How To Modify Woocommerce Checkout

Mastering Your WooCommerce Checkout: A Beginner’s Guide to Modifications

WooCommerce offers incredible flexibility for online stores. One of the most powerful areas you can customize is the checkout process. The checkout page is the final hurdle between a potential customer and a sale, so optimizing it for a seamless and user-friendly experience is critical for boosting conversions.

This guide is designed for WooCommerce beginners who want to learn how to modify the checkout page without getting bogged down in complex code. We’ll cover some common modifications and provide easy-to-understand examples.

Why Customize Your WooCommerce Checkout?

Think of a real-life checkout experience. Imagine a cramped, confusing line with unnecessary questions at the cashier. Frustrating, right? The same applies online.

Here’s why modifying your WooCommerce checkout is important:

• Reduce Cart Abandonment: A confusing or lengthy checkout process is a leading cause of cart abandonment. Streamlining the process can significantly reduce this.
• Improve User Experience: A well-designed checkout page is easy to navigate and feels intuitive, leading to happier customers.
• Collect Relevant Data: You can add custom fields to gather information that’s important for your business, such as delivery preferences or specific product requests.
• Increase Conversion Rates: By removing friction and making the checkout process as smooth as possible, you’ll encourage more customers to complete their purchases.
• Branding Consistency: Customize the look and feel to match your overall brand aesthetic.

Before You Begin: The Golden Rule

Always, always, ALWAYS use a child theme! Modifying the core WooCommerce files directly is a recipe for disaster. When WooCommerce updates, your changes will be overwritten, and you’ll lose all your hard work. A child theme isolates your customizations, ensuring they’re safe during updates.

If you don’t already have Check out this post: How To Offer Free Shipping On Woocommerce a child theme, Google “create woocommerce child theme” – it’s a straightforward process.

Common WooCommerce Checkout Modifications (With Examples)

Here are a few popular checkout modifications and how to implement them:

#### 1. Removing Unnecessary Fields

Many default WooCommerce checkout fields may be irrelevant to your business. Removing these fields can simplify the process for customers.

Example: You sell digital products and don’t need the “Shipping Address” section.

 /** 
Remove billing fields from checkout page
 */ add_filter( 'woocommerce_checkout_fields' , 'custom_override_checkout_fields' ); 

function custom_override_checkout_fields( $fields ) {

unset($fields[‘billing’][‘billing_company’]); // Remove Company Name

unset($fields[‘billing’][‘billing_address_2’]); // Remove Address 2

unset($fields[‘shipping’][‘shipping_company’]); // Remove Shipping Company Name

unset($fields[‘shipping’][‘shipping_address_2’]); // Remove Shipping Address 2

return $fields;

}

Explanation:

• This code snippet goes into your child theme’s `functions.php` file.
• `add_filter(‘woocommerce_checkout_fields’ , ‘custom_override_checkout_fields’);` tells WooCommerce to run our function (`custom_override_checkout_fields`) when it’s building the checkout fields.
• `unset($fields[‘billing’][‘billing_company’]);` removes the “Company Name” field from the billing address section.
• We repeat this for other fields we want to remove.

Reasoning: Less clutter equals a faster and more user-friendly checkout. Removing unnecessary fields minimizes distractions and reduces the effort required for customers to complete their purchase.

#### 2. Changing Field Labels and Placeholders

Want to make your checkout form more user-friendly? Changing labels and placeholders can clarify what information you need.

Example: Change the “Billing First Name” label to “Your Name” and add a helpful placeholder.

 /** 
Change billing first name label and add placeholder
 */ add_filter( 'woocommerce_checkout_fields' , 'custom_rename_checkout_fields' ); 

function custom_rename_checkout_fields( $fields ) {

$fields[‘billing’][‘billing_first_name’][‘label’] = ‘Your Name’;

$fields[‘billing’][‘billing_first_name’][‘placeholder’] = ‘Enter your full name’;

return $fields;

}

Explanation:

• Similar to the previous example, this code goes in your child theme’s `functions.php`.
• We access the ‘billing_first_name’ field and modify its `label` and `placeholder` properties.

Reasoning: Clear labels and helpful placeholders guide the user and reduce ambiguity, preventing errors and improving the overall checkout experience.

#### 3. Making Fields Required or Optional

Sometimes you need to ensure customers provide certain information, while other fields might be optional.

Example: Make the “Billing Phone” field required.

 /** 
Make billing phone required
 */ add_filter( 'woocommerce_checkout_fields' , 'custom_make_phone_required' ); 

function custom_make_phone_required( $fields ) {

$fields[‘billing’][‘billing_phone’][‘required’] = true;

return $fields;

}

Explanation:

• We set the `required` property of the ‘billing_phone’ field to `true`.

