A better way to link to your products from marketing campaigns.

If you’re running landing page campaigns or email marketing for a WooCommerce store, here’s a super simple trick that can improve conversion rates……

Ready?

Skip the cart completely and send customers straight to the checkout page with the product already in their cart!

Why this works

Most people are lazy. (Aren’t we all?) The more steps they have to take, the less likely they are to finish the process. If someone clicks through from a targeted email or ad, they’re already warm. Don’t make them find the product, add it to cart, then checkout. Just take them straight there.

The basic format (simple products)

WooCommerce lets you add products to the cart with a simple URL like this:

https://yourdomain.com/?add-to-cart=PRODUCT_ID

If you want to skip the cart and jump right to checkout, just do this:

https://yourdomain.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=PRODUCT_ID

That’s it. One click and they’re at checkout, product loaded, ready to pay.

Where to find the product ID

In your WordPress admin, go to Products ? hover over the product title. You’ll see the ID in the link preview, or click into the product and check the URL (it’ll be something like post=1234).

For variable products

For products with variations (like size or colour), you’ll need to specify the variation ID and the attribute selections.

Here’s the format:

https://yourdomain.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=VARIATION_ID&variation_id=VARIATION_ID&attribute_pa_attribute_name=attribute_value

Example:

Let’s say you’re selling a T-shirt with a Size attribute, and someone wants a Large:

https://yourdomain.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=4567&variation_id=4567&attribute_pa_size=large

A few things to note:

4567 is the variation ID (not the parent product ID).

attribute_pa_size must match the slug of the attribute, not the label (e.g. size, not Size).

large must match the slug of the variation value (check the attribute in the admin to confirm).

Example use case

Let’s say you’re running a promo for a free sample. Rather than linking to the product page, you send people this in your email:

https://yourdomain.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=1234

Boom. Straight to checkout. No clicking around, having second thoughts.

Or for a specific product variation:

https://yourdomain.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=4567&variation_id=4567&attribute_pa_size=large

This isn’t some revolutionary thing, but it’s dead simple and it works. If you’re running any kind of targeted marketing where the person clicking the link already knows what they want, don’t waste their time. Take them straight to checkout!