WooCommerce: Customize The “You cannot add another __ to your cart” Notification

If a WooCommerce product is set to “sold individually” (i.e. the “Limit purchases to 1 item per order” checkbox is checked in the edit product page) and is already in the cart, the “You cannot add another product to your cart.” notification will appear if you try to add it to cart again, which is fair.

This message appears by default in WooCommerce. There is a workaround to disable it completely, but you can also customize the wording (which is what we’re covering next).

In fact, this notification comes with a PHP filter, which means we can override the content and adapt it to our user base and/or brand tone. Enjoy!

PHP Snippet: Edit The “You cannot add another product to your cart” WooCommerce Error Message

/**
 * @snippet       Custom "You cannot add another __" Woo Message
 * @tutorial      Get CustomizeWoo.com FREE
 * @author        Rodolfo Melogli, Business Bloomer
 * @compatible    WooCommerce 8
 * @community     Join https://businessbloomer.com/club/
 */

add_filter( 'woocommerce_cart_product_cannot_add_another_message', 'bbloomer_override_cannot_add_another_message', 9999, 2 );

function bbloomer_override_cannot_add_another_message( $message, $product_data ) {
    $message = sprintf( 'Sorry, you can only buy one "%s" at a time', $product_data->get_name() );
    return $message;
}

This code effectively customizes the “cannot add another” message in WooCommerce to provide a more user-friendly alternative to the default message. It achieves this by:

1. Hooking into the appropriate WooCommerce filter.
2. Intercepting the original message.
3. Formatting a new message using the product name for clarity.
4. Returning the modified message for WooCommerce to display.

Explanation:

• add_filter: This WordPress function attaches a custom function to a specific filter hook.
• 'woocommerce_cart_product_cannot_add_another_message': This is the filter hook being used, which WooCommerce triggers when it wants to display the “cannot add another” message.
• 'bbloomer_override_cannot_add_another_message': This is the name of the custom function that will be called to modify the message.
• function bbloomer_override_cannot_add_another_message( $message, $product_data ): Defines the custom function that modifies the message.
  • $message: The original message WooCommerce wants to display.
  • $product_data: An object containing information about the product the customer is trying to add.
• $message = sprintf( 'Sorry, you can only buy one "%s" at a time', $product_data->get_name() );:
  • Creates a new message using sprintf to format the text and insert the product name.
  • Uses $product_data->get_name() to retrieve the product name dynamically.
• return $message;: Returns the modified message, which WooCommerce will then display to the customer.