Can Customers Create Their Own Product Bundles in WooCommerce?
Mr. Periwinkle has a couple of confectionery stores. He now wants to take his business online, and wants to offer customers the same products, as we would in his conventional store. Apart for purchasing pre-filled boxes of candy from the store, customers can select and create their own box of assorted chocolates/candies, and purchase the box for a fixed price.
Now, considering that Mr. Periwinkle decides to build his online shop on WordPress and WooCommerce, how can he offer such products in his WooCommerce store?
Let’s take a look at some extensions for WooCommerce.
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Product Bundles & Composite Products for WooCommerce
The Product Bundles extension looks promising. In fact it has all of the features we need… well… almost. With the Product Bundles extension, Mr. Periwinkle can sell pre-filled boxes of candy. However, customers cannot pick and create their own assortments.
“Hmm… But I’d like customers to be able to create their own boxes. It’s a popular product in my store. I usually allow customers to create assorted boxes of either 6, 12, or 24 candies. Can Customers Create Their Own Product Bundles in WooCommerce?”
- Periwinkle
Well, in that case, we can take a look at the Composite Products extension. The Composite Products extension allows customers to combine products into kits or assemblies. Buuuuut… on second thought, it’s more suitable when you have to pick out parts of a group, and when products to be chosen are few. The user interface isn’t suitable either.
We need a better option.
WooCommerce Assorted Boxes: Custom Product Boxes
Let’s think of how the WooCommerce extension should be. From the store owner’s (or in our case Mr.Periwinkle’s) perspective, there should be an option to create a box, which can be filled with assorted products.
- This box has to be associated with products which can be added to it (a.k.a. the candy), which will also be products (Simple Products), in his WooCommerce store.
- There has to be a capacity which can be set for the box.
- There has to be a price which can be set for the box as well.
Hence, Mr. Periwinkle will have to create 3 boxes of sizes 6, 12 and 24 respectively, and assign candies to each box.
From a buyer’s perspective, the buyer can choose the box he wants to purchase. Say he picks the ‘Box of 6’. He can then,
- Pick and add the candies to the box
- Purchase the box, just like any other product, right from your WooCommerce store.
Ah! The requirement is much clearer now. I have a solution. Mr. Periwinkle needs the ‘WooCommerce Custom Product Boxes’ extension, by WisdmLabs. With this extension, he can allow customers to create their own assorted boxes of candies, and purchase them from his WooCommerce store.
The interface makes it simple for customers to pick and add products, into a box. Because they can add or remove an item with just one click. They have a visual feedback of which items they have added to the box, and the items available.
With the Custom Product Boxes extension, managing and selling assorted bundles of products in WooCommerce, is made easy, because product inventory is managed as well. Say for example, there are only 5 caramel crunch cupcakes left in the store. In a box of 6, a customer can at the most add 5 caramel crunch cupcakes, (since there are only 5 available). There is always a check made, to verify if there an adequate number of items in stock.
“Sounds perfect! It can help me sell assorted bundles in my e-store.”
- Periwinkle
With the WooCommerce Custom Product Boxes extension by WisdmLabs, customers CAN create their own product bundles in WooCommerce. It can help Mr.Periwinkle advertise the same products, and offers for assorted boxes in his online store, as he would in his conventional store.
Your Thoughts
For those of you looking to add a similar functionality in your WooCommerce store, you can use the WooCommerce Custom Product Boxes extension. And if you have any doubts about the way it works, you can forward them to me, using the comment section below this post. For those of you using the Custom Product Boxes extension, do feel free to leave your feedback about the plugin, which can help fellow readers.
