help you find the solution that best suits your needs. For instance, You can ensure compatibility between your password protected categories and WooCommerce subscription plugins to offer exclusive content and products to your subscribers only. Whether you choose a plugin or opt for a custom development solution, taking the time to protect your content by a user will provide a better experience for your customers and enhance the security of your store.

You can also watch a video of us setting it up:

If you haven't got the plugin yet, get WooCommerce Protected Categories now and start restricting your content by user. With a quick and easy setup process, you can have your WooCommerce store up and running in no time! Don't forget to ensure compatibility with your WordPress themes for a seamless user experience.

The key to selling lots of products in your e-commerce store is giving potential customers all the information they need to make a decision. This means finding a clear way to display the vital attributes for each product.

While you can display attributes – such as colors or sizes – on each product page, WooCommerce doesn't include a way to show those attributes on product listing pages (such as the Shop and Category pages). Fortunately, there’s a better approach. You can use the WooCommerce Product Table plugin to display attributes in an attractive, organized product table.

You can list attributes for information purposes, like this:

A product table displaying attributes.

Or you can list attributes as variations, like this:

A WooCommerce product table with drop-down variations.

In this guide, we’ll introduce the solution you’ll need – WooCommerce Product Table. Then, we’ll walk you two ways you can use this plugin to display WooCommerce attributes on shop pages. Let’s get started!

WooCommerce Product Table

Some online stores sell simple products that don’t require much in the way of detail or explanation. However, you’ll often want to include key product attributes as a part of each item's description. 'Attributes' are extra information about the characteristics of a product. This might include the item's size, its color, the material(s) it's made out of, and so on.

WooCommerce – the most popular and powerful e-commerce plugin for WordPress users – lets you easily add attributes to each product. You can either use attributes as a way of providing extra data about each product. Or you can use them to create product variations, with each combination of attributes displayed as a variable option in a dropdown.

By default, attributes are displayed on the individual product pages:

A WooCommerce product page displaying attributes.

This is fine, but it isn’t very prominent. You'll want to make your attributes more much difficult for customers to miss, so they understand what each item is all about. Plus, you may want a way to show off each item's primary characteristics in one place, so customers can easily search for all products with a specific color or material (for example).

If that sounds appealing, WooCommerce Product Table is the plugin you’ll need:

This product attributes plugin is designed specifically for use with WooCommerce. It lets you create an organized, customizable product table to display all of your store’s items. Customers can even filter by attribute to find products more quickly:

An example of a WooCommerce product table displaying attributes.

Check out the WooCommerce Product Table attributes demo!

WooCommerce Product Table offers a few different ways to display WooCommerce attributes on shop pages. You can use it as a standalone table, or as a replacement layout for the main WooCommerce shop page. Let’s take a look at how this works.

Displaying WooCommerce product attributes: 2 case studies

Before you considering adding this type of product table to your own store, you might want to know what it looks like in action. Therefore, let's showcase two websites that use this plugin to display WooCommerce attributes on shop pages.

First up, we have Barks & Squeaks:

A product table on the Barks & Squeaks website.

This online shop provides a create-your-own-hamper service, where you can choose a basket and fill it with pet-related gifts and treats. Above the various product tables, you’ll find drop-down menus that let you sort by attributes (such as pet breed or who the gift is for):

Universal Fans takes a different approach:

A product table on the Universal Fans website.

This site’s product tables lay out the parts offered in the store, in a straightforward and organized manner. On each line, you’ll find all of that product’s relevant attributes, such as size, capacity, and wattage.

Replicating either (or both) of these features on your site is a breeze. In the next few sections, we’ll show you how!

How to display product attributes on WooCommerce shop pages (2 methods)

Below, we’re going to walk you through two ways you can use the WooCommerce Product Table plugin to display attributes on shop pages. These methods can be applied to both new and existing WooCommerce stores. You can set up a product table that lists out each product's attributes, either replacing the default WooCommerce shop page or as a new page.

Either way, before proceeding you’ll want to make sure the following initial steps are taken care of:

  1. You’ll need a WordPress website, which is easily to install quickly.
  2. You’ll want to install WooCommerce, and run through the simple setup wizard to get it configured.
  3. Each product you’re planning to sell should be listed as a WooCommerce product.

Finally, you’ll need to purchase the WooCommerce Product Table plugin. Install it on your site, and don’t forget to activate your license key. With that, you’re ready to get to work!

Get WooCommerce Product Table now!

1. First, set up the plugin

The first step is to set up WooCommerce Product Table and configure the global options. You also need to add attributes to your products so that you can display them in the table.

Add attributes to your WooCommerce products

Before you get started, you’ll need to make sure all relevant items have their product attributes listed in WooCommerce. To do this, open up the Products → Attributes section:

The WooCommerce Product Attributes section.

Here, you can simply fill in the information under Add new attribute. You can give it a name (such as "Color"), a lowercase slug (such as "color"), and then hit the Add attribute button. This will add it to your list of attributes on the right side of the page.

Underneath the new attribute's title, click on Configure terms:

Adding a new attribute in WooCommerce.

Here, you can add each option for that attribute, one by one. For instance, you could call the first term "Red", the next one "Green", and so on. Select Add new Color (or whatever you named your attribute) for each term, and include as many as you'd like.

Now, when you open up a new or existing product, you can scroll down to the Product data section, click on the Attributes tab, and select your new attribute from the drop-down list:

Choosing an attribute for a WooCommerce product.

You can then add the item's relevant characteristics, picking from the choices you just set up. You can include one or more options per attribute:

Choosing a color for a WooCommerce product.

When you’re done, select Save attributes. You can then create additional attributes as needed for the same product, or go to your other products and repeat this process. Make sure to update each product you modify in this way.

Set up product variations (optional)

You can use product attributes for information purposes only. Alternatively, you can use them as variation attributes, so that people can actually buy combinations of each attribute (for example, by combining the size and color options for a T-shirt).

If you want to sell attributes as variations, then you'll also need to set up your products as variable products:

  1. On the 'Edit Product' screen, tick the 'Use for variations' box for each attribute in the 'Attributes' tab.
  2. Then, go to the 'Variations' tab and add all the variations.

That way, customers can buy every combination of the attributes.

Displaying product attributes as table columns

Once all your products have their attributes, your next stop should be the WooCommerce → Settings page. Select the Products tab, and then click on Product tables:

The WooCommerce Product Table settings.

On this page, you’ll find a ton of options for customizing the way your product table looks and functions. You can read up on all the settings in the WooCommerce Product Table documentation.

Right now, let’s focus on attributes. There are several ways to display them in your product table, depending on your personal preference. The simplest technique is to add a separate column in your table for each product attribute, increasing their visibility.

To do this, check out the Columns field:

The WooCommerce Product Table columns option.

This is where you can list out all the columns you want included in your table. You’ll want to place them in the order you'd like them to appear, separated by commas.

To include an attribute, simply enter “att:slug”. You’ll need to replace “slug” with the name of the attribute, which can be found under WooCommerce → Attributes:

The WooCommerce product attributes page.

So if you wanted a column to display each item's color options, for example, you could use “att:color”. You can include as many columns as you like, to account for each attribute. For example, you might enter this into the Columns field: image,name,summary,att:color,att:size,price,buy

The final product list with attributes will look something like this:

An example of a WooCommerce product table displaying attributes as columns.

Now, customers can easily see all their choices for each item you offer and attributes. This is a user-friendly way to display WooCommerce attributes on shop pages effectively.

If you're using variable products and want to display variation dropdowns in the product list view, that's fine too. Just choose one of the variation options on the Product Table plugin settings page.

Note: If you want to include different attribute columns in each table on your site, then you'll need to set the column options directly in the shortcode. You can do this by adding your product tables using the shortcode method.

Filtering by product attribute

If you want customers to be able to find products with specific attributes, then you can add dropdown menus above the table, or filter widgets in the left or right sidebar. There are 2 ways to add attribute filters:

  1. Using the filter dropdowns and widgets that come with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.
  2. Using WooCommerce Product Table with the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin for more advanced filtering.
Option 1: Set up the built-in WooCommerce Product Table filters

WooCommerce Product Table comes with filter dropdowns which you can add above the product table. It also comes with filter widgets which are exactly like the default widgets that come with WooCommerce itself. You can add attribute filters as either dropdowns and widgets, or both.

To add attributes as dropdown menus above the table, use the Filter dropdowns option on the product table settings page:

The WooCommerce Product Table filters option.

Select Custom here. Then, in the Custom filters field, type in “attributes” if you want to include a filter for every attribute in your store. Alternately, you can include only specific attributes, by creating a list separated by commas. For each attribute, you'll want to preface the unique slug with att: (for example, att:color,att:size).

To add attribute filter widgets, go to Appearance → Widgets and add any of the widgets that start with "Product Table - ".

The WooCommerce Product Table filters widget.

You can give the widget a title, choose which attribute it should display, and configure a few additional options.

Option 2: Use WooCommerce Product Table with the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin
WooCommerce Product Table with Filters

To supercharge your product attribute filters, you can use WooCommerce Product Table with the Product Filters plugin. You can use it to add attribute filters at the top of the shop page, or to the shop page sidebar. It comes with a huge range of filters. For example, you can choose from the following styles for your attribute filters:

  • Dropdown filters.
  • Checkbox filters.
  • Radio button filters.
  • Color swatches (for a 'color' attribute).
  • Clickable images.
  • Clickable text labels (similar to a tag cloud).

