Enhancing WooCommerce Checkout Pages with Custom Price Display and Product Descriptions

In the dynamic world of eCommerce, creating a seamless and informative checkout experience is crucial for converting potential buyers into satisfied customers. One way to achieve this is by customizing the WooCommerce checkout page to better display product information and pricing. In this article, we will explore how to enhance the WooCommerce checkout page by displaying original and sale prices in a more readable format, and by adding detailed product descriptions to provide more context to your customers.

Understanding WooCommerce Checkout Customization

WooCommerce is a flexible and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows users to create and manage online stores with ease. One of the core aspects of an online store is the checkout process, where customers finalize their purchases. Customizing this process can significantly impact the user experience and potentially increase conversion rates.

Customizing Price Display on Checkout Pages

The standard WooCommerce checkout page provides basic information about the items in the cart, but sometimes it falls short in presenting pricing details in a clear and user-friendly manner. To address this, we can use custom code to display both the original and sale prices of products.

Here’s a practical approach to enhancing the checkout page:

1. Displaying Original and Sale Prices

To ensure that customers clearly see both the original and sale prices, we need to modify the checkout page using custom hooks and functions. By using the woocommerce_review_order_before_cart_contents hook, we can insert custom HTML before the cart contents are displayed. Here’s an example of how you might do this:

add_action('woocommerce_review_order_before_cart_contents', 'display_prices_on_checkout');

function display_prices_on_checkout() {
    // Loop through cart items
    foreach (WC()->cart->get_cart() as $cart_item_key => $cart_item) {
        $product = $cart_item['data'];

        // Get product prices
        $regular_price = wc_price($product->get_regular_price());
        $sale_price = wc_price($product->get_sale_price());

        // Display product title and prices in separate table cells
        echo '<tr class="cart_item new-title-price-tr">';
        echo '<td class="product-title">' . $product->get_name() . '</td>'; // Product title
        echo '<td class="product-price">';
        if ($product->is_on_sale()) {
            echo '<del>' . $regular_price . '</del>'; // Sale price
        }
        echo '<br>' . $sale_price; // Regular price
        echo '</td>'; // End of price column
        echo '</tr>'; // End of row
        
        // Add a new row for the product description
        echo '<tr class="product_description">';
        echo '<td colspan="2"><h4>Description</h4>' . wpautop($product->get_description()) . '</td>'; // Product description
        echo '</tr>'; // End of description row
    }
}
            

Explanation:

• Loop Through Cart Items: The foreach loop iterates through each item in the cart.
• Get Prices: Prices are retrieved using WooCommerce’s get_regular_price() and get_sale_price() methods and formatted using wc_price().
• Display Prices: The original price is shown with a strikethrough (<del>) if the product is on sale, and the sale price is displayed.
• Add Descriptions: Each product’s description is added in a new row for additional context.

Enhancing the User Experience with Product Descriptions

In addition to clear pricing, providing detailed product descriptions can enhance the customer experience by giving more context about what they are purchasing. This can be especially useful if the checkout page includes multiple products, allowing customers to recall details about each item without having to navigate back to the product pages.

Here’s how adding product descriptions to the checkout page benefits users:

• Improved Clarity: Customers can review important product details right on the checkout page, reducing the need to remember information or revisit product pages.
• Reduced Abandoned Carts: Providing clear and detailed information can help reduce cart abandonment by addressing any last-minute doubts or questions customers may have.
• Enhanced Trust: Transparency about what customers are buying helps build trust, as customers feel more confident about their purchase.

Implementing the Customization

To implement the customizations described, you will need to add the provided PHP code to your theme’s functions.php file or a custom plugin. Ensure you have a backup of your site before making any changes to avoid potential issues.

Customizing the WooCommerce checkout page to display both the original and sale prices alongside detailed product descriptions can greatly enhance the shopping experience for your customers. By making these adjustments, you not only improve clarity and transparency but also build trust and potentially increase conversion rates.

Remember, the checkout page is the final step in the purchasing process, and providing a smooth, informative, and user-friendly experience can make a significant difference in customer satisfaction and retention.