Wednesday, April 21, 2021

How to Add a Custom Product Builder in WooCommerce

Do you want to add a custom product builder in WooCommerce?

A custom product builder in WooCommerce allows customers to design products and customize them to their own requirements. This interactive way of customizing product orders can boost sales conversions.

In this article, we will show you how to easily add a custom product builder in WooCommerce without hiring any developers or writing any code.

Adding a custom product builder in WooCommerce

Why Add a Custom Product Builder in WooCommerce?

Adding a custom product builder in WooCommerce allows your customers to customize the products before placing an order.

For instance, you can add print-on-demand products and allow customers to add their logos, images, and text to the products.

A custom product designer for WooCommerce can be used to sell your own products that you can customize for the customers before shipping.

Alternatively, you can also start a dropshipping business and let a third-party vendor take care of customization and shipping.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to add a custom product builder to your WooCommerce store.

Adding Custom Product Builder to a WooCommmerce Store

For this tutorial, we will be using Zakeke. It is a product customizer tool for WooCommerce and offers a seamless product builder experience for your users. The product designer is really easy to use for customers as well as store owners.

First, you need to sign up for a Zakeke account.

Zakeke website

After that, you will be asked to choose your eCommerce integration. Simply click on the Next button to continue.

Zakeke wizard

Zakeke works with most popular eCommerce platforms including WooCommerce.

To connect your store to Zakeke, switch back to your WordPress website admin area.

Next, you need to install and activate the free Zakeke plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll be asked to connect your WooCommerce store to your Zakeke account. Simply click on the Connect button to continue.

Connect Zakeke account

You’ll be then asked to allow Zakeke access to perform actions on your WooCommerce store. Click on the Approve button to move forward.

Approve connection

This will bring you back to Zakeke website to start your free trial or choose a pricing plan. Click on the next button to continue.

Activate free trial

On the next page, you will see pricing options for different plans. Each plan comes with a free 14-day trial and does not require a credit card.

Apart from the Starter plan, all other plans charge an additional 1.9% transaction fee on sold products.

Choose a plan

Click to choose your plan and you are good to go.

Adding Your First Customizable Product

You can now click on the Next button to launch the Product configurator and start adding your products.

Launch Product Configurator

You can then choose a product from your own store, or you can select a print-on-demand service.

For the sake of this tutorial, we will choose to add products from our own demo store.

Choose product type

Next, Zakeke will load products from your store, and you need to choose the product that you want to configure.

Choose product

After that, it will choose your product image from your store. If you want to use a different image, then you can upload it. You can also add a back side of the product image or add variations.

Add product image or variations

Once you are satisfied with the product images, click on the ‘Set print area’ button. This will bring up a popup where you need to set a ruler by simply drawing a line with your mouse and providing a measurement.

Setting the print area

Next, you need to select a shape for the print area and then draw it on the product image.

Choose area shape

Once you are satisfied with your selection, click on the Save button to continue.

Next, you need to click on the Proceed to preview button to finalize your changes.

Finalize changes

You’ll now see your product details. Don’t forget to save your changes as draft or publish it to your store.

Publish your product

Setting The Print Methods

The next step is to set print methods. This is where you can choose how you want the design files to be formatted for printing.

From your Zakeke account dashboard, go to the Printing Methods from the left column and then click on the Add Printing Method button.

Adding a print method

From here, you can choose what printing features you want to allow to your customers. You can also choose the file types, resolution, and format.

At the bottom, you can choose the existing products that this method would apply to.

Don’t forget to click on the Save Print Method button to store your changes.

Using The Custom Product Builder in WooCommerce

Zakeke will take care of adding the product customization option to all the products that you have added using the product configurator.

You can simply visit the product in your store, and you will see the option to Customize the product.

Customize product button

This will open up the product designer interface with a preview of the product image design tools on the right. Users can add text or upload images from their devices.

Product designer preview

Users can adjust the image or text to the print area by simply dragging the corners. They can choose different fonts, colors, and styles.

The product designer also works on mobile devices and automatically adjusts to match the user’s screen size.

Mobile preview of the custom product builder for WooCommerce

Once finished, they can download a copy of their design as PDF, save it, or simply add it to the cart.

After that, customers can check out as they would normally do with a preview of their customized product in the cart.