To use these filters, install the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin and create filters in Products → Filters. To show a group of attribute filters at the top of the shop page, go to the settings tab and select the group. Alternatively (or in addition!), go to Attributes → Widgets and add the 'Product Filters' widget to the shop page sidebar.

One you have set up your filters, it's time to create your product tables!

2. Create your product attribute tables

Method 1: Enable product tables on the WooCommerce shop page

The easiest option is to upgrade the default WooCommerce shop page to use the product table layout. If you do this, your product table will show up on the main shop page - plus on category pages and search results, if you choose. The tables will use the options you set on the plugin settings page, so customers can see each product's attributes listed out clearly.

You can easily enable the product table layout on shop and/or category pages using the 'Table display' section of the plugin settings page:

WooCommerce add product table to shop and category pages

Method 2: Add product tables to any page

Alternatively, you can use a shortcode to insert product tables in any page on your site. You can then use this page instead of the default WooCommerce shop page.

This option is less automated because you have to add a shortcode for each table, but it is more flexible because you can make each table different - for example, to list different attribute columns in each table.

Add the following shortcode to a page:

[product_table]

Add as many shortcodes as you like, and configure them using any of the 50+ shortcode options.

To see it in action, add a shortcode and then check out the page on the front end of your site:

An example of a WooCommerce product table displaying attributes as drop-down menus.

As you can see, in this example there’s a dropdown filter menu above the table for each attribute. Customers can use these menus to filter the table, in order to find what they want quickly. What's more, you can either use this technique on its own, or in combination with the previous method.

Bonus - Show attributes on product page in WooCommerce

So far, we've looked at how to show product attributes on the shop page and category pages.

As an extra bonus feature, you can use the same technical to show attributes on the WooCommerce product page too. The trick is to insert a product table that only lists the attributes or variations for that particular product.

To do this, you need to add the product ID to the shortcode, like this:

[product_table include="123"]

Replace "123" with the ID of the product that you want to show the attributes for. You can easily find this by hovering over a product in the main 'Products' list in the WordPress admin.

This will create a table with various columns, which you can edit as needed. For example, in this screenshot we added the product table shortcode to the short description. Each field of the table is a different attribute.

WooCommerce product page custom fields

And here's another example - this time with 2 attribute columns and a stock column:

WooCommerce custom fields taxonomies single product page

Alternatively, if it's a variable product then it's a good idea to list each variation on its own row, each with its own attributes:

[product_table include="123" variations="separate"]

This screenshot contains a table listing the attributes for 4 variations on the product page. Instead of adding attribute columns, the attributes are automatically displayed after the name of each variation:

WooCommerce services with variation on each row separate

As you can see, WooCommerce Product Table isn't just for listing attributes on the shop page. It's also a super-flexible way to show attributes on the product page in WooCommerce.

Where to get the plugin

WooCommerce Product Table makes it easy to list product attributes on your shop or category pages, or indeed anywhere in your store. You can list attributes as columns in the table, variation dropdowns, or as filters to help your customers to find products by attribute.

Above, we’ve introduced two simple methods to display WooCommerce attributes on shop pages:

  1. Add product tables with attributes on the main shop and category pages.
  2. As standalone product tables, added to any page using a shortcode.

Do you have any questions about how to display WooCommerce attributes on shop pages? Give up a heads-up in the comments section below!

Image credit: Pxhere.

WooCommerce product listings plugin

Displaying WooCommerce product listings in a functional, interactive table layout is a great way to display more products in less space. It also enables you to display additional information related to each product such as its attributes, dimensions, colors, and price.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create and display WooCommerce product listings with product data and add to cart buttons. By the time you’re done reading, you’ll be able to list your products in a way that actively engages customers and increases sales.

Let’s get started.

Do I need a plugin for product listings?

The first step is to determine whether you need product listing functionality on your WooCommerce store. Ultimately, it all depends on two things: your target audience and the type of product(s) you’re selling.

Here are some scenarios where having a WooCommerce product listing plugin will be useful:

  • You have lots of products Displaying product lists is super effective if you have lots of products. This is because it allows you to list more products per page.
  • Improves customer experience Customers can view all of your products without having to scroll through lots of pages.
  • Simplifies your user interface Product listings are inherently quite simple. Instead of messing around with complex layouts, you can display your products in a functional and interactive table.

Do any of these scenarios apply to you? Keep reading to find out how you can use the WooCommerce Product Table plugin to create and display product listings on your WordPress website. Before we get to the tutorial, let’s quickly run through the key features the plugin offers.


WooCommerce Product Table plugin

WooCommerce Product Table enables you to display product listings in a searchable, sortable, and filterable table layout. Here are some of the standout features on offer:

  • List products from specific categories, tags, custom fields, custom taxonomy terms, ID’s, etc….
  • Create product listings of product names only.
  • Link individual product listings to single product pages or disable links to create a read-only list.
  • Build advanced product listings that focus on displaying extra product information. Out of the box, it supports short (and long) descriptions, categories, tags, price, dimensions, weight, reviews, stock, and attributes.
  • Transform your product listing into a functional WooCommerce order form.
  • To make your product listings even more customer-friendly, you can use them with the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin and add quick view links to the list.

Some product listings feature products images while others don’t. Again, this depends on the type of products you’re selling. Many people use product listing plugins to display their products in an information-only format i.e. with no product image. You can setup the WooCommerce Product Table plugin to display whichever format you prefer.

Keep reading to learn how to use it to create flexible product listings.


How to use WooCommerce Product Table for product listings

Assuming you already have a WordPress website with WooCommerce set up and some products added, we’ll show you how you can create a simple WooCommerce product listing for your online store.

  1. Get the WooCommerce Product Table plugin and copy your license key from the confirmation email.
  2. From the WordPress admin panel, head over to Plugins > Add New and upload the plugin’s zipped file to your website. Activate the plugin on your site.
  3. Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Product Table and enter your license key. You can also configure the plugin’s settings from this screen based on your preference.
Activated license key
  1. Go to the page you’d like to add the WooCommerce product listings to. You can either create a new page or edit an existing one.
  2. Finally, add the following shortcode in the text editor: [product_table]

This will list your WooCommerce products in a table layout using the plugin’s default columns. It should look something like this:

WooCommerce Product Table's default table layout

In the next section, we’ll take a look at how you can configure the plugin to get different product listing views.

See different types of product listings in action on the WooCommerce Product Table demo page!

Display extra information on product listing pages

You can choose what information you’d like to include in your product listings simply by changing the plugin settings. Or if you want to create more than one product table, each one different, then you can edit the shortcode instead. Below, we’ll show you how you can create a product listing that displays product names only. We'll also walk you through the process of creating a table layout that displays more information.

Product name only

If you want to display a simple list of the names of your WooCommerce products, add name to the columns option on the plugin settings page. Alternatively, set up your shortcode like this:

[product_table columns="name"]

As a result, it should look something like this on the front-end:

WooCommerce Product Table displaying the name column

Product listing with image, name, reviews, price, and add to cart button

You can display as much product information as you’d like in you WooCommerce product listings. Each piece of data will be listed as a separate column.

All you have to do is set the Columns option on the product table settings page to: image,name,reviews,price,buy shortcode to specify which columns you’d like to display on the front-end. Alternatively, the shortcode given below will display your products’ image, name, reviews, price, and add to cart button in the product listings:

[product_table columns="image,name,reviews,price,buy"]

It’ll look something like this on the front-end:

WooCommerce Product Table displaying many columns

Check out the available column options to create your own custom product listing!

Choose which categories and tags are displayed

With the WooCommerce Product Table plugin, you can choose which taxonomies (categories, tags, and custom taxonomies) to include in your product listings. For example, the category option lets you display products from a specified category.

What's more is that you can specify multiple categories to be displayed in your product listings:

  • Using commas. Comma separated categories in the format category="category1, category2" means products in category1 OR category2.
  • Using the plus (+) sign. Plus sign separated categories in the format category="category1+category2" means products in category1 AND category2.

So, if you wanted to display products (with product information) from the categories Accessories and Hoodies, the shortcode would look something like this:

[product_table category="hoodies,accessories"]

Here’s a preview of what it would look like on the front-end:

WooCommerce Product Table displaying items from specified categories

You can use tags the same way simply by replacing category with tag. For more options, check out our tutorial on listing specific products using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.

Choose whether to show the add to cart button and variations

If you’re looking to create simple product listings then you might not want to display an add to cart button. All you have to do is remove it from the comma-separated list of columns that you want to display in WooCommerce product listings. For example:

[product_table columns="image,name,reviews,price,category"]

It might look something like this:

WooCommerce Product Table without add to cart buttons

If you're using the add to cart column, then you can choose from two different ways to display variable products in your product listings:

  • Display variations as dropdown lists
  • List each variation on a separate row

To display the variations as dropdown lists, choose this option on the plugin settings page or use the shortcode [product_table variations="dropdown"].

It will look something like this:

WooCommerce Product Table plugin with product variations displayed as dropdown lists.

On the other hand, if you’d like to list each variation on a separate row, you can use that option or the shortcode [product_table variations="separate"].

It will look something like this:

WooCommerce Product Table plugin with product variations displayed on separate rows.

Bonus tip: Add quick view to your product listings

Sometimes, you want a way of providing extra information about your products without taking people to a separate page for each product. You might also have too many product options or variations to fit into the product listings view, and need another way to purchase.

WooCommerce Product Table Quick View Magnifying Glass

You can achieve both these things by using WooCommerce Product Table with its sister plugin, WooCommerce Quick View Pro. This plugin adds quick view buttons and/or links to the product list. Customers can click on this to view more information in a lightbox.

