Recently I was on a coaching call with a client and the “Free Sample” challenge came up. Client has 400+ products on the website and had no intention of adding a free variation to each product manually.
So, I promised to myself I was going to study a different approach. And today you get it for free – nice! Needless to say, a comment and a social media share are much appreciated. Enjoy!
Requirements for “Free Sample” – WooCommerce
Before digging into PHP, you will need to create a brand new simple product (otherwise the code won’t work).
Here are the requirements:
- Title: “Free Sample” (or call it whatever you like, but make sure to change the PHP snippet below accordingly)
- Price: “0“
- Catalog Visibility: “Hidden“
- Inventory: “Sold Individually“
Make sure to remember the product ID of this new product, because you will need to use it in the PHP snippet.
PHP Snippet: “Free Sample” Add to Cart Button @ WooCommerce Single Product Page
/**
* @snippet Add Free Sample to Cart @ Single Product
* @how-to Get CustomizeWoo.com FREE
* @author Rodolfo Melogli
* @testedwith WooCommerce 7
* @community https://businessbloomer.com/club/
*/
// -------------------------
// 1. Display Free Sample Add to Cart
// Note: change "123" with Free Sample ID
add_action( 'woocommerce_single_product_summary', 'bbloomer_add_free_sample_add_cart', 35 );
function bbloomer_add_free_sample_add_cart() {
?>
<form class="cart" method="post" enctype='multipart/form-data'>
<button type="submit" name="add-to-cart" value="123" class="single_add_to_cart_button button alt">Order a Free Sample</button>
<input type="hidden" name="free_sample" value="<?php the_ID(); ?>">
</form>
<?php
}
// -------------------------
// 2. Add the custom field to $cart_item
add_filter( 'woocommerce_add_cart_item_data', 'bbloomer_store_free_sample_id', 9999, 2 );
function bbloomer_store_free_sample_id( $cart_item, $product_id ) {
if ( isset( $_POST['free_sample'] ) ) {
$cart_item['free_sample'] = $_POST['free_sample'];
}
return $cart_item;
}
// -------------------------
// 3. Concatenate "Free Sample" with product name (CART & CHECKOUT)
// Note: change "123" with Free Sample ID
add_filter( 'woocommerce_cart_item_name', 'bbloomer_alter_cart_item_name', 9999, 3 );
function bbloomer_alter_cart_item_name( $product_name, $cart_item, $cart_item_key ) {
if ( 123 === $cart_item['product_id'] ) {
$product = wc_get_product( $cart_item["free_sample"] );
$product_name .= " (" . $product->get_name() . ")";
}
return $product_name;
}
// -------------------------
// 4. Add "Free Sample" product name to order meta
// Note: this will show on thank you page, emails and orders
add_action( 'woocommerce_add_order_item_meta', 'bbloomer_save_posted_field_into_order', 9999, 2 );
function bbloomer_save_posted_field_into_order( $itemID, $values ) {
if ( ! empty( $values['free_sample'] ) ) {
$product = wc_get_product( $values['free_sample'] );
$product_name = $product->get_name();
wc_add_order_item_meta( $itemID, 'Free sample for', $product_name );
}
}
Is there a Reliable Plugin for that?
If you’d love to code but don’t feel 100% confident with PHP, I decided to look for a reliable plugin that achieves the same result.
In this case, I recommend the WooCommerce Product Sample plugin. On top of letting your customers purchase free and paid samples of your products, the plugin also helps you send follow-up email reminders for sample orders and much more.
But in case you hate plugins and wish to code (or wish to try that), then keep reading!
Hey, great snippet but I have one issue. I am using the snippet a few times for different product types. I assume there is part of the code I don’t need to repeat as say I have the snippet 3 times, the sample product gets listed 3 times in the cart when it was only ordered once. If I add the snippet again it will show 4 times in the cart. I have made each snippet unique changing the ID and function names etc. It doesnt effect the price. Its just the Free sample for text being added repeatedly. Hope you can help.
