How To Modify Woocommerce Cart

Mastering WooCommerce: How to Customize Your Cart for Maximum Conversions

Introduction:

The WooCommerce cart page is a crucial touchpoint in your online store’s customer journey. It’s where potential buyers solidify their purchase decisions, and even small frictions can lead to abandoned carts. Luckily, WooCommerce is highly customizable, allowing you to tailor the cart to perfectly suit your brand and optimize for conversions. This article will guide you through various methods of modifying your WooCommerce cart, from simple CSS tweaks to more complex code customizations, empowering you to create a seamless and engaging shopping experience. By understanding how to modify your WooCommerce cart effectively, you can reduce abandonment rates, increase average order value, and ultimately boost your sales.

Modifying Your WooCommerce Cart: The How-To Guide

There are several ways to customize your WooCommerce cart, each offering varying degrees of flexibility and technical expertise required. We’ll explore the most common and practical methods:

1. CSS Styling for Quick Visual Adjustments

The simplest way to personalize your cart is through CSS. You can change colors, fonts, spacing, and even hide elements without touching any PHP code.

• Where to Add CSS: The best practice is to add custom CSS to your theme’s child theme’s `style.css` file. This prevents your changes from being overwritten during theme updates. Alternatively, you can use the WordPress Customizer (Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS).
• Example: Changing the Cart Table Header Background Color:

.woocommerce-cart .cart_item th {

background-color: #f0f0f0 !important; /* Use !important to override existing styles */

}

• Benefits:
• Easy to implement.
• No coding knowledge required beyond basic CSS.
• Quick visual changes.

2. Utilizing WooCommerce Hooks and Filters

WooCommerce is built with a powerful hook system, allowing you to intercept and modify its default behavior. Hooks come in two primary flavors: actions (which perform actions) and filters (which modify data).

• Where to Add Code: For any custom PHP code, it’s strongly recommended to use a child theme’s `functions.php` file or a dedicated code snippets plugin. Never directly edit the core WooCommerce files.
• Example: Adding a Custom Message to the Cart:

add_action( 'woocommerce_before_cart', 'add_custom_message_to_cart' );

function add_custom_message_to_cart() {

echo ‘

Free shipping on orders over $50!

‘;

}

• Explanation:
• `add_action()`: This function registers a custom function to be executed at a specific point (hook) in WooCommerce’s code execution.
• `’woocommerce_before_cart’`: This is the hook where we want to insert our message (before the cart table).
• `’add_custom_message_to_cart’`: This is the name of our custom function.
• Inside the function, we simply echo the HTML for our message.
• Example: Modifying the Cart Item Quantity Input Field:

add_filter( 'woocommerce_quantity_input_args', 'custom_quantity_input_args', 10, 2 );

function custom_quantity_input_args( $args, $product ) {

$args[‘max_value’] = 10; // Limit the maximum quantity

$args[‘min_value’] = 1; // Set the minimum quantity

$args[‘step’] = 1; // Increment/decrement by 1

$args[‘input_value’] = 1; // Starting value

return $args;

}

• Explanation:
• `add_filter()`: This function registers a filter to modify data passed to it.
• `’woocommerce_quantity_input_args’`: This filter controls the arguments for the quantity input field.
• `custom_quantity_input_args()`: This is our custom function that modifies the arguments.
• We modify the `$args` array to set the `max_value`, `min_value`, `step`, and `input_value`.
• Benefits:
• Highly flexible and powerful.
• Allows for complex customizations without altering core files.
• A vast number of hooks are available for various points in the cart process.

3. Overriding WooCommerce Templates

For more drastic changes, you can override WooCommerce’s default templates. This involves copying the template file from the WooCommerce plugin directory to your theme’s directory and then modifying the copied file. This method requires more caution, as it can make your site harder to update if the core template changes significantly in a future WooCommerce update.

• How to Override Templates:

1. Locate the template file you want to override in the WooCommerce plugin directory (`wp-content/plugins/woocommerce/templates/`). For example, the cart template is typically located at `woocommerce/templates/cart/cart.php`.

2. Create a `woocommerce` folder in your theme’s (or child theme’s) directory.

3. Replicate the directory structure of the template you’re overriding within the `woocommerce` folder. For instance, if you’re overriding `cart.php`, you’ll create a `cart` subfolder inside the `woocommerce` folder in your theme.

4. Copy the template file (`cart.php` in our example) from the WooCommerce plugin directory into the corresponding folder in your theme.

5. Edit the copied template file to your liking.

• Example: Modifying the `cart.php` template to add a custom button. (After following the steps above to copy the file to your theme).

<?php
/**
Cart Page
* This template can be overridden by copying it to yourtheme/woocommerce/cart/cart.php.
* HOWEVER, on occasion WooCommerce will need to update template files and you
(the theme developer) will need to copy the new files to your theme to
maintain compatibility. We try to do this as little as possible, but it does
happen. When this occurs the version of the template file will be bumped and
the readme will list any important changes.
* @see     https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/template-structure/
@package WooCommerceTemplates
@version 7.9.0
*/

defined( ‘ABSPATH’ ) || exit;

do_action( ‘woocommerce_before_cart’ ); ?>

<form class="woocommerce-cart-form" action="” method=”post”>

<?php

foreach ( WC()->cart->get_cart() as $cart_item_key => $cart_item ) {

$_product = apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_product’, $cart_item[‘data’], $cart_item, $cart_item_key );

$product_id = apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_product_id’, $cart_item[‘product_id’], $cart_item, $cart_item_key );

/

* Filter the product name in the cart.