Check out product page

Processing the Custom Product Order in WooCommerce

Zakeke makes it really simple to get the customization files for each order.

Simply go to the WooCommerce » Orders page and click on an order for your customizable product.

Viewing orders in WooCommerce

On the Order details page, you’ll see a preview of the custom design created by the customer with a link to download the customization files.

Download print files for customer design

You can then download the print files and send them for print or to your dropshipping vendor.

Bonus Tip: Selling More Customizable Products in WooCommerce

Customizable products and a sleek product designer would help you make more sales. However, customers may not know that they can customize and design their products.

This is where OptinMonster comes in.

It is the best conversion optimization software on the market and allows you to easily convert WooCommerce visitors into paying customers.

OptinMonster comes with lightbox popups, slide-in popups, notification bars, countdown timers, and more. All these tools help you display the right message to your customers at the precise time.

With its powerful display rules, you can target customers and show them personalized campaigns.

GeoTargetted Popups in WooCommerce

For instance, you can offer free shipping to customers in a particular area, show a slide-in popup for customizable products, or give a limited-time coupon to recover abandoned cart sales.

OptinMonster popup preview

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily add a custom product builder in WooCommerce. You may also want to see our guide on how to track conversions in WooCommerce to grow your business, and our comparison of best WooCommerce hosting providers.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add a Custom Product Builder in WooCommerce appeared first on WPBeginner.


April 21, 2021 at 04:00PM

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Beginner’s Guide on How to Add Business Hours in WordPress

Do you want to display your business hours on your WordPress site?

Displaying your open hours on your website can help customers plan their visits accordingly. With location search growing every day, this helps grow your business.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add your business opening hours in WordPress. .

Adding business hours to your WordPress website

Why Add Business Hours to Your WordPress Site?

Adding business hours to your WordPress website helps customers find out when you’ll be open for business. More importantly, it also helps you appear in local search results.

Preview of local search results in mobile and desktop

Nearly 46% of all searches on Google have local intent. For businesses, these searches are highly valuable as they bring in customers already looking for the products and services they offer.

Users can see your open hours on your website as well as search results. This helps them make a purchase, visit your store, restaurant, or office.

Local search results

That being said, Let’s take a look at how to properly add your business hours in WordPress.

Method 1. Adding Business Hours in WordPress using All in One SEO

This method is easier and recommended for all users.

It gives you more control over how your website appears in search results. You can easily display your business hours anywhere on your website, and it also the ability for managing multiple locations.

For this method, we’ll be using All in One SEO for WordPress. It is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market and helps you bring more free traffic from search engines to your website.

Note: You’ll need at least their Plus plan to access the Local SEO feature needed for this tutorial.

First, you need to install and activate the All in One SEO for WordPress plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will run a set up wizard. Follow the on-screen instructions to set it up. If you need more help, then please take a look at our article on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress.

All in One SEO set up wizard

Next, you need to visit All in One SEO » Local SEO page to set up your business information.

Enable locations

First, you need to switch the ‘Multiple Locations’ toggle to ‘Yes’. You can do this even if you only have one location to add.

After that, switch to the ‘Opening Hours’ tab to enter your business hours. These business hours will be used as default for all locations. You’ll also be able to set different business hours for each location if needed.

Add opening hours defaults

You need to scroll down on the page to provide labels and business hours information. You can set open for 24 hours, or manually set time for each day.

Business hours information

Once finished, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Now that we have set up local SEO, let’s add your location information.

You need to start by going to Locations » Add New page to add your location and business information.

Adding a new location

Provide a title for your location and then scroll down to the ‘AIOSEO Local Business’ section.

Local business information

Under the Business Info tab, fill out the form to provide business and location information. You can provide business name, address, phone number, payment methods, area served, and more.

After that, you need to switch to the Business Hours tab. From here, you can add business hours or use the default business hours you entered earlier.

Setting business hours for each location

Once you are finished, don’t forget to click on the Publish button to save your location.

You can repeat the process to add more locations if needed.

Display Business Hours information in Post or Page

All in One SEO allows you to easily display business hours anywhere on your website.

It comes with many pre-built WordPress blocks that you can add to any post or page on your site.

Simply edit the post or page and look for AIOSEO blocks. The plugin provides AIOSEO Local Open Hours, AIOSEO Local Business Info, and AIOSEO Local Locations blocks.