Depending on how you set it up, this might include the full product image gallery in a lightbox, or other information such as categories, meta, price, short description, or even embedded audio or video players. You can also include add to cart information including product variation dropdowns.

Quick view is a good way to extend your WooCommerce product listings while keeping customers on the same page.

Get WooCommerce Quick View 


Create perfect WooCommerce product listings

The Product Table plugin is great for displaying WooCommerce product listings on your online store in a searchable, sortable, and filterable table layout. In addition to this, it gives you the flexibility to add images to your listings or go with an information-only format.

Let’s quickly recap the different ways you can display products listings using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin:

  • List product names only or display additional product information in a table layout.
  • Choose which categories, tags, or custom taxonomies you’d like to display.
  • Show the add to cart button in your product listings to encourage prospective customers to buy.
  • Hide the add to cart button for catalog-style product listings.
  • Display variable products separately in rows or as dropdown lists.

How do you display product listings on your WooCommerce website? We’d love to hear from you so let us know by commenting below!

E-commerce is big business. It's also incredibly competitive, which means you need to take advantage of proven techniques to give yourself the best chance for success and make money by selling online. Rarely is this more true than when you’re trying to sell clothes online, given the saturation of the online fashion market.

To encourage customers to choose you over the competition, you’ll want to make buying clothes on your website a convenient and streamlined experience. This means finding a way to display your clothing products and options effectively, such as by using a customized product table.

WooCommerce Product Table Demo

Or perhaps you need a quick and easy way for customers to choose clothes sizes, colors and other options?

WooCommerce Bulk Variations single product page

Best plugins for selling clothes online

In this guide, we’ll introduce you to the best plugins for selling clothes online with WooCommerce. This includes:

  • WooCommerce Product Table - List clothing products in a quick order form layout which is perfect for one-page shopping. (Learn more.)
  • WooCommerce Product Filters - Add advanced filters so that customers can quickly find closed based on size, color, price, and more. (Learn more.)
  • Bulk Variations - Display all of the options for an item of clothing in a quick buying grid, so that customers can purchase multiple sizes and colors with ease. (Learn more.)
  • Quick View Pro - Let customers preview products and add to the cart without leaving the shop page. (Learn more.)
  • WooCommerce Fast Cart - And finally, provide the fastest possible way for customers to review and complete their order. (Learn more.)
  • Product Options - Add extra options in order to sell customizable products. For example, add file upload fields for a logo, or text message fields for a custom message. (Learn more.)

All of these amazing plugins make it easier for customers to browse and buy clothing such as t-shirts, shoes or accessories. They are all either developed by the same company or guaranteed to be compatible. As a result, you can mix and match them to create a robust clothing store that meets your exact business needs. You can either buy them individually or save money with an All Access Pass.

Let’s get started!

Plugin 1: Why your clothing store can benefit from a customized product table

Visual product table

Some online consignment shops (like Etsy, thredUP or Poshmark) sell products that require a lot of detailed information. For instance, an online electronics shop will usually merit dedicated pages to explain the ins and outs of each item.

However, a clothing store is a little different as is the case with thredUP, Tradesy, and Poshmark. If you're running this kind of e-commerce site, chances are your products are pretty simple to grasp. Most customers won’t need a lot of information in order to know whether they want to buy a particular shirt, for example. They’ll just want to know what it looks like, and see the options when it comes to colors and sizes.

Therefore, making visitors navigate to a bunch of individual product pages – as in a traditional e-commerce store layout – can be counterproductive when you’re trying to sell clothes online. Some customers might like this extra information, but most want a quick buying process. Instead, you can show off everything you have to offer in a concise product table.

Keep in mind that you don't need to compete with high-end brands that sell luxury items like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, or Prada right off the bat.

This lets customers view all the clothing options in one place. They can compare products easily, and add everything they want to their carts from a single page. Once they're done, they can proceed to checkout and make the payment through the payment options you offer (such as PayPal). It's just like buying in a physical clothing store! What’s more, it's simple to set up if you have the right plugin.

Introducing WooCommerce Product Table

While WordPress and WooCommerce are the perfect foundation to sell clothing online, they're missing some essential features. For example, they don't provide a way to show off all your items on a single organized page, similar to eBay. Luckily, you can easily listing clothing products with the WooCommerce Product Table plugin:

This plugin helps you create a customized product table to display any or all of your clothing products. Among its many features, this plugin:

  • Lets you organize all your clothing, accessories, and more into one table similar to eBay.
  • Makes it easy for customers to compare items.
  • Customers can click on a clothing image to view a zoomed in version in a lightbox.
  • Includes sorting and filtering capabilities, making your product table dynamic.
  • Enables you to display product variations (such as colors and sizes) alongside each item.

Best of all, WooCommerce Product Table is simple to use and only takes a few minutes to set up.

Try out the WooCommerce Product Table clothing store demo for yourself!

How to sell clothes online with WooCommerce Product Table

In the following tutorial, we’re going to assume that you already have a WooCommerce store set up to sell clothes online. If you’re creating a brand-new e-commerce site, therefore, you'll want to do three things before proceeding:

  1. Set up a basic WordPress website.
  2. Install WooCommerce, and go through its setup wizard to configure your store.
  3. Add all your clothing and other items as individual WooCommerce products.

Once those tasks are out of the way, you’re ready to get started.

Install and activate WooCommerce Product Table

First up, you’ll want to get the WooCommerce Product Table plugin running on your clothing website. To do that, you’ll need to purchase the plugin online.

You’ll be provided with a zipped folder containing all the files necessary for the plugin to work. Log in to your WordPress dashboard, and upload this folder via Plugins → Add New:

Uploading a new plugin to WordPress.

After the plugin is installed, don’t forget to activate it. Next, the plugin setup wizard will open. It tells you to paste in the license key you were sent via email at the time of purchase. It also walks you through the main settings for your product tables. This will get WooCommerce Product Table fully up and running, ready to start selling clothes online.

Popular settings for selling clothes online

Here are some tips on which settings to choose in the setup wizard:

Display - Where to display product tables

Tick all these boxes if you want to use the product table layout throughout your clothing store. This replaces the default layout in your theme with the order form view.

WooCommerce Product Table also comes with a shortcode which you can use to manually insert product tables into other pages on your site. However, most clothing stores will want to use the automatic method.

Table content

Next, use the Columns field to specify what information will appear in the product tables.

You’ll probably want to include images, as well as a few details about each item such as its category, description, and sale price. And don't forget to include the product name and a 'Buy' column!

You can read up on all the column options in the plugin’s documentation.

On this page, you can also enable the lazy load option. I recommend doing this if you have more than a couple of dozen clothing products in your store.

Adding to the cart

The add to cart method controls what appears in the 'Buy' column of the table. If your customers are likely to choose one clothing item at a time then use the 'Button' method. Alternatively, select 'Checkbox' (or 'Both') to allow customers to use multi-select to add multiple clothing products at once.

Right below that, you probably want to check the 'Quantities' box. This will enable customers to purchase more than one of each item directly from the product table page. That's a useful feature for a clothing store to have, as it's quicker than visiting a separate page for each product.

Most importantly, you’ll want to choose one of the latter two options under Product variations:

The WooCommerce Product Table variations field.

This setting displays your items’ variations right within the table. In other words, customers will be able to see and select all clothing options, such as colors and sizes. You can either display these variations as dropdown menus, or on their own rows.

Product filters

Nearly all stores that use WooCommerce to sell clothes online need some sort of filtering. This allows customers to select details about what they're looking for (e.g. their size or preferred colors) and quickly narrow down their selections.

WooCommerce Product Table comes with some basic filter dropdowns which you can enable above the table. You can enable them on the next page of the setup wizard. Alternatively, leave this option empty if you want to add more advanced features. We'll look at how to do that a bit later.

Preview your WooCommerce clothing store

Now, the basics are in place to sell clothes online in WooCommerce. You can see what it looks like so far by viewing your main shop page on the front end. Depending on your settings, it might look something like this: 

An example of a customized product table to sell clothes online.

You can continue to make changes – anything you alter in the settings will be instantly applied to your product tables. When you’re happy with the way your table looks and functions, you're done!

Your site is now ready to publish. However, you might want to add some extra features to truly supercharge your WooCommerce clothes website. We'll look at these next.

Plugin 2: Use advanced product filters to help customers find specific clothes more easily

WooCommerce Product Filters Table Integration

In step 1, we learned how to use the basic filter dropdowns that come with WooCommerce Product Table. For more advanced filtering, you can use the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin instead.

As you can see in the screenshot above, this is perfect for helping customers to find exactly what clothes they like. They can filter by category, color, size, price, rating, and any other data you have added for your clothing products. They look great and you can choose from various filter styles, such as images, color swatches, checkboxes, sliders, and more.

If you have a lot of clothing products then advanced WooCommerce filtering is a must for selling clothes online.

How to add filters to your WooCommerce clothes store

  1. Install the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin.
  2. Activate your license key in the setup wizard, and choose how you want your filters to behave. One of the options in the wizard allows you to display the default filter group at the top of all your shop pages. Select this if you want to show filters above the list of clothes in your store. Or if you want the filters to appear in the sidebar on the left or right of the list of clothes, then ignore this.
  3. Next, go to Products → Filters and add all the ways that you want your customers to be able to filter products.
  4. If you selected to display the default filter group at the top of your clothes shop in Step 2, then ignore this step. Alternatively, go to Appearance → Widgets and use the Product Filters widget to display the filters in your store sidebar.