*

* @since 2.1.0

* @param string $product_name Name of the product in the cart.

*/

$product_name = apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_name’, $_product->get_name(), $cart_item, $cart_item_key );

$thumbnail = apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_thumbnail’, $_product->get_image(), $cart_item, $cart_item_key );

if ( $_product && $_product->exists() && $cart_item[‘quantity’] > 0 && apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_visible’, true, $cart_item, $cart_item_key ) ) {

$product_permalink = apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_permalink’, $_product->is_visible() ? $_product->get_permalink( $cart_item ) : ”, $cart_item, $cart_item_key );

?>

<tr class="woocommerce-cart-form__cart-item “>

<td class="product-name" data-title="”>

<?php

if ( ! $product_permalink ) {

echo wp_kses_post( apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_name’, $_product->get_name(), $cart_item, $cart_item_key ) . ‘ ‘ );

} else {

/

* Filter the product name in the cart.

* @since 2.1.0

* @param string $product_name Name of the product in the cart.

*/

echo wp_kses_post( apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_name’, sprintf( ‘%s‘, esc_url( $product_permalink ), $_product->get_name() ), $cart_item, $cart_item_key ) );

}

do_action( ‘woocommerce_after_cart_item_name’, $cart_item, $cart_item_key );

// Meta data.

echo wc_get_formatted_cart_item_data( $cart_item ); // PHPCS: XSS ok.

// Backorder notification.

if ( $_product->backorders_require_notification() && $_product->is_on_backorder( $cart_item[‘quantity’] ) ) {

echo wp_kses_post( apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_backorder_notification’, ‘

‘ . esc_html__( ‘Available on backorder’, ‘woocommerce’ ) . ‘

‘, $product_id ) );

}

?>

<td class="product-price" data-title="”>

<?php

echo apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_price’, WC()->cart->get_product_price( $_product ), $cart_item, $cart_item_key ); // PHPCS: XSS ok.

?>

<td class="product-quantity" data-title="”>

<?php

if ( $_product->is_sold_individually() ) {

$product_quantity = sprintf( ‘1 ‘, $cart_item_key );

} else {

$product_quantity = woocommerce_quantity_input(

array(

‘input_name’ => “cart[{$cart_item_key}][qty]”,

‘input_value’ => $cart_item[‘quantity’],

‘max_value’ => $_product->get_max_purchase_quantity(),

‘min_value’ => ‘0’,

‘product_id’ => $product_id,

),

$_product,

false

);

}

echo apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_quantity’, $product_quantity, $cart_item_key, $cart_item ); // PHPCS: XSS ok.

?>

<td class="product-subtotal" data-title="”>

<?php

echo apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_subtotal’, WC()->cart->get_product_subtotal( $_product, $cart_item[‘quantity’] ), $cart_item, $cart_item_key ); // PHPCS: XSS ok.

?>

<?php

}

}

?>

<?php echo apply_filters( // phpcs:ignore WordPress.Security.EscapeOutput.OutputNotEscaped ‘woocommerce_cart_item_remove_link’, sprintf( ‘ב, esc_url( wc_get_cart_remove_url( $cart_item_key ) ), esc_attr__( ‘Remove this item’, ‘woocommerce’ ), esc_attr( $product_id ), esc_attr( $_product->get_sku() ) ), $cart_item_key ); ?>	<?php $thumbnail = apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_thumbnail’, $_product->get_image(), $cart_item, $cart_item_key ); if ( ! $product_permalink ) { echo $thumbnail; // PHPCS: XSS ok. } else { printf( ‘%s‘, esc_url( $product_permalink ), $thumbnail ); // PHPCS: XSS ok. } ?>
<input type="text" name="coupon_code" class="input-text" id="coupon_code" value="" placeholder="” /> <button type="submit" class="button” name=”apply_coupon” value=””> <button type="submit" class="button” name=”update_cart” value=””>

<?php

/

* Cart collaterals hook.

*

* @hooked woocommerce_cross_sell_display

* @hooked woocommerce_cart_totals – 10

*/

do_action( ‘woocommerce_cart_collaterals’ );

?>

Go To Custom Page!

• Important:
• Maintain Compatibility: Be mindful of WooCommerce updates and regularly check if the core template files have changed. You may need to update your overridden templates to maintain compatibility.
• Backup: Always back up your theme and database before making any template changes.
• Proper Coding: Ensure your code is valid and follows WordPress coding standards.
• Benefits:
• Complete control over the cart’s structure and appearance.
• Allows for complex and highly customized designs.

4. Using Plugins for Specific Modifications

Numerous WooCommerce plugins offer pre-built solutions for common cart modifications, such as:

• Adding Upsells and Cross-sells: Suggesting related products to increase order value.
• Offering Cart Discounts: Encouraging customers to complete their purchase.
• Customizing the Cart Layout: Changing the display of cart items and elements.
• Implementing AJAX Cart Updates: Updating the cart without reloading the page.
• Benefits:
• Convenient and easy to use.
• Often requires minimal coding knowledge.
• Can save development time.
• Considerations:
• Research plugins thoroughly to ensure they are reputable and well-maintained.
• Avoid installing too many plugins, as they can slow down your site.
• Check compatibility with your theme and other plugins.