You will need to add the ‘AIOSEO Local Open Hours’ block to display business hours.

Adding business hours to a post or page in WordPress

After adding the block, you can select the location you want to display from the block settings.

Don’t forget to click on the Publish / Update button to save your changes.

You can now visit your website to see your business hours displayed on the page.

Business hours displayed in WordPress

Generally, we recommend adding the business hours on your contact page along with a contact form and your business phone number.

Display Business Hours information in Sidebar

All in One SEO also allows you to easily display business hours in your WordPress sidebar or any widget ready area.

Simply, head over to Appearance » Widgets page and add ‘AIOSEO Opening Hours’ widget to your sidebar.

Open hours widget

Select a location that you want to display and review the widget settings. Don’t forget to click on the Save button to store your changes.

You can now visit your website to view your business hours in the sidebar.

Business hours displayed in sidebar

Display Business Hours Anywhere Using Shortcode

All in One SEO for WordPress also allows you to use shortcodes to display business hours anywhere.

Simply add the shortcode [aioseo_local_opening_hours] to display your default business hours.

Alternately, you can also use [aioseo_local_opening_hours location_id="1"] to display any specific location. You can find the location ID by editing the location.

Finding your location ID

The best part about AIOSEO is that it not only adds your business information in the schema markup code, but it also allows you to display it to users on your website.

Aside from business hours, AIOSEO is a comprehensive SEO plugin that will help you rank higher.

Method 2. Adding Business Hours in WordPress using Business Profile

This method is for users who only want to add business information schema to their WordPress website. It lacks all the other SEO features offered by a comprehensive SEO plugin like All in One SEO.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Business Profile plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to Business Profile » Settings page to set up your business profile.

From here, you need to select your business type as Organization and then fill out the other required information.

Business Profile basic information

After entering the address information, the plugin will ask you to provide a Google API key with a link to instructions. However, we recommend leaving this field blank.

Below that, you can set your business hours. The plugin also allows you to add multiple sets of schedules, and you can also add exceptions for holidays and special events.

Adding business hours

If your business has multiple locations, then you can also turn on the Multiple Locations feature.

Enable multiple locations

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your changes.

Adding Business Hours in WordPress Using Shortcode

The plugin uses shortcode to display business hours on any page of your WordPress blog or website.

Simply edit the post or page where you want to display the business hours and then add the shortcode [contact-card] .

Contact Card shortcode

You can now save your changes or publish your page and then preview it. This is how it looked on our test website.

Business hours preview

Adding Multiple Locations in Business Profile

The plugin also supports multiple locations. If you have enabled the multiple locations option on the settings page, then you can manage locations by visiting Business Profile » Locations page.

Add new location

On the next screen, you need to provide a name for your new location and then scroll down to ‘Opening Hours’ box at the bottom.

Business hours for location

From here, you can add your business hours information.

On the left column, you can add your location information such as address, phone number, email, and more.

Add contact information

Once you are finished, you can go ahead and ‘Publish’ your location.

Repeat the process to add more locations as needed.

Displaying Multiple Locations in Business Profile

The plugin uses the same shortcode to display any location with business hours.

Simply edit the post or page where you want to display location information. After that, add the shortcode in the following format.

[contact-card location="34"]

Don’t forget to replace location value with your actual location ID. You can find it by editing the location and copying the post id from the address bar.

[Finding your location ID

This is how single location information looked on our test website.

Single location business hours

Managing Business Information in Google Search Results

Google uses Schema.org Rich Snippets to fetch and display rich search results from your website.

Schema.org is a structured data markup language. It appears in the source code of your website and is not visible to regular visitors.

This helps search engines add additional information in search results, like your business hours and location, review scores, recipe information, and more.

To manage your business information in search results, you should also sign up for a Google My Business account. This helps you add your business location and other information.

Google My Business

After verification, you’ll be able to provide additional business information and manage its appearance in search, Google Maps, and Places.

Both WordPress plugins that we demonstrated above will help you add the business hour data in SEO-friendly Schema format to your website.

We hope this article helped you add your business hours to your WordPress site. You may also want to see our expert pick of 24 must have WordPress plugins for business websites, and our comparison of the best email marketing services to grow your sales.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Beginner’s Guide on How to Add Business Hours in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.


April 20, 2021 at 03:00PM