Reasoning: Requiring essential fields ensures you collect the information you need to fulfill orders and communicate with customers effectively. For example, you may NEED a phone number to call regarding a delivery issue.

#### 4. Adding Custom Fields

Need to collect specific information that WooCommerce doesn’t provide by default? You can add custom fields. This requires a bit more coding knowledge but is still achievable for beginners.

Example: Adding a “How did you hear about us?” dropdown field.

 /** 
Add custom checkout field
 */ add_action( 'woocommerce_after_order_notes', 'custom_add_checkout_field' ); 

function custom_add_checkout_field( $checkout ) {

echo ‘

‘;

woocommerce_form_field( ‘how_did_you_hear_about_us’, array(

‘type’ => ‘select’,

‘class’ => array(‘my-field-class form-row-wide’),

‘label’ => __(‘How did you hear about us?’, ‘woocommerce’),

‘placeholder’ => __(‘Select an option…’, ‘woocommerce’),

‘required’ => false,

‘options’ => array(

” => __(‘Select an option…’, ‘woocommerce’),

‘google’ => __(‘Google Search’, ‘woocommerce’),

‘facebook’ => __(‘Facebook’, ‘woocommerce’),

‘friend’ => __(‘From a Friend’, ‘woocommerce’),

‘other’ => __(‘Other’, ‘woocommerce’),

)

), $checkout->get_value( ‘how_did_you_hear_about_us’ ));

echo ‘

‘;

}

/

* Update the order meta with field value

*/

add_action( ‘woocommerce_checkout_update_order_meta’, ‘custom_checkout_field_update_order_meta’ );

function custom_checkout_field_update_order_meta( $order_id ) {

if ( ! empty( $_POST[‘how_did_you_hear_about_us’] ) ) {

update_post_meta( $order_id, ‘How did you hear about us?’, sanitize_text_field( $_POST[‘how_did_you_hear_about_us’] ) );

}

}

/

* Display field value on the order edit page

*/

add_action( ‘woocommerce_admin_order_data_after_billing_address’, ‘custom_checkout_field_display_admin_order_meta’, 10, 1 );

function custom_checkout_field_display_admin_order_meta($order){

echo ‘

‘.__(‘How did you hear about us’, ‘woocommerce’).’: ‘ . get_post_meta( $order->get_id(), ‘How did you hear about us?’, true ) . ‘

‘;

}

Explanation:

• This code is a bit more complex.
• The `woocommerce_form_field()` function creates the form field.
• We define the field type (select), label, placeholder, options, and other properties.
• The `woocommerce_checkout_update_order_meta` action saves the custom field’s value to the order meta.
• The `woocommerce_admin_order_data_after_billing_address` displays the saved value on the order edit screen in the WooCommerce admin.

Reasoning: This allows you to track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Knowing where your customers are coming from is invaluable data.

Where to Put the Code?

All the code snippets above should be added to your child theme’s `functions.php` file. This file is where you add custom functionality to your WordPress theme.

Important: Be extremely careful when editing your `functions.php` file. A single error can break your entire website. Always back up your file before making changes.

Testing and Troubleshooting

• Test Thoroughly: After making any changes, thoroughly test the checkout process to ensure everything is working correctly. Place test orders with different shipping addresses and payment methods.
• Error Reporting: Enable WordPress debugging mode to display any errors. Add this to your `wp-config.php` file (located in your WordPress root directory):

 define( 'WP_DEBUG', true ); define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', true ); // Display errors on the screen define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true ); // Save errors to a debug.log file in wp-content/ 

• Console Log: Use your browser’s developer console (right-click -> Inspect -> Console) to check for JavaScript errors.

Beyond the Basics: Plugins and More Advanced Modifications

While the code snippets above provide a great starting point, more complex modifications might require plugins or a deeper understanding of WooCommerce development.

Plugins: Numerous plugins are available that simplify checkout customization. Some popular options include:

• WooCommerce Checkout Field Editor: A user-friendly plugin for adding, editing, and removing checkout fields.
• CheckoutWC: A plugin that offers a modern and streamlined checkout experience.
• CartFlows: A funnel builder designed to optimize the checkout process.

Advanced Modifications: For highly customized checkout experiences, you might need to:

• Override WooCommerce templates: Copy WooCommerce template files to your child theme and modify them. This gives you complete control over the HTML structure of the checkout page.
• Use WooCommerce hooks and filters extensively: WooCommerce provides a vast array of hooks and filters that allow you to modify almost any aspect of the checkout process.
• Develop a custom plugin: If you need highly specialized functionality, creating a custom plugin is the best approach.