Plugin 3: Create a grid of color and size options

WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin

 

Have you used product variations to sell different size and color options of the clothes in your store (or any other type of option)? If so, then WooCommerce will normally display each option as a dropdown for customers to choose from. Once they select a size and color (for example), the price appears and they can add it to the cart. They then repeat the process for each combination of options they want to order.

That's not ideal for selling clothes in WooCommerce because customers tend to order multiple sizes and colors to try. It's much better if customers can see all the options and prices at once.

You can do this by installing the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin. To help you decide if you need it, then see whether you answer 'Yes' to any of these questions:

  • Would you like a faster way to add and edit variations in bulk. For example, do you want to be able to instantly add an image of a blue t-shirt to all the blue variations on your t-shirt product? Or do you want to be able to quickly set the price of all the 'Large' size t-shirts at once?
  • Do you want people to be able to select clothing sizes and other options in bulk on the single product page?

Instead of having to select their clothes size from a dropdown, WooCommerce Bulk Variations displays all the options in an eye-catching grid or matrix.

A WooCommerce bulk variations form is ideal for selling clothes in larger quantities. For example, you'll need this if you're selling clothes for parties or corporate events, branded workwear, or wholesale.

The variations are displayed in two dimensions within the matrix-style order form. The customer can enter the quantity that they require for each option, and quickly add them all to the cart.

Case study: Elite Teamsport

Elite Teamsport uses WooCommerce Bulk Variations to sell teamwear kits and training wear on their online store.

Elite Teamsport sell teamwear

From the single product page, customers can choose to either buy one variation at a time or select multiple options and add them all to their cart at once. The WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin displays all of the available variations in a grid layout with size and color attributes. This makes it easy to buy multiple variations of a product and reduces friction in the buying process.

Customers can use the quantity selectors to specify how many units of each product. They can then click the Add to Basket button to add them to their shopping cart in one go.

How to set up WooCommerce Bulk Variations

  1. Install WooCommerce Bulk Variations on your site.
  2. The setup wizard will open. Use this to set up the plugin, including enabling it on your variable products.
  3. To edit variations in bulk, go to the 'Variations' tab on the 'Edit Product' screen. Use the 'Filters' bar to select which variations you want to edit. Next, use the bulk actions dropdown above to apply changes in bulk.

Tip - WooCommerce Bulk Variations lets you edit and display variations. If you want one of these features but not both, that's fine - just activate the ones you need. 

Plugin 4: Add quick view to your clothes store

WooCommerce Quick View Demo

You can take your store to the next level by combining the table layout with product quick view.

Think about when you've bought high-quality clothing or handbags online from leading fashion websites like Etsy, thredUP, Tradesy, and Poshmark. You've probably noticed that nearly all of them offer some sort of quick view function. This is where you can see extra pictures and buy without having to visit a separate page for each garment. There's a reason for this - it's because quick view is a much more user-friendly way to sell clothes online.

That's why you need the WooCommerce Quick View Plugin. This handy tool adds - you guessed it - quick view links or buttons to your WooCommerce clothing store. Customers can use these to view more photos of each clothing item, zoom in on images, view the selling price, and buy directly from a quick view popup. You can also show the short description in the quick view, which is a useful place to add size charts, washing instructions and other useful information.

If you're selling customized clothing, then quick view is ideal for this too. Use it with the Product Options plugin to add text input boxes. This is where customers can upload a logo or enter a personalised message to be added to their custom clothing product.

You can use quick view with product tables. Alternatively, it also works as a standalone product that adds quick view buttons to the default WooCommerce store layouts.

If you're using the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin, then the variations matrix can appear in the quick view lightbox. That way, people can select variations and buy in bulk without having to access a separate page for each garment.

How to add quick view to your WooCommerce clothes store

As we saw earlier, the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin is a must if you're selling clothes with WooCommerce and WordPress. This how to set it up:

  1. Install and activate WooCommerce Quick View Pro.
  2. Go to the plugin settings page at WooCommerce → Settings  → Products → Quick view.
  3. Enter your license key and choose what you want to appear in the quick view lightbox. For selling clothes, you'll probably want the full product image gallery, image zoom, and possibly the short description and add to cart options.
  4. If you're using WooCommerce quick view with product tables, then you should also go back to WooCommerce → Settings  → Products → Product tables. Add quick_view to the list of product table columns, or tick the option further down the page to replace links to the single product page with quick view.

Plugin 5: Speed up ordering with an on-page cart and checkout

WooCommerce side cart plugin

Plugins like Product Table, Product Filters and Quick View Pro make it quicker and easier for customers to find and add products. In contrast, the WooCommerce Fast Cart plugin speeds up the final stages of the ordering process.

Normally, WooCommerce makes customers visit separate cart and checkout pages to complete their order. That's quite time-consuming, and your WooCommerce clothes store will convert better if they can complete their order on the same page.

WooCommerce Fast Cart adds a popup cart and/or checkout to your store. As soon as customers add clothes to their cart, the popup cart either launches automatically or a floating cart icon appears. They can use this to review their selections, make changes, add related products, and even pay and check out - without ever leaving the page.

WooCommerce one page checkout popup

Plugin 6: Sell customizable clothes with product add-on options

Custom T Shirt Message WooCommerce
Customizable T-Shirts website created with WooCommerce Product Table and Product Options

The above three steps are sufficient for creating a fully-featured and compelling product table. However, there’s one more tool you may want to consider adding to your site: Product Options.

This add-on lets customers further personalize their purchases. You can enable them to add on items to their orders, via input boxes, drop-down menus, and checkboxes. If you offer personalized clothing and accessories, this extension will also make it easy for customers to request custom messaging.

For example, if you want to sell personalized custom t-shirts online then Product Add-Ons is a must. You can use it to add check boxes for optional extras, and a text entry box to add a personalized message. It's even possible to include a File Upload field (e.g. to upload a custom logo or design), although customers will need to click through to the single product page to use this.

WooCommerce custom product designer t-shirt plugin
Selling a customizable t-shirt with the WooCommerce Product Options plugin

As you can see, Product Add-Ons is a valuable addition that helps you sell clothes online more effectively. The extra product options appear on the single product page and also in the 'Buy' column of the product table.

Where to get the plugins

If you’re looking to sell clothes online, you’ll need to use the most effective strategies in order to stand out. This includes finding a way to show customers everything you have to offer – and all the relevant variations – in one convenient place.

Fortunately, this is a simple matter with the plugins featured in this article:

  • Product Table - perfect for listing clothes in a flexible order form layout.
  • Product Filters - ideal for helping customers to find products more quickly.
  • Bulk Variations - perfect for letting customers choose sizes and other options in bulk on the product page, and for bulk editing variations.
  • Quick View Pro - perfect for speeding up shopping.
  • Fast Cart - ideal for speeding up the final stages of the customer journey.
  • Product Options - essential for selling customizable clothing products.

Use the plugins alone or together to create a professional clothing store that will be a pleasure to use. You can save money with an All Access Pass. They all come with full support, documentation and a full 30-day money back guarantee.

Do you have any questions about how to sell clothes online with WooCommerce? Let us know in the comments section below!

WooCommerce sell modular furniture

For many online stores, a traditional setup works pretty well. However, a specialty e-commerce website may require a unique approach. If you’re looking to sell furniture online that’s modular, like Chairish, Etsy, or Ikea, you’ll need to think carefully about how you design your website.

Modular furniture requires the potential buyer to pick out all the options they want and combine them into a single order.

For example, potential buyers may select materials and colors, or pick from a range of cabinet doors to make a ‘bespoke’ kitchen.

To make that easy, you can set up a dedicated ‘build-your-own-product’ page. This lets visitors see everything that’s available even in New York, on social media, or Offerup, and make their choices quickly and confidently.

A GIF of a table to sell furniture online.

In this post, we’re going to discuss what a build-your-own-product page might look like. Then we’ll show you how to create one using WooCommerce Product Table, in order to sell furniture online more effectively, even from New York, on Offerup, or on social media. Let’s get to work!

Why your furniture store needs a build-your-own-product page

Most e-commerce websites have a very similar and familiar design, like Chairish, Etsy, or Ikea. Each product is given its own dedicated page, where visitors can find information and add it to their carts. In most cases, customers can also look for the handmade items they want using a search feature, like on eBay, Letgo, or Apartment Therapy.

While there’s nothing wrong with this approach, it isn’t always effective. For example, what if you’re selling new furniture or you want to sell used furniture online? Listing each option on its own page doesn’t make much sense. With that setup, customers would go elsewhere, like Facebook marketplace, Shopify, 1stDibs, or Amazon.

Instead, you can create a build-your-own-product page. This page is dedicated to a single item and all its various options. While the above image is of a gift basket, this principle applies just as well to helping you sell furniture online.

Customers can view all the options in one place, enabling them to make easier decisions. They can also quickly see how each choice will affect the final price and add everything they want to their cart at once, like on eBay, Letgo, or Apartment Therapy.

Check out this build-your-own-product page demo!

In other words, this method of selling used furniture provides a much smoother user experience – which makes it easier to share on social media and in large metropolitans like New York City or New Jersey where there isn’t space for garage sales or a storefront.

Case study: First Kitchens

So far, everything we’ve been talking about has been a little abstract. So let’s see what it actually looks like to sell furniture online this way.

First Kitchens is a WooCommerce furniture store that uses this technique on its ecommerce website:

The First Kitchens website.

This site sells kitchen doors and accessories, and makes purchasing its products simple. The page for each type of door contains a build-your-own-product table, which lets customers select related parts and accessories:

A product table on the First Kitchens website.