Thanks for your email Sam – yes you won’t need to write 3 duplicate snippets, you can just add 3 sections to each function instead. The “Free sample for” part looks for order item meta, that was saved with the order previously, with a specific “key” (free_sample). If you need the function 3 times then I expect three different keys: free_sample, free_sample2, free_sample3 for example, and this should be reflected inside each snippet. Hope this helps
Hey friend,
I love your site. My client wants to offer a sample product and when I found this code I was happy. Sadly I don’t think the code is working anymore. Even though I change the number and the name to exactly as this tutorial, it doesn’t add anything to the cart.
Hope you take a look at this code again someday. Thanks
Hi Dax, code still works. Can you try disable all plugins but Woo + switch theme temporarily and retest please?
HI Rodolfo, this will work in Elementor?
Haven’t tested it, but I don’t see why not
This is perfect for a new site I’m building for a client. Code is added to functions.php and the button displays but when clicked nothing happens.
Step 2 doesn’t seem to be firing.
It’s a custom theme if that makes any difference. Client is happy to pay for a fix.
Thank you. Did you change anything in part 1? Please share your code and I’ll see if I can identify the error
Hey
I added this but when I click the button, nothing happens? I used the name you used etc and just copied the code? you mention changing the id but I’ve no idea where to change it! Can you help?
Thanks!
Hey Ryan. You need to change this:
Hello Rodolfo,
The piece of code was working fine, but now I want to build a custom template for a single product with Elementor. The Sample button doesn’t appear in this template. How can I fix that?
Best regards,
Michel
Hi Michel, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is definitely possible, but I’m afraid it’s custom work. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding!
Hi!
Thanks for the code, it works great!
The only problem for me is that de product in the cart only shows ‘Free sample for (product name)’ and not for the exact variation.
Which makes it hard to know which color the (wallpaper) sample has to be.
For example with variable products that are available in green, red and yellow.
Is there a possibility to let it copy the SKU as well?
Hi Eline, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is definitely possible, but I’m afraid it’s custom work. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding!
Hi Rodolfo,
I’m getting just the name ‘Sample’ in my cart, not the product name also, This did work until I installed ‘woocommerce Add ons ultimate’
Which is an essential plugin for me. If I disable the plugin all is good again. Is there a fix.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Nigel, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is definitely possible, but I’m afraid it’s custom work. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding!
Hi,
All good until I get to the basket. I can only get Free delivery for free sample and a purchased product or delivery charge for free sample and a purchased product. Not separate. Tried all options in woo shipping options. Perhaps they can not be mixed? ID correct.
Great your helping out! Any advise appreciated.
Sorted—-ye ha
Cool! What was it?
I installed the free version plugin called ‘Flexible Shipping’. Did the trick.
Hi Nigel,
how did you setup “Flexible Shipping” to do the trick? 😀
Struggling with the same problem
Best Regards
Any reason why my basket just shows just word sample and isn’t grabbing the product name
I am assuming this works for variations or perhaps not?
Even with simple products I am getting product name “Sample – Sample” in basket
I modified the code as the samples aren’t free I saw your note
“but make sure to change the PHP snippet below accordingly).”
And changed anywhere that free_sample was mentioned to just “sample”
Did you also change this line: $product_name == “Free Sample”?
Hi great tutorial, works perfectly!
Quick question (hopefully), how do I set the free sample quantity to X? I’ve obviously not checked the “Sold individually” box and tried adding the following function after “bbloomer_store_free_sample_id’.
However this doesn’t work!? If you could help that would be really appreciated!
Thanks
Hi Luke, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is definitely possible, but I’m afraid it’s custom work. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding!
Every item ordered with a free sample option is coming through named ‘Free Sample for (xxx)’ even if the full item is ordered. How can I fix this?
Screenshot please?
Hi. How would i ammend it so the free sample button only appears on specific product categories? I have products and services that a free sample cannot be provided for
Hi John I suggest you take a look at “conditional logic”: https://businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-conditional-logic-ultimate-php-guide/. Enjoy 🙂
Great stuff m8!
Good code and after some tweaking it did the trick.
Like others already said, im trying to add the product_thumbnail to the whole code. Having trouble arranging that.
If anyone has a solution, would love to read it!
greetings Karel
Thanks!
Hi Rodolfo,
Since this month the sample button doesn’t work correctly on our page anymore.
Before it didn’t require a height or other values in a form in the product page, the sample button could be clicked whenever you wanted. Now it depends on the required fields in the page.
Any idea how could this could have happened?
