In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a member asked for advice on how to enable a client to group certain products on the front end of their WooCommerce store and share this group with specific customers via a unique URL.
This functionality is similar to creating an album of products that can be easily shared. Let’s explore some options for achieving this.
Can a Grouped Product Work?
One option to consider is using WooCommerce’s Grouped Products feature. This allows multiple products to be grouped together, making it easier for customers to view them on a single page.
However, this option may not fully meet the client’s needs for a customizable and shareable “album” since grouped products typically display the individual items for purchase rather than showcasing a set of products.
Predefined Wishlist or Custom Grouping
Another suggestion was to create a predefined wishlist of products. There are premium wishlist plugins available that allow customers to create and share their own product albums.
With this option, your client could set up albums of products to share with customers, and users could even create their own personalized albums, which could be shared via URL.
Creating Custom Tags or Taxonomies
For more flexibility, a custom approach using custom taxonomies was suggested. This method would allow both the admin and users to create and manage their own product “albums” through tags, giving full control over how the products are displayed. A custom tax template could then be used to display the grouped products in a way that fits the client’s needs.
This approach could be the most tailored to your specific requirements, but it would require custom development to implement the tag functionality and display.
Simple Solution: Using Product Tags
For a simpler solution, you can use product tags to group products together. By adding the same tag to multiple products, you can create a collection of products that can be viewed together. You can then use the tag’s URL to share the collection with customers. While this option is not as customizable as the others, it provides a quick and easy way to group products and share them via a link.
Conclusion
There are several ways to achieve the desired functionality of grouping products in WooCommerce for sharing:
- Grouped Products: Useful for displaying products together on a single page, though not as customizable for sharing.
- Premium Wishlist Plugins: Allow customers to create their own sharable albums, offering flexibility but potentially at a cost.
- Custom Tags/Taxonomies: Provides full control over the grouping of products, but requires custom development.
- Product Tags: A simple and quick solution to group products and share via a URL.