As you can see, the table is clear and well-organized, and makes it simple for the customer to order a piece of furniture or secondhand furniture in WooCommerce. If this looks like a feature that would be useful on your own used furniture site, the good news is that it’s easy to replicate.

How to sell modular furniture online with WooCommerce (in 3 steps)

To create this kind of page to sell used furniture or vintage furniture as a consignment shop, you’ll need a few things. First, it’s crucial to create your website using WordPress. This platform provides the flexibility you’ll need to design a build-your-own-product page, even for handmade furniture pieces.

After that, you’ll want to set up WooCommerce on your WordPress website. This plugin enables you to turn your site into a fully-functioning, high-end, online marketplace quickly, just like eBay, Letgo, or Apartment Therapy. Then, it’s time to start selling furniture online! 

Step 1: Add all your furniture and options as WooCommerce products

The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure all your online store offerings are listed in WooCommerce. Even though you won’t be using the plugin’s normal functionality, you’ll need to have everything set up as WooCommerce products and show your retail prices and sales prices.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Products → Add New:

Adding a new WooCommerce product.

If you’ve spent any time with WordPress, this screen should look familiar. It’s the platform's standard editor, augmented with a few new hassle-free options:

The WooCommerce product data section.

Start out by giving your product a name. Then, you can enter as much or as little information about it as you’d like,  like if a piece is a vintage furniture. We’d recommend including:

  • A brief description of the item,  including similar items, in the Product short description box.
  • An image, uploaded to the Featured Image section in the right-hand sidebar.
  • The price, under Product data > General.

You’ll want to create products that encompass all your used furniture and variations, like Facebook marketplace, Shopify, or Amazon do. There are two main ways to accomplish this.

Add each furniture option as a WooCommerce product

First, you can list every option as its own separate product. Then, you'll need to add each item to a category based on its role in the building process, such as “Materials” or “Finishes”. If any of these options include further choices, such as colors, you can add them as variations that will be displayed as dropdowns in your table.

In Step 2, you’ll be able to list all your products in a single product table or furniture order form. You can also create multiple product tables, each listing used furniture from a specific category, similar to eBay, Letgo, or Apartment Therapy.

Add each furniture option as a product variation

Alternatively, you can create a dedicated product for each type of used furniture item, such as coffee tables or doors, like on Craigslist or AptDeco. Then, you can add each option as a variation through the WooCommerce settings. This is useful if you want to create a separate product table for each modular product. You can list each variation on its own row in the table.

Either way, when you’ve done including all the necessary details, hit Publish to make the item public. Continue this process until you’ve added all the options a customer can use to create their modular furniture, each as its own product.

Step 2: Install and configure the WooCommerce Product Table plugin

Neither WordPress nor WooCommerce gives you an easy way to set up a product page to sell furniture online. You’ll need one more tool to make this work – the WooCommerce Product Table plugin:

This plugin integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, adding a number of useful features. It enables you to create customizable, sortable product tables for displaying your items similar to Craigslist or AptDeco. This includes setting up a simple system for buying modular furniture.

Get WooCommerce Product Table!

You’ll want to start by purchasing and installing this plugin. Then, navigate to WooCommerce > Settings in your dashboard. Click on the Products tab, and select Product tables:

The WooCommerce Product Tables section.

In the first field, you can enter the license key you received when you bought the plugin. The rest of the settings here let you customize exactly what your product tables will look like and contain, just like they do at Facebook marketplace, Shopify, 1stDibs, or Amazon.

For example, under Columns, you can determine what information will appear about each item:

For now, you’ll want to keep things simple. We suggest including a product image, name, short description, and price. Plus, you’ll want Add to Cart buttons as well.

Speaking of which, you can customize the way your Add to Cart buttons work right below:

The WooCommerce Product Table cart section.

Here, you should select the Checkbox only option. This enables customers to choose all the options they want and add everything to their cart simultaneously, which is key for a build-your-own-product page.

Then, scroll down a little and find the Product variations settings:

The WooCommerce Product Table variations section.

Here, you’ll want to choose Show as dropdown list. If old furniture has multiple options – such as colors or sizes – this will display them in a drop-down menu within the table, like on Craigslist or AptDeco. Customers will then be able to select whichever version they want without having to consult Google.

There are a lot more settings here, of course. You can tweak whichever ones you like, using the plugin’s thorough documentation as a guide. However, the above options are the most crucial in order to sell furniture online using a modular system.

Step 3: Set up the build-your-own-product page

With your WooCommerce Product Table settings configured (and saved!), you’re ready for the last step.

  1. Open up a new page, via Pages > Add New.
  2. Add the following shortcode to the page: [product_table]

As you can see, this places a shortcode on your page. This tells WordPress to display a product table, using all the settings you customized in the previous step. If you preview your page on the front end, you’ll see a list of your furniture products and variations, like in a yard sale:

An unorganized table to sell furniture online.

This will work as a new furniture order form, and you could stop here. However, we recommend one more step. Instead of a single table, you can create multiple tables – one for each furniture category, like you see on Craigslist or AptDeco.

This is a much better way of organizing your page and making it clear what options are available. For instance, you could have one product table for coffee tables, one for high-end chairs, and so on. Or alternatively, you could let customers choose the type of furniture they want in the first table, then select a material in the second table, and finally pick a finish in the third table, like many online marketplaces.

To do this, you’ll need to place multiple instances of the shortcode, one for each table you want to include. You’ll probably also want to add headers above each one:

Multiple shortcodes in the WordPress editor.

Then, you’ll need to make a change to each individual shortcode, to tell WordPress what products it should include. Otherwise, you’ll end up with multiple copies of the same table.

All you have to do is add the category tag to your shortcodes, like this:

[product_table category="45"]

Each shortcode should use a different number – the one associated with the category of items you’d like it to contain. You can find this number by navigating to Products > Categories:

The WooCommerce product categories page.

If you hover over a category, you’ll see a link appear at the bottom of your screen:

The number of a WooCommerce category.

Look for the part that says cat&tag_ID=. The number that immediately follows is the one you’ll need to use in your shortcode:

Multiple shortcodes with added category numbers.

Once you’ve added the right category number to each shortcode, you’ll have a build-your-own-product page that looks something like this:

An organized table to sell furniture online.

Of course, you can continue to make changes and tweaks, until everything looks and functions just right, like on Craigslist or AptDeco. After that, publish the page, and you can start using it to sell used furniture online!

Finally, it’s worth noting that there are ways to give your customers even more options. For instance, you can purchase the WooCommerce Product Options add-on.

WooCommerce Product Options furniture assembly fields

For example, this screenshot shows a product on the WooCommerce Product Options plugin demo site. When you tick the 'Installation & assembly' box, the conditional logic in the plugin makes the other options dynamically appear underneath. This is a great way to add extra products and offer additional choices to your visitors, like they’re used to from Chairish, Etsy, or Ikea. Extra product options can be hugely beneficial when you’re looking to sell furniture online.

Bonus tip: Add quick view to your furniture shop

WooCommerce Quick View Plugin with Grouped Products

So far, we’ve talked about how to sell modular furniture using a one-page order form layout. You can build on this by using the WooCommerce Product Table with its sister plugin, WooCommerce Quick View Pro.

This lets you add ‘quick view’ buttons to the list of furniture products. Customers can click on these buttons to open up more information and purchase from a quick view lightbox, like on Chairish, Etsy, or Ikea.

Quick view is a great option if:

  • You have too many variations or add-on options to show directly in the product table. The customer can buy them from the quick view window instead!
  • You want to sell more complex groupings of products - for example, by using grouped products or the Bundled Products or Composite Products extensions. These types of products are too complicated to sell directly from the table. Instead, you can list them as usual in the product table and customers can build their modular furniture bundles and purchase from the quick view lightbox.

Get Woo Quick View

Where to get the plugin

It’s not always easy to sell furniture online. This is doubly true when what you’re offering is modular in nature. You’ll need a way to let customers see everything that’s available in one place, and select all their desired options quickly, similar to sites like Chairish, Etsy, or Ikea.

As we've shown, this is a simple matter using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin. You'll just need to:

  1. Add all your consignment furniture and options as WooCommerce products.
  2. Install and configure the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.
  3. Set up the build-your-own-product page.

Do you have any questions about how to sell furniture online effectively? Ask away in the comments section below!

WooCommerce list view plugin

Looking for a way to display WooCommerce products in a more compact and user-friendly way? If so, then a list view might be just what you need. A WooCommerce list view allows customers to quickly scan through your products and find what they're looking for without the clutter of a traditional grid layout.

In this tutorial, we'll go over how to create a WooCommerce product list, step by step. You'll learn how to list products in a user-friendly table layout, complete with extra features like additional product information, searching and filtering.

We'll be creating a list view of your products using a plugin called WooCommerce Product Table. This WordPress plugin comes with everything you need to create a WooCommerce list view. It has dozens of customization options which you can use to create a flexible product list based on your exact requirements.

Customers can view more products per page, see product data, choose options and add to their cart - all directly within the list view. The end result will be a fully customizable product list that looks something like this:

Let's get started!

Benefits of a list view for your products

First, let's look at the benefits of a WooCommerce product list view and think about whether it's right for your online store.

