How to make a simple WordPress order form

Need to sell something online, but not sure how to build a WordPress order form?

Online sales are a huge part of many modern businesses. E-commerce systems have grown in popularity, and also have a constantly improving set of features. But what if you sell just a few highly customizable products or services? Traditional E-commerce solutions may be too rigid for your needs.

Flexible, easy to use, and packed with advanced features

There are hundreds of different applications for online sales. Because of this, a single tutorial showing how to build the perfect WordPress order form would be tough to write. Instead, this will be a general guide highlighting some of the most useful features for an order form offered by Formidable.

Built-in price calculation features

Formidable offers two different methods to calculate a total price. While each has its own unique benefits, these methods are completely different.

The first method uses field calculations and math. Separate values allow you to assign a cost to each option in your purchase form. These values can be used in calculations to display a total.

Read more: Create An Instant Online Quote Form

The second method avoids calculations (math) completely in favor of cascading lookup fields. This method is fantastic for forms where the math is complex. In real world situations, it can be hard to get math that covers every eventuality.

Read more: Ditch the Calculations: Build a WordPress Quote Request Form Using Lookup Fields

Bulk discounts, shipping costs, and service charges may be charged at rates that often seem random. When these rates have no direct relation to any of the figures in your form, math calculations are tough. Cascading lookup fields allow you to return a value independent of any math, for ultimate flexibility.

Virtually unlimited fields and options

If you need extra info with your order, E-commerce systems usually only have a single box for "Notes" at checkout. Formidable can do so much more!

Use dropdown fields or checkboxes to restrict users to preset options. Text and paragraph fields can be used for additional inputs and number fields and URL fields for specific input types.

Date fields can be used for reservation forms. Toggle fields allow users to easily select optional extras. Repeaters allow easy and quick entry of details for multiple products, or multiple travelers in a group.

The file upload field allows your users to upload documents or artwork for their custom order. Formidable allows you to setup custom input masks for fields that require specific formatting.

Conditional logic

Use conditional logic to display more options. Selections in the form make new fields or sections visible! For example, do you have a minimum order quantity before you offer custom branding or packaging? You can hide these additional options with conditional logic until the order quantity field exceeds the threshold.

Optional customization of products is another area that conditional logic is useful. In these cases, you can hide the customization part of your form when it first loads. If your user selects the "Customize" option, additional fields will become visible. This simplifies your form and improves user experience.

Choice of payment gateways

Did you know that offering a choice of payment gateways can improve sales? Research has revealed that 50% of regular online shoppers would cancel their purchases if their preferred payment method was not available! In addition, according to a recent survey, 40% said they would feel more comfortable purchasing from an online merchant who offers multiple payment gateways.

Formidable has add-ons for PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net and additional 3rd party add-ons for other payment gateways. There are options to setup payments as charitable donations with some gateways. Some even support recurring payments and subscriptions.

The ultimate WordPress order form?

There is no "perfect" WordPress order form. The order form that is perfect for your current project will not suit every future application. Because of this, a flexible WordPress form builder plugin is essential.

If you need a WordPress order form that is amazingly flexible, Formidable Forms is hard to beat. The flexibility of Formidable combined with its advanced features, allows you create forms perfectly tailored to each project.