Owning an online store means you have to pay a lot of attention to the behavior of your visitors and buyers. You must create a simple website and make the purchasing process as seamless and as easy as possible. Many customers will simply leave at the checkout phase if it is too complex or too long, which is something you do not want. Optimizing this whole process will make sure you do not lose any customers in the final stages of the purchase funnel.
One of the tips for making the whole process easier is to take your customers directly to the checkout page so they can place the order and purchase the item(s). There are three ways you can do this:
1. WooCommerce default settings
Under WooCommerce, go to Product settings, then the General section where you will edit Add to cart behavior. There, tick the checkbox so it will redirect your users to the cart page after adding products.
Next, under Advanced settings and Page setup, you can select the Checkout page option which will redirect your visitors to the checkout page.
Lastly, you need to change the text that says Add to cart (if you have one on your site). For this, you need to add a code snippet to the functions.php file of the current theme you are using. That will replace the current text with Buy Now.
2. WordPress plugins
This is probably the easiest method to add direct checkout, and we would recommend you use it, especially if you have little knowledge of coding or are just beginning to use WooCommerce and plugins. Using plugins also lets you add more customization to your site.
Here are some plugins we recommend you try:
Direct Checkout for WooCommerce – Skip Cart with Buy Buttons
Had enough complaints about how reaching the checkout on your online store is a hassle? Completely get rid of them by installing the Direct Checkout for WooCommerce plugin. With this plugin, you completely skip the cart and send your customers to the checkout.
How is this achieved? Using so-called buy buttons. These buttons can be placed anywhere on your site, meaning you are not limited to just the product page. This way, your checkout process is optimized, and your sales are given a boost.
The buy buttons can be created for individual products or for all products. What’s more, they are compatible with simple, variable, and affiliate products alongside simple and variable subscriptions.
Direct Checkout for WooCommerce
Direct Checkout for WooCommerce is a plugin that lets you make the process of buying a lot easier as you basically allow your customers to skip the whole Add to cart page. Next to each of the products’ images, an Add to cart button will appear which will automatically redirect your customers to the checkout page. This is helpful in reducing cart abandonment percentages.
There is also the Add to cart AJAX option where you can include single products, variable, grouped, and virtual products without reloading the whole site. You can customize the checkout fields to speed up the buying process by removing order comments, shipping address, coupon forms, etc.
There is a premium version of this plugin that allows you to add a quick purchase button and a one-page checkout where your buyers can edit their cart items on the checkout page.
Digital Goods for WooCommerce Checkout
Digital Goods for WooCommerce Checkout is a plugin designed for online stores that specialize in digital downloads (for example e-books). When people want to download something, they expect it to happen right away, without too much extra time spent on filling out some Add to cart fields.
This plugin makes this process quick, so your customers don’t need to fill in any unnecessary details or access the Add to cart page. And since you are dealing with online downloads, there is no need to ask for billing and/or shipping addresses.
You can set up the quick checkout for all products, exclude multiple fields, add a quick checkout button next to your products, and add those quick to buy buttons on any page. It can also be integrated with WooCommerce.
This plugin allows you to sell various types of files, pdf, e-book, photo, music, video, audio, mp3, and others.
Direct checkout, Add to cart redirect, Quick purchase button, Buy now button, Quick View button for WooCommerce
Direct checkout, Add to cart redirect, Quick purchase button, Buy now button, Quick View button for WooCommerce plugin lets you add a redirect to the checkout page. After adding a product to the cart you can redirect to any page on your site, even with AJAX. You can also disable the cart page and only show the cart on the checkout page, without using shortcodes to make this work.
Lastly, you can add a quick purchase button on your product pages and add a quick view option from the checkout page, so you don’t lose your customers right before they are about to purchase an item.
All in all, it is a versatile plugin that comes in a free version and a premium one with more features, such as disable redirect for some products, set redirects only for specific products, customer support, and set any page as an order success page.
WooCommerce Checkout Field Editor
WooCommerce Checkout Field Editor is a plugin that lets you add custom fields to your checkout page. This includes billing and shipping fields, and any additional fields you might need. You can edit and rearrange the checkout page any way you want to and add or delete as many fields as you think is necessary.
You can add different types of fields that can include text, select, checkboxes, and date pickers. You can move these around and organize your site style according to the theme you are using so you achieve the best possible customer experience and ensure everything flows naturally.
This is a premium plugin, but it costs $49 annually, so it is not too expensive and provides you with great support, and allows you to simplify your whole buying process.
3. Code snippets
This method of adding direct checkout means you will add a code snippet to the function.php file of your current theme. It is similar to changing the settings in the WooCommerce settings section we mentioned before. However, this requires a bit of coding knowledge, so we won’t get into it.
Conclusion
By making the whole purchase process simpler and quicker, you will ensure that a greater percentage of your customers also finish the process. This can be done by abandoning cart pages and making sure your customers are automatically taken to the checkout page.
You can choose how you wish to do this, but we recommend using a plugin. It is simpler and easier than to add pieces of code to your site.