A list view for your WooCommerce products offers several benefits that can enhance user experience and ultimately lead to more sales. Here are a few key benefits:

  • Improved user experience: With a WooCommerce list products view, customers can quickly and easily scan through a list of products. They can also find what they're looking for without having to navigate through multiple pages.
  • Increased sales and revenue: By displaying more products on a single page, customers are more likely to find products they're interested in. This will lead to increased sales and revenue for your store. This effect is increased by adding order form functionality to the list view so that customers can choose options and add to their cart without leaving the page.
  • Improved navigation: A product list view allows customers to quickly scan through your products in a linear fashion. This makes it easier to find what they're looking for without having to scroll through a grid of products. The built-in searching and filtering above the product list makes it even easier to find products.
  • More information per row: With a WooCommerce list products view, you can display more product information per row than with a traditional grid layout. This can be especially helpful for products that require more details information or have multiple variations. The extra information can also boost your SEO.
  • Reduced bounce rates and cart abandonment: Customers are less likely to become frustrated and abandon their shopping carts. Because of this, you will have a lower bounce rate and increased conversions.
  • Better mobile optimization: A WooCommerce list products view is often better optimized for mobile devices than a grid view, as it allows for easier scrolling and navigation on smaller screens.

Woocommerce custom fields at a glance

Differences between a product grid and list view

There are two main ways of displaying products on an ecommerce website: grid view and list view. The main difference between the two is the layout and structure of the display products:

  • Product grid view is a popular way of showcasing products on WordPress websites. It displays product images in a grid formation, usually with 3 or 4 products per row. The per-page product count is usually 9-12 products. The grid layout view is perfect for visual products with big images such as clothing, shoes, and accessories.
  • On the other hand, a WooCommerce list view displays products in a vertical list layout format, with each product taking up a separate row. This layout is better suited for WooCommerce stores that offer more detailed product information, as customers can easily see each product's features and specifications. List view is perfect for stores that sell technical or complex products such as electronics, software, or machinery. You can have an unlimited number of products per page, either in a single list or broken up using pagination or previous/next links to load more. Either include images in whatever size you like, or list WooCommerce products without images.

Nearly all WordPress themes list WooCommerce products in a basic layout. Compare how the products are presented in these two pictures:

As you can see, the default layout is very limited and not suitable for many types of product.

Isn't there already a WooCommerce list products shortcode?

Before we start looking at list view WooCommerce plugins, it's always a good idea to consider whether you can do it without a plugin. The answer is, sort of. Yes, there is a WooCommerce list products shortcode built into WooCommerce - [products]. There are also Gutenberg blocks that you can use to list products anywhere on your WordPress site.

However, the shortcodes and blocks use the basic grid layout and not a proper list view:

core woocommerce products shortcode

That's why you need a WooCommerce product list plugin to create a true list of your products, with 1 per row.

Product Table - the best WooCommerce list view plugin

WooCommerce Product List Examples
Use WooCommerce Product Table to create a simple product list (left) or a full table view (right)

WooCommerce Product Table plugin is the best list view plugin because it's 100% flexible. With dozens of easy-to-use options, it has everything you need in a WooCommerce product list plugin. You can:

  • Display products anywhere. As well as enabling the WooCommerce product list plugin view on your default store pages (e.g. the shop or category pages), you can display WooCommerce products on custom pages anywhere on your site.
  • Choose what product data to display. You can easily control the information that is displayed in your list view. This includes the product name, image, price, attributes, stock information, and even custom fields that you've added to your products.
  • List all WooCommerce products or products from specific categories (or even specific tags, WooCommerce custom fields, custom taxonomy terms, IDs, etc.).
  • List products and/or variations. You can choose whether to list variations as dropdowns for each product, or with each variation listed on its own row.
  • Create simple lists with the product name only, or more advanced lists with multiple columns of product data.
  • Make it easy to find products with column sorting, keyword search, and product filters.
  • Transform the product list into a complete WooCommerce order form, with product variations, product add-ons, add-to-cart buttons, and more.
  • Choose how many products per page are listed before pagination links appear at the bottom.
  • WooCommerce Product Table Quick View Magnifying GlassIf you want to list 100's or 1,000's products, there's a lazy load option to boost performance.
  • Used with its sister plugin, WooCommerce Quick View, you can even add quick view lightboxes to your product lists!

Recommended for...

This type of product list view comes in especially handy for:

  • Technical or non-visual products If your products don't need big product images (or maybe they don't need images at all!), then why waste space? Instead, use a WooCommerce list products plugin to show more products per page. You can also display extra product information to help people make quick buying decisions.
  • WooCommerce wholesale stores Wholesale buyers are already familiar with your products and want a quick one-page order form layout. They don't want to waste time visiting a separate page for each product they wish to order.
  • 'Build your own' products If you're selling custom gift boxes, hampers, or other 'build-your-own' products then customers need to bulk-select multiple items and add them to the cart together.
  • Simple WooCommerce catalogs Some stores want to keep things simple and list of products in a one-page format that mimics a traditional printed catalog or order form. By keeping everything in one place, customers can easily compare products and make faster buying decisions.

Think carefully about the type of products in your store, and whether they'll sell better in a WooCommerce list products view.

Tutorial: How to create a WooCommerce list view

Next, I'll explain how to create different types of product list view in WooCommerce, step-by-step. Either watch the video, or read the written tutorial instructions below.

To create a WooCommerce product list view:

  1. Install the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.
  2. Use the plugin setup wizard to choose the main options for your product list views.
  3. Either tick the boxes in the setup wizard to enable the list view on all your shop pages, or list products manually using the shortcode [product_table]. Then, you can modify that shortcode with a whole slew of shortcode options.

Depending on your settings, this will list WooCommerce products in a table like this. The exact styling is inherited from your theme/template so that everything matches the rest of your website:

Default WooCommerce product list view

WooCommerce product list view examples

WooCommerce Product Table lets you list products in many different ways. Just choose the settings that will work best for the types of products you sell.

To provide some inspiration, here are some example screenshots of different ways that you might set up your WooCommerce list view.

We'll start with a basic WooCommerce list view that just displays each product's title. Then, we'll build on that simple list with more columns, AJAX filter options, as well as only pulling specific products into the list.

A basic WooCommerce list view

Just because a WooCommerce list view plugin lets you add extra columns of information doesn't mean you have to! While you can include images, add to cart buttons and tons of data, these aren't essential. If you prefer, then you can list products in a much simpler format.

As a minimum, you can create a very simple list of WC products, containing the product name but no other information:

simple woocommerce list view

This WooCommerce product list is super-simple and minimalist. It lists products by name, with no other data or features. This is as simple as it comes!

Set it up by choosing these options, either in the setup wizard or the individual product table:

  • Columns - add name to this field. This will list the product name but no other data.
  • Search box - hide this.
  • Reset button - hide this.
  • Page length - hide this.
  • Product totals - hide this.
  • Sort by - select 'Name' and 'Ascending' order to list products alphabetically.

Personally, I like this type of simple product list for specific purposes only - for example, in a sidebar widget where there's limited space. On page layouts with more space, I prefer adding extra columns - and depending on the number of products, extra features like a search box and product filters.

Listing products with extra data

Now, let's say you want to do more than just display a product's title. Fortunately, you can display literally any type of product data in the list view. In addition, you can include a 'Buy' column complete with add to cart buttons, quantity pickers and variation dropdowns. This makes it much quicker for customers to buy their desired products.

To add more columns, you need to add additional columns to the 'Columns' option in the plugin settings. This example has columns for image, name, description, buy:

full woocommerce list products functionality
A WooCommerce list view with multiple columns of product data

Or to get even fancier, this WooCommerce list view has columns for image, name, reviews, price, and buy:

WooCommerce product list plugin

Adding filters and search options

For stores with more than about 10 products, you can help customers find them by providing a search box and filters.

Here's an example of a full list of products with the search box and filters turned on:

search/filter

And for even more advanced filtering for your product list view, use Product Table with its sister plugin - WooCommerce Product Filters. This adds a wide range of professional filter options, such as color swatches, image filters, and more:

WooCommerce Product Filters Table Integration

Listing products in multiple columns

As we saw earlier, the WooCommerce Product Table plugin lists products with 1 item per row. However, you can create more complex page layouts with multiple columns, each listing different products:

Multiple column WooCommerce product list view

​You can do this by creating a page with a 3-column layout and adding a different product table to each column. You would create the multi-column page layout using the WordPress dashboard block editor (Gutenberg) or a page builder plugin like Elementor or Divi.

​Once you've added the columns, put a product table shortcode in each one. Each shortcode should list items from different product categories.

Case study - A WooCommerce product list view plugin for Dunbar Sales

WooCommerce Product List View

Jupiter Multimedia was developing a WP website for Dunbar Sales, a leading supplier of MIL-spec adhesives, paints, coatings, lubricants, and corrosion preventatives. The website would be selling highly technical, non-visual products that did not require large images. As a result, the default WooCommerce grid/list layout was inappropriate for their client's industry.

The developer said:

"I needed a TRUE list view and nothing else I tried could produce the results I required, short of trying to rebuild the entire archive page by hand. I wasn't into the idea of doing that due to the time involved and ability to upgrade as woo changes."

They were delighted to discover WooCommerce Product Table, which offered the list view and Woo custom fields they needed. This allowed them to deliver the website on time and on budget.

Jupiter Multimedia added extra functionality to its product list view by using WooCommerce Product Table with some third-party plugins. They used an Add to Quote plugin to allow customers to request a quote, and an extra product options plugin to add an extra text field to the list.

WooCommerce Product Table saved me time and money
The WooCommerce Product Table is well thought out and provides a great responsive experience. The switch between desktop and mobile is elegant and clean. The plugin saved me hours or creating a *true* list view myself and then having to design a way for my own list view to be responsive. This saved me time and money. Very pleased with the results.