No idea. Disable all plugins and switch theme and see if it works
Thx for your quick reply.
Hi,
Thanks for the code snippet, very useful 🙂 Just a headsup, I’m getting this deprecated warning from the fourth section of the code
[20-Jul-2020 11:17:30 UTC] woocommerce_add_order_item_meta is deprecated since version 3.0.0! Use woocommerce_new_order_item instead.
Cheers!
Can a price be set for the shipping of Free Samples?
We sell large items, which the standard shipping charge has to be quite high. So charging the same shipping price for a small sample of a product would be quite ridiculous.
Sure, you can do something similar to https://businessbloomer.com/assign-free-shipping-single-woocommerce-product/
I have the need for an actual ‘Samples Basket’ we supply greetings cards and offer up to 6 samples free of charge, so the customer can build a samples basket and then click to order. Does this or anything else you may have done come close?
Hi Andrew, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is definitely possible, but I’m afraid it’s custom work. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding!
Perfect !!
But I need to add a free sample for all product prices I $4.99, how to add this?
Simply add the regular price to the free sample?
This is confusing in the backend. All product names are coming in as Free Sample. Is there a way to concatenate the Product Name to the word “Free Sample” inside the order?
Hello!
Amazing snippet wonder if you can help, I have different products some samples cost £3 and some are free how would I make this work with separate pricing
Hi Luke, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is definitely possible, but I’m afraid it’s custom work. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding!
what should I do if I want to add different prices for each sample. please give me hits or write code here. I am freelancer. thanks
Hello Rizwan, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is definitely possible, but I’m afraid it’s custom work. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding!
Amazing snippet thank you! Just curious if you could help? I want to use these snippet for only for certain product categories, ie all products in category A & C have the sample button but the products in category B do not. Any help with that would be amazing
Thank you once again
Hello Luke, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is definitely possible, but I’m afraid it’s custom work. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding!
hi there! Great snippet
I´ve just tried and does not concatenate text “Sample” with product name in cart and checkout.
Only display the title of sample product (“Free Sample” by default).
I´m using last version of woocommerce and wordpress. Could it be the problem? thanks!
Hi Pau, thanks for your comment! I just tested this again with Storefront theme and it works perfectly. Maybe your theme (or another plugin) is messing/conflicting with my snippet?
To troubleshoot, disable all plugins but WooCommerce and also switch temporarily to “Twentyseventeen” theme (load the snippet there in functions.php) – does it work? If yes, you have a problem with your current theme or one of the plugins.
Hope this helps!
R
The problem is that it isn’t visible in the backend when looking at the order. The product name only says Free Sample and the Product name is separate as custom meta. Could you confirm if the name in the backend when looking at the order should say “Free Sample” or “Free Sample(Product name)”?
Hey Paul, I’ve just revised the snippet, however it was already showing the name of the Product as “order item meta”. If you correctly entered the product ID and named the free product “Free Sample”, it will work
Hi Rodolfo, this is a brilliant fix, thank you! I have one query. I have used Elementor to create a new template for single products, and I would like to do one of two things:
a) Have the button appear when using this different template OR
b) Have a custom-added button call the function for adding a free sample.
Any advice on how to tackle this? I appreciate it may need a non-complementary solution!
Yes Gareth, this is definitely possible, but I’m afraid it’s custom work. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding!
Thanks for this great feature,
One question, How do i add the SKU to the details? so that we can now what to supply?
Hello Philip, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is definitely possible, but I’m afraid it’s custom work. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding!
This breaks my cart page:
// ————————-
// 3. Concatenate “Free Sample” with product name (CART & CHECKOUT)
// Note: rename “Free Sample” to your free sample product name
add_filter( ‘woocommerce_cart_item_name’, ‘bbloomer_alter_cart_item_name’, 10, 3 );
function bbloomer_alter_cart_item_name( $product_name, $cart_item, $cart_item_key ) {
if ( $product_name == ‘Free Sample’ ) {
$product = wc_get_product( $cart_item[‘free_sample’] );
}
return $product_name;
}
Deleting that code allows my cart page to load properly.
Any idea how to fix this?
Hi Paul I think you’re missing a line from my snippet – let me know
i have to show this button on specific products, how can i do that??
