Ever find yourself wishing you could tweak just one little thing about your WooCommerce store, but you’re not a coder? Maybe you want to change how many products show up per page to perfectly match your product catalog and customer browsing habits? That’s where customization comes in! This article will guide you through the world of tailoring the “Products Per Page for WooCommerce” plugin to your exact needs, and how AI can make it surprisingly easy.

What is Products Per Page for WooCommerce?

Products Per Page for WooCommerce is a straightforward plugin designed to give your customers more control over their browsing experience on your WooCommerce store. Essentially, it adds a dropdown menu that allows users to select how many products they want to see displayed on a single page. No more endless scrolling or clicking to page two, three, and beyond! Customers can choose from a range of options, like 12, 24, or 48 products, or you can set your own custom values.

This helps to improve user experience by giving visitors the ability to tailor the product display to their preference. It also potentially increases sales by allowing customers to see more products at once. With a solid rating of 4.8/5 stars based on 80 reviews and over 10,000 active installations, it’s a popular and well-regarded tool in the WooCommerce community. For more information about the plugin, visit the official plugin page on WordPress.org.

The plugin is easy to set up and use, but like any good piece of software, it can be enhanced to suit your specific needs.

Why Customize it?

While the default settings of the plugin provide a great starting point, they might not perfectly align with your store’s unique characteristics or your customers’ preferences. Think about it: a clothing store selling high-end, visually rich items may want fewer products per page to emphasize the quality of each piece. Conversely, a store selling lower-priced, commodity items might benefit from displaying more products per page to encourage bulk purchases.

Customization allows you to fine-tune the plugin’s behavior to optimize the shopping experience for your specific audience. You could tailor the available product display options, integrate the plugin with other WooCommerce extensions, or even modify the plugin’s appearance to seamlessly blend with your store’s branding. The benefits are clear: increased customer satisfaction, improved conversion rates, and a more professional and cohesive online store.

Consider a website selling digital art prints. Instead of generic “products per page” options, they could customize it to offer options like “View as Gallery (6 per page)” or “Browse Collection (24 per page).” Or imagine an online bookstore: they might want to adjust the plugin to consider the number of books in a series, suggesting a multiple that lets you see an entire series at once. That’s a simple customization that can make a huge difference.

Common Customization Scenarios

Customizing Checkout Flow and Fields

The default WooCommerce checkout process is functional, but it’s often generic. You might need to collect additional information from customers, streamline the checkout steps, or integrate with a specific shipping or payment provider. Without customization, you’re stuck with a one-size-fits-all approach that could be costing you sales or creating friction for your buyers.

Through customization, you can add custom fields to the checkout form (like “Gift Message” or “Preferred Delivery Date”), reorder the fields for better flow, or even skip certain steps based on customer type (e.g., bypassing the shipping address for digital products). This leads to a smoother, more personalized checkout experience, reducing cart abandonment and increasing customer loyalty.

Imagine a store selling personalized gifts. They could add a “Personalization Details” field to the checkout, allowing customers to directly input the text or upload the image they want on the product. This eliminates the need for separate emails or phone calls, streamlining the order process and reducing errors.

AI helps make this easier by automating the code generation for adding and managing these custom checkout fields. AI can help you generate the required code snippets based on your specific needs, saving you hours of manual coding and debugging.

Adding Custom Product Types

WooCommerce comes with built-in product types like simple, grouped, and variable products. However, you might sell products that don’t fit neatly into these categories – think of services, subscriptions, or bundled products with unique pricing rules. Sticking to the default product types can limit your ability to accurately represent your offerings and manage inventory effectively.

By creating custom product types, you can define specific attributes, pricing logic, and display options for each type of product you sell. This provides a more accurate and user-friendly representation of your products, leading to better customer understanding and increased sales. AI can simplify product data entry, ensuring each custom field is properly populated and validated.

Consider a website offering online courses. They could create a “Course” product type with custom fields for “Instructor,” “Duration,” and “Curriculum.” This allows them to display course information in a structured and consistent manner, making it easier for students to browse and choose the right course for their needs.

AI simplifies the creation of custom product types by generating the necessary code to define the product type and its associated fields. It assists in creating input validation and proper data storage methods. with AI, you can describe the required functionality, and it generates the code you need.

Integrating with Third-Party Payment Gateways

WooCommerce supports several popular payment gateways out of the box, but you might need to integrate with a specific gateway that’s popular in your region, offers better rates, or provides unique features. Without integration, you’re limited to the default options, which could alienate customers or cost you money in transaction fees.

Customizing your payment gateway integration allows you to accept payments through the methods your customers prefer, potentially increasing conversion rates and expanding your market reach. You also gain greater control over transaction fees and settlement processes.

For instance, a store targeting customers in Southeast Asia might need to integrate with a local e-wallet provider that isn’t natively supported by WooCommerce. This integration could significantly increase sales by providing a familiar and convenient payment option for their target audience.

AI can streamline the integration process by generating the code required to communicate with the third-party payment gateway API. This drastically reduces the time and effort required for custom integration. with AI, you describe the payment gateway and the specific data required and receive the relevant code.

Creating Custom Email Templates

WooCommerce sends out automated emails for order confirmations, shipping updates, and other transactional events. The default email templates are functional, but they often lack personality and don’t reflect your brand’s identity. This represents a missed opportunity to reinforce your brand and engage with customers.

By customizing the email templates, you can incorporate your logo, branding colors, and unique messaging, creating a more professional and memorable experience for your customers. You can also add personalized content, such as product recommendations or special offers, to drive repeat purchases.

Think of a boutique clothing store. They could customize their order confirmation emails to include high-quality images of the purchased items, styling tips, and a discount code for the customer’s next purchase. This transforms a simple transactional email into a valuable marketing touchpoint.

AI can assist in customizing email templates by generating the HTML and CSS code required to create visually appealing and responsive emails. This speeds up the design process and ensures that your emails look great on all devices. You can create the base email in AI and then tweak the final result in the WooCommerce settings.

Building Advanced Product Filters

The default WooCommerce product filtering options are often limited, especially for stores with a large and diverse product catalog. Customers may struggle to find exactly what they’re looking for, leading to frustration and lost sales. A site with hundreds of products can be frustrating if the shopper can’t narrow things down quickly.

By implementing advanced product filters, you can allow customers to narrow their search based on specific attributes, price ranges, or other criteria. This improves the user experience, helps customers find the products they need quickly, and increases the likelihood of a purchase.

Consider a website selling electronic components. They could implement advanced filters for voltage, amperage, resistance, and other technical specifications, allowing engineers and hobbyists to quickly find the exact components they need for their projects.

AI can streamline the process of creating advanced product filters by generating the code required to integrate with your product database and create dynamic filter options. This saves you the time and effort of manually coding complex filter logic. AI can analyze your existing products, suggest relevant filter parameters, and generate a functional filtering system.