List WooCommerce products with quick view buttons

A WooCommerce list view plugin is a brilliant way to speed up the buying process. It works by keeping customers away from the single product page. They find products in the product list and add them to the cart without clicking away from the list. This encourages them to buy more and more, and there's no risk that they'll get lost!

You can improve this even further by adding a quick view to your product listings. This adds optional quick-view buttons to the WoCommerce list view, and/or replaces the links to the single product page with quick-view links.

WooCommerce Quick View Plugin with Product Table

It's a great way to show extra information that you can't really fit into the product list. If you have lots of variations or add-ons for your product listings, then there may be too many to fit nicely into your neat WooCommerce list view. Instead, customers can view the basic product information in the product list; choose options, and add to the cart from a quick view lightbox.

To add quick view, you need to use Product Table with its sister plugin, WooCommerce Quick View Pro. Once both plugins are installed, you can add a column called quick-view in your list of product table columns. This will add a Quick View button for each product so that customers can easily launch the lightbox.

Want to set up a WooCommerce list view in just 15 minutes?

Creating a custom WooCommerce list products view for your products is a great way to enhance the shopping experience for your customers. With the flexibility and customization options available through WooCommerce Product Table, the possibilities are endless.

WooCommerce Product Table is a plug-and-play solution that 1000's of online store owners have already used to grow their sales. No technical knowledge is required - just follow the steps in this tutorial and you'll be up and running in minutes.

  • Instant plug-and-play setup
  • FREE knowledge base and tutorials
  • Technical support is available if you need any help
  • 30-day money-back guarantee. Love it or get a full refund, zero risk.

Whether you're looking to create a wholesale store, a simple catalog, an event-based system, or something entirely unique, a custom list view can help you achieve your goals. And with the ability to add multiple WooCommerce list products views to your site, you can provide a tailored experience for every type of customer.

Get the plugin and start getting more orders TODAY →

Do you have any other questions about using the WooCommerce list products shortcode? Leave a comment and we'd love to help!

WooCommerce hidden store plugin

Lots of people ask us how to create a WooCommerce hidden store. This tutorial covers 2 methods to build a private store using 2 plugins: WooCommerce Private Store and WooCommerce Protected Categories. It will also help you choose which WooCommerce hidden store plugin is best for your website.

WooCommerce hidden store plugin WordPressYou might want a public-facing website that anyone can access, with a hidden e-commerce area that only people with the right credentials can see. Or you might want to hide your entire WooCommerce store.

At the end of this tutorial, you'll know how to create a WooCommerce hidden store or temporarily hide a store.

Your categories, products and other WooCommerce content will not appear anywhere on your public website. They won't appear in the navigation menu, sidebar widgets or on your homepage. Read on to learn how, or watch the video:

1. Before you start

To build a WooCommerce hidden store, you need a WordPress website with the WooCommerce plugin installed. You also need a WooCommerce-compatible theme - I used Storefront on my test site.

Once you have done this, you should add your WooCommerce products to their respective product pages in the usual way. You can also create the public pages of your website (if you're having one) such as Home, About and Contact.

Once you've done that, you're ready to hide products and transform your website into a hidden WooCommerce store.

2. Decide which WooCommerce hidden store plugin to use

First, you need to decide which of the plugins described in this tutorial to use for your WooCommerce hidden store. Read the 2 lists below and then skip to the method that best applies to you. Or to make it easier, take our quick quiz!

Do you:

  • Want to hide your whole WooCommerce store?
  • Need your WooCommerce shop page and ALL your products, categories and tags to be completely hidden from search engines, sitemaps etc?
  • Want all customers to have access to all the products within your WooCommerce hidden store?

If so, you need WooCommerce Private Store. Create your hidden WooCommerce products using Method 1 of this tutorial.

Do you:

  • Want to hide some of your WooCommerce products, while also having a public online shop?
  • Need to give different customers access to different products within your hidden store?

If you've answered Yes to either of these questions then you need WooCommerce Protected Categories. Build your WooCommerce hidden store using Method 2 of this tutorial.


Method 1 - Hide Products with the WooCommerce Private Store plugin

The WooCommerce Private Store plugin is the easiest way to make WooCommerce private. It creates a 100% WooCommerce hidden store, locking down your entire shop behind a single password. Alternatively, you can automatically unlock your private store for logged in users or specific roles. No one will know your hidden store exists unless you want them to! So if you need to disable a store temporarily, this is a great option.

This video tutorial will tell you how to set up your WooCommerce hidden store. I've also provided written instructions below.

Still not sure if our WooCommerce Private Store plugin is for you? Have a look at this customer review or check out the Montana Medicinals case study below.

If you want a Private Store, Look no further!!
This plugin has been a GODSEND for us. Perfect for Wholesale usage. Hide your store with one or two checkboxes within the plugin settings and BOOM! We now have a private store. Only unlockable with a username and password. Thank you, guys :)

Case study #1 - Sprezzatura Imports

Sprezzatura ImportsSprezzatura Imports login page distribute the Italian coffee brand, ICAF, across the US. As wholesalers, they need to keep their WooCommerce wholesale store hidden from the public. That's why they've password protected it with the WooCommerce Private Store plugin.

After registering, distributors can purchase products and gain access to the price list by logging in to the password protected area. Then, to make it even easier for distributors to login, the login page was added to the menu. As a result, the hidden WooCommerce store is just a matter of clicks away from the homepage.

Case study #2 - Montana Medicinals

WooCommerce Private Store Case Study Montana Medicinals

Montana Medicinals needed to password protect their shop to comply with laws in the state of Montana. That's because Montana Medicinals operate a medical marijuana dispensary and only pre-authorized customers are allowed to access the shop. That's why they used our WooCommerce Private Store plugin.

To limit access to those over 18, they also used a sitewide WordPress age verification plugin.

Within a matter of minutes of installing the WooCommerce Private Store plugin, the developers had created a password protected private store. Customers registered with Montana Medicinals are given a password to access the store.  Once a user has confirmed they're over 18, they can access the site. Anyone can read general information about getting prescriptions, but to view products and start shopping you need a password. Clicking on Shop or Products prompts the customer to enter their password. And without a password you can't access the private store.

Read on to find out how to hide WooCommerce stores or even temporarily disable online shops.

1. Install WooCommerce Private Store

WooCommerce Private Store Plugin Settings

  1. First, buy WooCommerce Private Store.
  2. Download the plugin files and copy your license key from the confirmation page or order confirmation email.
  3. In the WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New and upload the plugin files.
  4. Activate the plugin.
  5. Next go to WooCommerce → Settings → Private Store and paste your license key. Change the other settings as required.
  6. Create a store login page by adding the shortcode [store_login] anywhere on your site.

And that's it! That's all you need to do to hide products in WooCommerce and make your store private.

The next few steps will let you further configure your hidden WooCommerce store. However you've already done the most important bits and your store is secure and hidden.

2. Customise the WooCommerce login page (optional)

If you like, you can customise the text that appears above the password entry form for your WooCommerce hidden store. You can also change the text on the 'Submit' button. You can do all this on WooCommerce → Settings → Private Store.

Make any changes and then check the WooCommerce login page that you selected in step 1.6 (above) to ensure it looks ok.

You can also add text and other content above and below the password entry form, directly onto the WooCommerce login page.

WooCommerce hidden store

All WooCommerce hidden stores are different. You might want to include a link to your store login page on your public site. For example if you're creating a WooCommerce wholesale shop then you might want to add a 'Wholesale Login' page to the menu or header. Or you might want to keep your WooCommerce store hidden so that only people with the link can ever find it.

You can link to the store login page in the usual way for adding a link in WordPress.

4. Add additional store login forms (optional)

You can also add login forms anywhere else on your public site - for example on another page or sidebar widget. In this screenshot, I've added a login form to a text widget in the right hand column.

WooCommerce hidden store and hidden products

To do this, add the shortcode [store_login] to any page, post or text widget. (Or if you're a developer, you can add it elsewhere such as in the header or a popup login form.) This will insert a login form and the text that you added to the settings page in step 2.

Customers can use this to access your WooCommerce hidden store while everyone else remains locked out.

5. Add WooCommerce content to the menu

If you haven't already done this, you can edit your navigation menu to include links to the main WooCommerce store page or to specific products, categories or tags.

Go to Appearance > Menus and select the relevant page/products/categories/tags. Add them by ticking the correct box and clicking 'Add to Menu'. (If you add them as Custom Links then the WooCommerce hidden store plugin won't hide them.)

If you use this method then the shop page/products/categories/tags in your menu will be invisible until you enter the password to unlock the hidden store.

You can see this in action on the password protect WooCommerce plugin demo. When you first view the site there's no menu dropdown under the 'Hidden Shop' link. Once you enter the password, hover over 'Hidden Shop' and you'll see that links to various WooCommerce content have magically appeared!

6. Check your WooCommerce store is hidden

Now comes the fun part. Visit your public website and try to find your WooCommerce hidden store:

  • Try accessing any of your WooCommerce pages - e.g. your main Shop page, a product or specific category. You'll be taken to the store login page.
  • Do a Google search for one of your hidden WooCommerce products.
  • If you have a search box on your site, see if your hidden WooCommerce content appears in the results.
  • Check your XML sitemap.
  • Test the navigation menu.
  • Check that no WooCommerce widgets (e.g. Products, Product Categories or Product Filters) are showing.

We've developed the WooCommerce hidden store plugin to be completely private and hidden. If you find any loopholes (e.g. you might be using a WordPress SEO plugin that we haven't tested), let us know.