Hello Sushma, I suggest you take a look at “conditional logic”: https://businessbloomer.com/conditional-logic-woocommerce-tutorial/ and https://businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-conditional-logic-ultimate-php-guide/. Let me know 🙂
This is great. If I want to be able to disable it for certain categories how can I do this please.
Hello John, I suggest you take a look at “conditional logic”: https://businessbloomer.com/conditional-logic-woocommerce-tutorial/ and https://businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-conditional-logic-ultimate-php-guide/. Let me know 🙂
Hello, thank you for sharing this solution. Is there a possibility of assigning a fixed price to any sample order? Thanks!
Hey Flavio, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is possible – unfortunately this is custom work and I cannot provide a complementary solution here via the blog comments. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding! ~R
Hi Rodolfo,
thank you very much for the snippet. It almost does as it is supposed to do. Unfortunately it doesn’t change the name of the Free Sample Product to the name of the actual product I put in my cart. Do you think it’s a mistake by my side or maybe the snippet needs to be updated as we are a couple of wordpress updates ahead?
Thank you so much for the work you put into this!
Kind regards,
Christine
Hello Christine, it works for me! You need to make sure your product is actually called “Free Sample” and that its ID is entered here:
…otherwise it won’t work. Let me know
Hi Rodolfo,
okay, it works with that word. Unfortunately my customers speak German, so that is why I tried to translate Free Sample to Stoffmuster and just use the logic of the snippet. But there seems to be a restriction and the snippet just works with the English words.
I would be happy to get a quote from you on custom work to customize the translation. See my request for a quote from Friday.
Kind regards,
Christine
I answered to your email, thanks a lot!
how can I pass the thumbnail image to the order? Do I need to utilise woocommerce_order_item_thumbnail ??
thanks in advance
Hello Sam, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is possible – unfortunately this is custom work and I cannot provide a complementary solution here via the blog comments. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding! ~R
Hi Rodolfo. Thank you for making this functionality and making it available. I need to restrict it to a certain category, as not all products are suitable for free samples. However I cannot get it to work with the conditional logic that you refer us to try out. The functionality works perfectly without the conditional logic, but not with it (the button doesn’t show). If I just echo some text with the conditional logic script, that works fine. I hope you can help me in the right direction.
Hello Simon, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is possible – unfortunately this is custom work and I cannot provide a complementary solution here via the blog comments. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding! ~R
Dear Rodolfo.
It is wonderful and still works with latest WooCommerce & WordPress.
So easy to modify and just perfect! Thanks!
Excellent 🙂
Wow! Great. It’s what I was looking for. Is there any way to show Free Sample button for specific categories only? I have a store. I like to offer free samples for perfumes not for make-up.
Hello Kibria – thanks so much for your comment! I suggest you take a look at “conditional logic”: https://businessbloomer.com/conditional-logic-woocommerce-tutorial/ and https://businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-conditional-logic-ultimate-php-guide/. Let me know 🙂
Hi Rodolfo,
What a great snippet of code! Just what I was looking for.
in Step 4. (to my very limited PHP understanding) it looks like $product_name should add the product name to “Free Sample”.
ie: Free Sample (Product Name).
Is this correct? if so, it doesn’t seem to work for me. It still just says “Free Sample”.
Looking forward to your response 🙂
Thank you Werner! No, at step 4 I concatenate (Free Sample) to the existing Product Name in the Cart and Checkout. It works in my development site 🙂
Hmm, it doesn’t seem to work for mine running the latest version of WC and WP. Aparently woocommerce_add_order_item_meta is depreciated in the latest version of woocommerce? Could this be why?
Possible 🙂 But probably you’re using an old version of this snippet, I already use “wc_add_order_item_meta” in here. Try revising your snippet and let me know
hey hey this is wicked. and just what I needed so thanks very much
Thanks for this. is there a way to log the time difference between the customer ordering the sample then coming back to order the full product?
Thanks again
Nick
Hey Nick, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is possible – but unfortunately this is custom work and I cannot provide a complementary solution here via the blog comments. Thanks a lot for your understanding! ~R
p-Content/Plugins/Code-Snippets/Php/Snippet-Ops.Php(352) : Eval()’D Code On Line 58
i get a php error in the cart when i used this
Hey David! What’s on line 58?
just a curly brace. strange thing is ive used this exact snippet before without issue tested on another install and it worked fine maybe a theme issue?
