Allowing WooCommerce guest purchases, without a doubt, makes it easier for users to complete the payment process.
That said, there comes a time you want to encourage visitors to log in to your site before purchasing. In this way, you can have important information about your customers, e.g. where they come from, who are returning customers.
The thing is, how do you have your customers log in to your site while making guest purchases is far less complicated?
Just a cakewalk with our article. Today, we’ll walk you through 2 ways to encourage users to sign up to your WooCommerce store, i.e. restrict shipping to WooCommerce logged-in users and grant protected products to logged-in users only.
Let’s jump in!
- The Benefits of Having Registered Customers
- How to Restrict Shipping to Logged in Users in WooCommerce
- Restrict WooCommerce Products to Logged-in Users only
The Benefits of Having Registered Customers
As mentioned, although users can buy without logging in WooCommerce, it’s difficult to track customers’ purchases.
By having registered clients, you have access to numerous data such as
- Each client’s number of orders.
- Their most recent activities.
- The number of coupons utilized for a given product category.
- Location of clients (shipment location and local geolocation).
This user data allows you to better understand your customers and their purchasing behaviors. Accordingly, you can determine suitable actions to enhance your shop’s awareness and increase sales.
In the next section, we’ll dive into a plugin that helps you restrict shipping to logged-in users.
How to Restrict Shipping to Logged in Users in WooCommerce
To restrict WooCommerce shipping to logged-in users only, you’ll need WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro plugin.
Step 1: Install and activate WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro on your site.
The plugin’s price starts at $79 for a single site license. If you have more sites, consider getting a 5-site license or 100-site license, which costs $149 and $499 respectively.
Step 2: Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping tab in your admin dashboard.
Here, click the “Add shipping zone” button to create a new shipping zone. You’re then required to fill out the form with
- Zone name: give your shipping zone a name.
- Zone regions: define which countries or areas that your products can be shipped to.
- Shipping methods: you’ll see the “Table Rate Pro” option there. Click on the plugin name to view all available shipping methods.
By default, there are two available shipping options: “Logged in only” and “Not logged in”. Feel free to add others if need be.
In this case, we’ll choose “Logged in only” to restrict shipping to users who registered to your store.
Step 3: Modify “Logged in only” method.
To adjust details of this shipping option, click on “Logged in only”. A new screen will display, where you can define specific shipping rates for logged-in users.
Don’t forget to press “Save changes” to apply your settings.
Restrict WooCommerce Products to Logged-in Users only
Apart from restricting shipping to logged-in users, are there any ways for you to encourage users to sign up for your store?
Another idea is to offer some products with discounted prices to users who registered on your site. And it’s all possible with PPWP Pro plugin.
We assume that you’ve already got a PPWP Pro license and activated it on your site. The following are simple steps to make the idea come true.
Step 1: Password-protect products with PPWP Pro plugin
First, go to Password Protect WordPress > General tab in your admin dashboard. Here, select “Products” from Post Type Protection.
Go back to the Products page and password-protect your products via the password management popup.
Step 2: Whitelist logged-in users access to protected products
Navigate to Password Protect WordPress > General tab. In the “Whitelist Roles” section, select “Logged-in users”.
That’s it. Now, only logged-in users can access and purchase your private products.
It’s straightforward, isn’t it?
Restricting Shipping to WooCommerce Logged-in Users Made Simple
Collecting customers’ information benefits your business in many ways such as increasing brand awareness or boosting sales.
If you want your users to sign up for your WooCommerce store before choosing a shipping method, WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping – PRO plugin is the ideal choice.
How about only allowing logged-in users to purchase some specific products, let’s say, at a discounted price?
Give PPWP Pro a go! This plugin helps you password-protect your WooCommerce products and grants access to logged-in users only. This action will urge those who aren’t yet registered in your store to take the action immediately.
Which methods do you prefer? Is there any other information that you need from us?
Let us know in the comment section below.
