Last updated - June 18, 2018
Product customization options can make your WooCommerce store really customer-centric. We have presented quite a few options for WooCommerce product customization in another article. The interesting thing with product customization is that your customers would feel good, as they are able to create their own product by trying different combinations. From a store owner’s perspective, it is actually a relief to offer differently priced products based on the options that a customer choose. A lot of industries thrive on this sort of online retail, where customers select from a range of available options to create a product that they envision. In this review, we will introduce you to Uni CPO 4, a WooCommerce product customization plugin.
How product customization matters?
When you think about custom options for products, it can be about the creative options that you can make available to generate customer interest. Also, it can be simply to offer a better practical solution, where you have quite a large number of attributes to consider. For example, if you are offering custom designed wedding invites, customers can make their selection based on a lot of things. The dimensions of the card, the finish, the type of paper used, the envelope to put it, etc. In addition, they will be able to choose a design of their choice as well. Setting up all these options in an interactive format, to allow customers to choose the right one, can be a considerable effort.
In the current scenario of the WooCommerce ecosystem, this is not such a difficult prospect. There are quite a large number of solutions that can offer customization the way you like it. We have discussed quite a few solutions for customizing product options here as well. Now, in this article we will discuss the interesting features of Uni CPO 4, a very unique product customization plugin for WooCommerce.
Uni CPO 4 provides you with great options to add extra product options to your products. In fact, it will help you design the product options with a drag and drop form builder. So, instead of keeping your extra product options in a dull layout, you can creatively build beautiful forms. Furthermore, it helps you configure complicated price calculation formulae to suit your business strategy.
This plugin can be quite useful for printing companies that offer custom pricing for custom dimensions. Similarly, beauty salons can set up a choice of available services and dates for the customers to pick up. Overall, the plugin will be quite useful for businesses that offer custom product features and pricing. You may want to read our article on WooCommerce pricing to understand creative pricing strategies.
Uni CPO 4 has a free version with limited features and a Pro version with advanced features. You can purchase a single site license of the Pro version for $49.99 for an year. A license for three sites would be $69.99 and 25 sites would be $99.99. You can also find lifetime licenses starting from $149.99.
Now, let’s find out the interesting features of this plugin.
Makes complex price calculations simple
One of the standout features of this plugin is its ability to make complex price calculations. When you think about extra product options, it can be a simple addition of the costs generally. However, this plugin gives you great options to employ complex mathematical formulas and special functions. It gives you a lot of scope in creating innovative pricing strategies for your products. This is one of the features that you will definitely not find in a lot of competitors.
Diverse field types
The plugin, like most of its competitors, offers a range of field types that will help you display product options. These include text fields, text input area, checkboxes, radio buttons, select fields, etc as standard. In addition, you will find advanced options like file upload, date picker, range slider, dynamic notice and matrix.
Conditional logic
With this plugin, you can apply conditional logic in formulas as well as fields. That means, you can use the customer input values to determine the price of the products. Similarly, you can conditionally display or hide fields based on the choice of customers. Such comprehensive use of conditional logic can be quite useful if you have products with complex features.
Visual form builder
The feature that makes Uni CPO 4 all the more special is its unique, visual form builder. You can stylize your extra product options to make them look unique. The drag and drop interface makes it extremely easy to apply different styles to the forms.
Added features
Apart from these major features, you can find quite a lot of additional functionalities for this plugin.
- Creation of special and non option variables to help with the pricing calculations.
- Option to show a minimum and maximum value to a product. If the product price exceeds the maximum value, you have the option to display a custom text detailing the reason.
- Option to add prefix and suffix to price tags.
- You can display a price table with the help of Matrix functionality. You can use matrix as a non option variable or as a standalone option.
- Export and import product with added features to another site.
- Ability to display different prices based on user roles. This can be quite a handy feature if you are thinking of a Wholesale pricing strategy. You can find more insights on wholesale pricing strategy for WooCommerce in our other article.
- Change product image based on conditional logic, and change the color of the image dynamically.
- It also offers dynamic weight and dimensions calculations as well as validation rules based on conditional logic.
Custom product urls
With the help of an add-on, you can create custom product urls. You can create links to pre-configured product forms to help your customers. Same way, you can get insights on the interest of your customers as the add-on will send you configurations that customers try. This would be a great chance to understand what customers are looking for. You can also improvise on product options with the help of this data.
Installing and configuring the plugin
The plugin has a free version as well as a pro version. The free version, as expected has limited features and functionality. You can test the plugin by installing the free version, and then opt to upgrade to premium. You can download the free version from the WordPress plugin repository.
Now, once you are familiar with the plugin and think you need the advanced features that it offers, you can simply click the upgrade option and purchase it. After purchasing the plugin, you have to delete the free version, just like a lot of other WordPress plugins.
How the plugin works?
Once you activate the plugin, it is pretty easy to begin with. The default settings of the plugin would be mostly good to go for your site. So, you can simply start with customizing your product options.
You can go to the edit page of an existing product, or create a new product. Before adding extra product options, you have to note two things.
- You have to create a simple product for the extra product options to work.
- The product price field should be populated with an amount, even if it’s just a dummy price.
So, you start with creating a simple product, and enter a price for it in the Product Data metabox.
Now, you can go to the section added by the plugin ‘CPO Form Builder’. And, click the button GO TO THE BUILDER. This will take you to a semi-live preview of the form builder. You need to remember this is more a visual preview of styles. The values will be updated only when you click a button, View Saved Content. More on that later.
Once you click the button, a new tab will open up with your product front end display. On this, you can edit the extra product options live. You will see an icon on the left side of your screen for the visual form builder. Clicking the icon will open the form builder.
Just above the Add to Cart button, you will see the space to add new product options. You can drag and drop modules to this place first. Add the basic modules and then options. This is mostly about how the options would look like in the front end.
You will see the available field types under ‘Options’. The basic module you selected will just wrap around the field type that you choose.
When you hover the cursor around the newly added field, you will see an option for the settings. Here you can change the order of the fields, if there are multiple, duplicate them, and also set the parameters for each. Click the settings icon to make required changes for each field.
A few tips
Every time you make a change, you need to click the Save button on the left panel of the visual editor. Also to see the changes that are saved, you need to click the ‘eye’ icon. You might miss this part, when you are using the plugin for the first time. Once, you get a hang of the visual form builder, working with this plugin is a breeze.
You can apply a lot of complex mathematical formula to set up your pricing options. The plugin provides detailed documentation to help you through each of the settings. They also have a dependable support if you face trouble while configuring the plugin.
What we think about the plugin?
WooCommerce product customization is really an area with a lot of scope. It really improves the personalization aspect of your products and thereby the customer satisfaction. This plugin really offers a lot in terms with its powerful combination of diverse field types and styling options. It is tough to find a similar plugin that offers a visual form builder to help you set up extra product options. It can really be a handy tool for a variety of industries that thrive on product customization options.
Conclusion
Product customization is an important aspect of the modern eCommerce scenario. You may find a lot of useful tools to set it up. However, if you want to incorporate the power of a visual form builder to your extra product options, Uni CPO 4 plugin would be your answer. Apart from the styling options, it offers a great range of complex mathematical calculations to set up a price. Hopefully, you will find this one a great support to your product customization strategies.
