WooCommerce quick view plugins: How to add product quick view at your store

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

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

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

WooCommerce Quick View Example

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

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

Let's get started!

What are WooCommerce quick view plugins?

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

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

A custom quick view WooCommerce plugin usually displays information like:

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

Typically, customers trigger the quick view by either:

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

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

Some examples

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

Example of product quick view at Fossil

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Include product reviews right away

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

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

Display food add-ons for a WooCommerce restaurant ordering system

WooCommerce restaurant quick view plugin

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

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

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

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

Related tutorial: Create a WooCommerce restaurant ordering system

Create a detailed "build your own product" configurator

WooCommerce build your own hamper

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

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

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

WooCommerce quick view plugin with Deposits

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

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

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

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

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

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

Display audio or video playlists in the popup

WooCommerce Quick View audio plugin

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

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

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

Show bundled or composite products in the popup

WooCommerce quick view bundled products

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

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

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

Introducing the WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugin

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

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

Add quick view buttons anywhere

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

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

WooCommerce Product Table with quick view buttons

Flexible quick view lightboxes

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

This means that you can use it:

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

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

More WooCommerce quick view plugin features

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Step 1: Install and activate WooCommerce Quick View Pro

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

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

You can see an example of the default button below:

Product quick view button

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

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

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

Step 2: Choose how shoppers open quick view

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

Access quick view settings

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

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

  • Change the button text
  • Turn the button icon on or off
Configure quick view button

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

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

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

Open from product title

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

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

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

  • Only product images
  • Only product details
  • Both images and product details (the default)
Choose what information to include

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

Only product gallery

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

Using WooCommerce Quick View Pro with WooCommerce Product Table

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

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

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

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

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

WooCommerce product table quick view

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

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

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

An example
Quick view table

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

Add quick view column

Learn more about column options in WooCommerce Product Table

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

Product quick view column

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

Get the best WooCommerce quick view plugin today

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

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

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

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

2 Comments

  1. When also using product add ons with images displayed for multiple choice and a quick view plugin ALL other quick View plugins display the images AND a dropdown but the images don't work for selection only the dropdown does.
    Does your plugin solve this problem or is it just the same old same old as with every other quick view?

    • If you use WooCommerce Quick View Pro with the WooCommerce Product Options plugin then you can create clickable image options. Customers can click on these in the quick view lightbox to add the image option to their cart.

      I hope this makes sense and helps. Should you have any other questions, you can also get in touch with us via our dedicated Support Center. Thanks.

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