How to Create and Optimize Your WooCommerce Checkout Page

WooCommerce allows WordPress users to turn their websites into full-fledged online stores. While the eCommerce plugin provides essential functions to start with, your business’s success relies on the shopping experience. A vital part of the whole experience is the checkout process.

Whether you’re new to WooCommerce or an experienced business owner, this guide will help you create, customize, and optimize your WooCommerce checkout page. We will also cover the best plugins and extensions to improve your checkout experience.

What Is a WooCommerce Checkout Page?

A WooCommerce checkout page is where customers finish their online shopping by entering their payment and shipping details. Most stores customize this page to improve user experience and optimize conversions.

Why You Should Customize Your WooCommerce Checkout Page

According to the latest eCommerce statistics, 18% of customers abandon carts due to an overcomplicated checkout process. Tailoring your checkout page accordingly will help minimize this problem.

A custom WooCommerce checkout page reduces cart abandonment rates by addressing common pain points in the checkout process. By improving the overall customer experience, you encourage return visits and repeat purchases, driving up conversion rates and average order value.

Additionally, aligning the checkout page’s design with your branding ensures brand consistency. It helps create a professional impression and build trust, which are crucial factors in converting visitors into paying customers.

Furthermore, adding custom checkout fields streamlines data collection, allowing you to capture customers’ preferences, behaviors, and needs. You can use this information to tailor future offerings and marketing pitches for better targeting.

Like any website customization, one wrong setting can hurt your customer experience. To avoid that, we recommend experimenting with your customizations on a staging website.

A staging website is an identical copy of your live website, allowing you to experiment with customizations without impacting the live version’s functionality.

Key Elements of the WooCommerce Checkout Page

Your WooCommerce checkout page ideally features these key elements to ensure a smooth checkout experience.

Billing Details
Shipping Details
Payment Options
Order Review

How to Create a Checkout Page in WooCommerce

WooCommerce automatically creates a checkout page during the store setup process. You can access it through Pages → All Pages from your admin dashboard.

If you want to set up a new checkout page, head to WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced tab and pick a different page from the Checkout dropdown. If you need help, check out our WordPress guide for creating a new page.

Open the General tab to customize the elements of your checkout page. The General options section controls the locations you sell and ship to and customers’ default location. Here, you can also enable tax payments and coupons during checkout.

Scroll down to Currency options to manage the currency displayed in the product catalog and for payments.

The Shipping tab is where you set up shipping in WooCommerce. Assign shipping zones and methods to regions you’d sell to.

The Payments tab manages your store’s payment methods. Browse our list of top WooCommerce payment gateways if you need help choosing the right one. You can also read our tutorial on how to set up WooPayments to enable various payment methods.

In the Account & Privacy tab, you can configure guest checkout, account creation, and privacy policy.

How to Optimize Your WooCommerce Checkout Page for Conversions

Customizing a WooCommerce checkout page is more than just modifying its format and layout. Here are some tips to improve your checkout experience for better conversions, customer experience, and performance.

Simplify the Checkout Process
Feature a User-friendly Design
Analyze Checkout Performance
Offer Accessible Support
Optimize Checkout Page for Speed

How to Customize WooCommerce Checkout Fields

Having the necessary checkout fields for your business enhances customer experience and simplifies data collection.

For example, eCommerce stores can add a date picker to let customers choose a specific delivery date for their orders. Food and beverage sites benefit from an extra section to record dietary restrictions or preferences. If you’re planning to create a membership website, custom fields make collecting membership details easier.

WooCommerce built-in settings only allow for basic customization. For advanced customization, use a WordPress plugin or modify your theme’s functions.php file.

How to Change WooCommerce Checkout Page Template

Aesthetically, the easiest way to change a checkout page template is to customize the WooCommerce template. Many excellent WooCommerce themes are available in the WordPress theme directory, WooCommerce Marketplace, and third-party marketplaces like ThemeForest.

If you’re happy with the current design, customize the layout using checkout page builder plugins like CartFlows and FunnelKit Builder or custom code. WooCommerce also provides action hooks in its documentation, which you can use to modify the theme’s template files.

How to Create a One-Page WooCommerce Checkout

As mentioned earlier, a one-page checkout page reduces the number of steps and clicks required to finish a transaction. It saves customers time and helps lower cart abandonment rates.

Hostinger, for example, adopts this format by allowing customers to review their orders, make an account, and submit payment details on a single page.

As outlined earlier, many one-page themes and templates can streamline your checkout process. Alternatively, buy the WooCommerce One Page Checkout extension to design your checkout flow in various ways.

How to Trigger Free Shipping During WooCommerce Checkout

If your WooCommerce store doesn’t offer free shipping, you might want to reconsider. A survey found that 49.7% of people prioritize free shipping when shopping online. This perk also benefits upselling and cross-selling strategies, as 93% of consumers buy additional items to qualify for free shipping.

Many online stores offer waive shipping fees on orders over a set amount, increasing the average order value. In WooCommerce, you can trigger conditional free shipping by leveraging the shipping zone feature.

How to Directly Link Products to WooCommerce Checkout Page

Another method to improve your checkout experience is to link products directly to the WooCommerce checkout page. This technique is instrumental in marketing campaigns, turning promotional emails and social media posts into direct sales channels.

There are two ways to create a WooCommerce direct checkout link ‒ manually and using a plugin.

How to Test WooCommerce Checkout Page

To maintain a consistent customer experience, regularly test your online store’s checkout process, not just after updates. Doing so helps identify and resolve issues that could discourage buyers from completing their transactions, such as broken links, incorrect calculations, or payment gateway errors.

WooCommerce provides a built-in test mode to simulate purchases without processing an actual transaction. This mode is accessible after setting up WooPayments as a payment gateway.

Best Plugins and Extensions for WooCommerce Checkout

In previous sections, we have mentioned several extensions and plugins with specific checkout functionality. Let’s extend the list by exploring other excellent WooCommerce checkout plugins to boost sales:

Checkout Field Manager
Extra Fees for WooCommerce
MultiStep Checkout for WooCommerce

Pair your chosen checkout plugins with some of the best WooCommerce plugins to make your store stand out:

SearchWP
Advanced Dynamic Pricing for WooCommerce
Simple Giveaway

Conclusion

Just because WooCommerce generates a checkout page by default doesn’t mean you can’t take it to another level. To make your WooCommerce store successful, regularly test and optimize your checkout page for an optimal user experience.

We’ve explored different ways of customizing and optimizing the default WooCommerce checkout page. You also learned how to create one-page and direct checkout pages, as well as trigger free shipping to drive more sales.

Don’t forget to leverage our recommended plugins and extensions to enhance your WooCommerce checkout experience further.

We hope this article will help you understand and improve the WooCommerce checkout process. If you have any questions, check out the FAQ section or leave a comment below.

WooCommerce Checkout FAQ

This section answers some of the most common questions about WooCommerce checkout.

What Is the Purpose of Woocommerce Checkout?
What Payment Options Are Available at Woocommerce Checkout?
How Do I Set Up Direct Checkout in Woocommerce?

Jordana Alexandrea

Jordana is a Senior Content Writer at Hostinger with a background in Information Systems. She has over five years of experience in WordPress and is casually dabbling with PHP and MySQL. Her passion for writing and technology drives her to create tutorials for anyone wanting to build their online presence. Follow her on LinkedIn.

👉
Start your website with Hostinger – get fast, secure hosting here 👈