Hello again, does anyone know how “not” to show this ‘Order Sample’ for certain products that don’t have samples available? In other words, is there a quick easy way to turn this sample feature off for specific products? Thanks in advance.
Hey Rod, thank you so much for your comment! I suggest you take a look at “conditional logic”: https://businessbloomer.com/conditional-logic-woocommerce-tutorial/ and https://businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-conditional-logic-ultimate-php-guide/. Let me know 🙂
Dam good! this was a super usefull snippet:) ! Question. Is there a way of also putting the product name you are ordering in the cart?
Free sample : Product name
John, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is possible – but unfortunately this is custom work and I cannot provide a complementary solution here via the blog comments. Thanks a lot for your understanding! ~R
Hi can this be changed to be able to select the categories it needs to apply to?
Also I would need it implementing to the woomobify plugin too if this possible?
Thanks and look forward to your reply
Hi Colin, thanks for your comment! Yes, I suggest you take a look at “conditional logic”: https://businessbloomer.com/conditional-logic-woocommerce-tutorial/ and https://businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-conditional-logic-ultimate-php-guide/. Let me know 🙂
Hi there! This worked great!… I was able to also add the button to the main products display page (i.e. shop page). Thank you.
Brilliant, thanks Rod 🙂
Do you offer the customization services necessary for this code’s additional functionalities mentioned by others here? I also need the ability to “Order Free Samples” with some additional function/conditions. Please let me know, thank you.
Hello Rod, thanks for your comment (and great name by the way :)). Yes, I’m available every day for paid work – if you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks in advance! ~R
Great piece of code, but I can’t seem to add a shipping option to the free sample – any idea how I would do this please? My product sample is free, but the customer will need to pay postage, so I need to allocate a shipping class to it. I’ve added this normally in Product Data – Simple Product > Shipping but it doesn’t seem to pick it up correctly. All help gratefully received!
Ian, thanks so much for your comment! Unfortunately this is custom troubleshooting work and I cannot help here via the blog comments. Thanks a lot for your understanding! ~R
This is amazing, the 2 plugins I found were so hit and miss. There is one thing extra I need it to do, is there any way to make it copy the SKU as well as the product names. I am using it on a carpet store and different carpets are annoyingly called the same thing.
Andy, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is definitely possible – but unfortunately this is custom work and I cannot provide a complementary solution here via the blog comments. Thanks a lot for your understanding! ~R
Can the button be unique to categories as appose to all products? this would be greatly helpful for me.
Chris, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is possible – but unfortunately this is custom work and I cannot provide a complementary solution here via the blog comments. Thanks a lot for your understanding! ~R
Hi Chris. Did you ever find a solution for this – I have the same issue as you?
In case anybody is still looking for a way to make the button appear only for certain categories, the solution provided here worked for me: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45118802/display-a-custom-button-on-woocommerce-product-pages-only-for-certain-categories
Basically modified Rodolfo first bit of code to this:
// ------------------------- // 1. Display Free Sample Add to Cart // Note: change "12345" with Free Sample ID add_action( 'woocommerce_single_product_summary', 'bbloomer_add_free_sample_add_cart', 35 ); function bbloomer_add_free_sample_add_cart() { global $product; $product_cats = array('category1','category2','category3'); if( has_term( $product_cats, 'product_cat', $product->get_id() ) ){ ?> Order a Free Sample <input type="hidden" name="free_sample" value=""> <?php } }Hope this helps 🙂
Hi Rodolfo,
Can Woo ensure only one free sample offer is made available to just one unique customer, to ensure unlimited free samples are not being ordered by the same person per order or per day or week etc?
Denis, thanks for your comment! Yes, an additional snippet can be added to limit the Cart to only 1 free sample, similar to this (additional code is required): https://businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-allow-1-product-cart/
It is dam good……
🙂
You are a genius. Thank you so much for this.
Thanks for your feedback Olga 🙂
Excellent, this helped a lot. Business Bloomer Forever!
Brilliant 🙂
Now we’re talking! this is a hella dope snippet.
More from that please!
Great to hear that Ahmed 🙂
You are awesome!
Ahhhh, thank you Faizan 🙂