Once you're happy that your WC store is 100% hidden, go to your login form and enter the password. Now you can test what customers will see after they unlock the private store.

7. Give the password to your customers

When you're completely happy with your WooCommerce hidden store, you can start using it. Give the password to your customers. And if you haven't added a 'Store Login' link to your public site, give them the URL too.

Or if you've ticked the 'Logged In Users' box in the settings, they just need to log into their account and the store will automatically unlock. There's also an option to choose which logged in users roles can access the store.


Method 2 - Hide Products with WooCommerce Password Protected Categories

WooCommerce Protected Categories is most commonly used to hide one or more product categories within a public online shop. However the plugin can equally be used to create a WooCommerce hidden store. This video and the written instructions below will show you how to create a private shop and hide WooCommerce products.

1. Create a main protected category to hide products

The first step is to create a main product category for your WooCommerce hidden store and protect it, either with a password or user login. By having one protected category, you can then structure your entire store within this category:

  1. WooCommerce school category visibilityIn the WordPress admin for your website, go to Products → Categories. This is the standard WooCommerce category page, except that you will see a 'Visibility' section at the bottom left when you create or edit a category. This has been added by the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin.
  2. Add a new category and call it anything you like. This will be the name of your WooCommerce hidden store.
  3. Click 'Protected' and either enter one or more passwords, or choose which users or roles will have access.
  4. Your new hidden category will appear in the list of product categories on the right. You can see that it's protected in the 'Visibility' column.
WooCommerce hidden shop schools category structure

Password protected categories is a good option for most WooCommerce hidden stores because you don't have to manage individual logins for each user. Everyone shares the password to your hidden shop, or you can give a different password to each person. Alternatively, choose the user or role protection options if you want each customer to have their own user account.

2. Add sub-categories to your WooCommerce hidden store

You can divide your WooCommerce hidden store into multiple categories if you like. (If not, skip ahead to step 3.)

Everything in your private WooCommerce store must be in a protected category or one of its sub-categories.

  1. Create each of your sub-categories using the 'Add new category' option on the left of Products → Categories.
  2. Select your main protected category as the 'Parent'.
  3. Leave the visibility as 'Public'. This is because the sub-category (and its products) will automatically be hidden using the same type of protection.

Once a customer enters the correct password or logs into their user account, it will unlock the entire WooCommerce store and all the hidden products. This saves them having to re-enter a password for each product as they navigate around the shop.

Note: If you want to create separate protected categories that are unrelated to each other, that's fine. You might want to do this if you want to create different private areas of your shop for different customers. For example, a photographer might create a separate hidden category to sell the photos for each client. You can then have a central login form which will direct each customer to their hidden category. 

3. Hide products by adding them to a protected category

Next, it's time to put your products within the protected categories you just created:

  1. Go to the Products section of the WP admin.
  2. Hover the name of each product and click the 'Quick Edit' link that appears.
  3. Select one or more categories and click 'Save'.
  4. Repeat for all your other products.

When you add new hidden products to WooCommerce in future, you will also need to assign them to your store's hidden categories.

Hidden WooCommerce store plugin

Even if you are hiding your Woo shop, you might still want to link to it. For example, you might want to add a link called 'Client login' or 'Trade area' to your homepage, header or footer. You might want to link to it from the navigation menu and either make it publicly visible so that anyone can access the login page, or set it to only appear after customers have entered the password.

Of course if you want to hide the fact that your website even has an e-commerce store, you don't have to link to it at all. Instead, you can give your customers the link directly (e.g. via email).

There are 2 ways to let people find your hidden WooCommerce store. You can either link to a central WooCommerce customer login page, or link to each hidden product category.

Add a central WooCommerce customer login page

If you're using password protected categories, then the shortcode [category_login] will add a WooCommerce customer login form. When customers visit this page, they can enter the password for any hidden WooCommerce product category. If the password is correct then they'll be redirected to the correct category page in your hidden WooCommerce store.

This option works well whether you have one or several protected categories in your WooCommerce hidden store. It's more flexible than linking directly to a protected category because you can add the WooCommerce login form to any page or widget. However I'll tell you how to do that next, just in case.

If you're using role or user protected categories, then you just need to link to a user login page instead. Use the free Peter's Login Redirect plugin to automatically redirect users to the correct hidden category after they log in. You can choose a different category for each user or role to be forwarded to - it's surprisingly flexible for a free plugin.

  1. Go back to Products → Categories. Hover over the name of your main hidden category. Right-click the 'View' link and copy the link. That will put the URL/address for your hidden category to your clipboard.
  2. Now go to wherever you want to add the link - e.g. your homepage, header or footer. Create a hyperlink in the usual way (either using HTML or the 'Insert/Edit Link' WordPress toolbar icon).

How to link to hidden product categories from the menu

  1. Go to Appearance > Menus.
  2. On the left, open up the 'Product Categories' section.
  3. Tick whichever protected categories you want to add to the menu OR the page where you have added the WooCommerce login form.
  4. Click 'Add to Menu'.
  5. The product categories will be added to the end of your menu on the right. Drag them to the correct position and click 'Save Menu'.

Now go back to your website and click 'Refresh'. If your private categories don't appear in the menu, that's because the plugin is set to only show them in the menu after you have unlocked the category. If you go to the main category for your WooCommerce hidden store and enter the password, the links will then appear in the menu.

To make the menu links visible to everyone, you can change this setting at WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Protected Categories.

5. Choose how your hidden WooCommerce product categories behave

The WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin lets you choose how the hidden part of your store appears publicly. You can change the plugin settings as follows:

  1.  Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products and click the 'Protected Categories' link at the top.
  2. Tick and untick the boxes to choose whether to hide your WooCommerce hidden products and categories from menus etc.
  3. This page also lets you change the text that appears above the 'Enter password' box and the wording of the button. For example you might add instructions on what to do if a customer loses the password.

Depending on your WordPress theme, there might be publicly visible links to the cart which aren't hidden. If you want to hide a WooCommerce store, you probably don't want this to appear on your public website.

If you use a fully featured theme from ThemeForest or similar then the theme options might let you hide the cart icon. If your theme doesn't have this option then you can hide it using CSS. (We recommend Codeable for small coding tasks like this). Or even better, ask your WordPress developer to code the cart link to only appear when there are products in the cart. This will automatically hide it from your public-facing store because customers can only add products to the cart after unlocking the category!

7. Add the WooCommerce cart widget

If you've hidden the main links to your cart, you can use the WooCommerce cart widget to display the cart in the sidebar. This might be the right or left hand column on your WP site.

  1. Go to Appearance → Widgets.
  2. Find the sidebar area where you want the cart to display.
  3. Drag the 'WooCommerce Cart' widget from the left hand side to the correct sidebar area.
  4. Tick the 'Hide if cart is empty' box in the widget settings and click 'Save'.

By ticking 'Hide if cart is empty', the cart widget will only display when customers have products in their cart. Since your Woo store is hidden and people can only add products after they unlock the category, this stops it from appearing on your public website. Even if you have the same sidebar on the public and private areas of your website, the cart will only appear when there are products in the cart.

This means that it doesn't matter if you have hidden the shopping cart from the header, as it appears in the sidebar instead.

WooCommerce cart widget

8. SEO - Block your WooCommerce hidden store from search engines

Finally, a note about SEO.

I won't cover this in-depth as it depends on your WordPress SEO plugin. As a general principle, you will want to mark all of the following as noindex:

  • All the default Woo pages (Cart, Checkout, My Account and Shop).
  • The Products custom post type.
  • Product category pages.
  • Product tag pages.

If you have an XML sitemap then you need to tweak the settings to exclude.

Use the documentation for your WordPress SEO plugin to find out exactly how to do this.

This will hide the hidden areas of your WooCommerce store from search engines while allowing search engines to index your public pages.

If you're worried about this, you may be better off using Method 1 and WooCommerce Private Store which handles this automatically.

By default, the products in your hidden product categories will appear in the website search but if you click them then you will be prompted for the password. This also applies to other WooCommerce content such as your main shop page, categories and tags.

You can stop your hidden WooCommerce products from appearing in the WordPress search results at all. To do this, you need to set the "Catalog Visibility" option for each product to "Hidden". You can find this option in the 'Publish' section on the right hand side of the Edit Product screen:

WooCommerce hidden store plugin

This advice applies to the default search feature that is built into WordPress. If you're using a different search plugin, it's worth testing this to make sure it works for your plugin.

If you're worried about hidden WooCommerce products appearing in the search, you may be better off with Method 1 and our WooCommerce Private Store plugin. That plugin hides products from the search results automatically.

Further reading: How to Build a Private WooCommerce Members Only Shop

Wrapping up

In this tutorial, we have used 2 different plugins to create a WooCommerce hidden store. We've added links to it - either to the menu or to anywhere else on your website. We've dynamically added links and widgets so they only appear once people have unlocked a category.

Both plugins let you hide products and protect a WooCommerce store within your WordPress website. WooCommerce may be most popular for public online shops, but it's just as good for hidden WooCommerce shops. Whether you want to hide WooCommerce wholesale areas, customer-specific products, temporarily hide stores, or create a WooCommerce age restricted area, you can do it with these plugins.

I hope the tutorial has been useful for you. Use the plugin documentation for WooCommerce Protected Categories or WooCommerce Private Shop to learn even more about your chosen hidden store plugin. Or if you like the plugin, become a Barn2 affiliate and earn 30% commission for recommending our plugins!

Are you using one of these methods to hide products in WooCommerce? I'd love to hear how it's working for you - please add a comment below.