Product customization has been revolutionizing ecommerce in the last 5 years. And WooCommerce store owners, if possible, should look into offering additional product options, add-ons, personalizations, custom text and whatever can make a mass product unique to each single customer.
You can now pick your shoe colors, engrave a message on jewelry, upload your own graphics on t-shirts, pick your own ingredients, select custom materials and so on. Correct, some very smart marketer found out a way to sell the same exact product to a bunch of very different, demanding people and make them all 100% happy – while also increasing average order value (AOV), margins, profits, return business and decreasing returns, bad feedback and churn rate.
Most of us rely on WooCommerce product variations to sell the same product in different “sizes” or “colors”… but this has got nothing to do with product “add-ons”. With a product add-ons plugin, you can sell additional options and personalizations on top of the existing product attributes.
Good news is there are free and premium plugins that can help you implement product options, customization and add-ons… and eventually increase your profit.
1) “YITH WooCommerce Product Add-Ons” Plugin (Free)
This free version is quite limited but as usual you can use it to test the plugin dashboard and options before committing to a premium product. It gives you (only) text box, radio button and checkbox add-ons, and the add-on price can only be fixed (as opposed to percentage of the price, etc.).
If this is sufficient for your project specifications, then this free plugin might just do the trick. Here’s a screenshot of the single product page with a “text box” and a “radio button” add-on (you will notice each add-on adds a fee/surcharge on top of the default product price):
2) “YITH WooCommerce Product Add-Ons” Plugin (Premium)
If you require more advanced setups and product configurations, then the premium version of the free plugin we reviewed earlier might be your ideal choice.
The main features of YITH WooCommerce Product Add-Ons premium, in my opinion, are the following:
- You can define global or per-product add-ons
- You can not only use text boxes, checkboxes and radio buttons, but also color, date, label, number, select, text area and file upload input fields
- You can set dependency between the options (i.e. if color input “yellow” is picked, then load the select input “shades of yellow”)
- You can not only assign a fixed price to each add-on, but also price percentage, string multiplier and quantity multiplier
- You can show an add-on only when selecting a specific product variation
- You can replace the product featured image with the one of the selected add-on
- And much more. I recommend to read the “Free vs Premium” tab on the YITH WooCommerce Product Add-Ons sales page to learn about all the features
Before committing to the purchase, always make sure to ask your pre-sales questions to the YITH support team, mostly if you require specific functionalities, integrations and customizations. YITH usually gets back to you quickly and is often very open to implement new features upon your request.
Here are a few screenshots of the plugin frontend and backend (click on any image to open lightbox):
3) “Product Add-Ons” Plugin by WooCommerce (Premium)
Of course, there is also a premium plugin for sale on the official WooCommerce.com Extensions Store. Unlike YITH, however, there is no free version. Thankfully, the 30 days money back guarantee is a lifesaver.
This official WooCommerce Product Add-Ons plugin has very similar functionalities to YITH WooCommerce Product Add-Ons:
- add-ons can be text areas, checkboxes, radio buttons, select boxes, custom price inputs and file upload boxes
- add-ons can be added globally or on a per-product basis
- (bonus) add-ons also work with the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin to add customizations to your recurring subscriptions
Even in this case, make sure to contact the sales team before purchasing the product in case you have specific integrations or ideas about product personalization.