The quickest way to enable WooCommerce store pickup [Tutorial]

Offering in-store pickup can supercharge your business’s conversion rates, customer satisfaction scores, and revenue while lowering order fulfillment costs. In this in-depth tutorial, I’ll guide you through the steps to add unlimited WooCommerce store pickup points, enable date and time slot selection, charge store-specific fees, and more.

If you’re looking to enable store pickup in WooCommerce, this post has your back.

Adding a store pickup option can help convert more customers, boost customer satisfaction, increase revenue through cross-sells and upsells at pickup points, and reduce shipping costs.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the following:

• What WooCommerce store pickup is and why it’s so useful for businesses with physical pickup points.
• How in-store pickup benefits your business and customers.
• An overview of how the default store pickup option in WooCommerce works, and the limitations.
• Detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to configure store pickup in WooCommerce, add unlimited pickup points, enable date and time slot selection, charge store-specific fees, and more.
• Answers to common questions around offering store pickup in WooCommerce.

The plugin used in this tutorial

• WooCommerce Local Pickup: An advanced plugin that enables you to set up unlimited pickup points together with custom store names, contact information, working hours, fees, pickup instructions, availability rules, and much more. Free and pro versions available.

First things first, let’s understand what WooCommerce store pickup is, and how it works under the hood.

What is WooCommerce store pickup?

WooCommerce store pickup (known by other names as local pickup or click and collect) is a shipping method that lets customers place an order online and then collect it themselves from a prescribed physical location, instead of waiting for home delivery.

When enabled on a WooCommerce site, store pickup appears as a shipping option on the cart and checkout pages alongside other shipping methods such as home delivery or express courier. Customers can then opt for store pickup, choose their preferred location (if you have more than one), and complete their purchase.

Why enable store pickup in WooCommerce?

Even if you have just one physical business location, WooCommerce in store pickup can play a central part in your order fulfillment operations. Depending on your business model, it doesn’t have to replace shipping entirely. Nevertheless, it can be highly beneficial to your business and customers.

It improves conversion rates

The checkout page is your last chance to win or lose the sale. Long delivery times and high shipping fees can cause a significant number of customers to abandon their carts at this important stage in the customer journey.

When faced with the option of waiting several days to receive their order, paying extra for home delivery and in-store pickup, many shoppers would rather swing by and grab their orders themselves. Bonus points if you offer a same-day or one-day store pickup facility.

It increases revenue per customer

Impulse buys can contribute significantly to your revenue. Customers who come into your physical store to collect their orders are exposed to other products in your catalog.

With the right WooCommerce in store pickup system, you can curate customers’ pickup experiences in your physical store so that they naturally discover related or complementary items during the process and make additional purchases in-store.

It drives customer engagement

Online shopping is great but nothing beats human interaction. Offering WooCommerce in store pickup enables you to bring customers’ experience with your business from the virtual world to real life.

Someone visiting your store, even briefly, deepens their exposure to your business. They see your product displays, interact with your staff, and experience your brand IRL.

And because you now collect more information to better understand who your customers are (through their online order + in-person interaction), you can personalize future emails, offers, and loyalty incentives.

It lowers shipping and order fulfillment costs

If you run any kind of business, you know firsthand that shipping is one of the most expensive aspects of fulfilling orders. Not to mention, shipping costs can quickly balloon if you’re dealing with fragile, bulky, or a high number of low-margin products.

Store pickup helps cut those costs because you’re not packing, labeling, and shipping individual parcels across the country. Also, it enables you to prepare orders in batches and make them available for collection at one or more centralized pickup points.

It leads to faster turnaround times

Online shoppers want speed, and WooCommerce store pickup makes it easier to deliver on that expectation. Prepping orders in-house eliminates time spent on courier pickups or third-party logistics.

If you’re delivering orders in bulk to a pickup hub, that’s still more efficient than shipping 100 individual orders to 100 individual addresses. And if you’re prepping orders from the same location customers are picking up from, you eliminate transit time completely.

It results in fewer failed deliveries and returns

Every failed delivery costs your business money in the form of customer support time, handling returned goods, re-shipping (if you get a second chance), and sometimes full refunds.

When customers choose the store pickup option in WooCommerce, you remove the variables that cause failed deliveries: missed delivery windows, incorrect addresses, and carriers leaving items in unsafe places.

An overview of the default WooCommerce store pickup feature

It’s not uncommon for businesses with physical locations to want to offer in-store pickup alongside traditional shipping options. And WooCommerce, being the powerful ecommerce platform that it is, does include this functionality out of the box.

In WooCommerce’s official terminology, this feature is called Local Pickup. There are two different methods to set up the default WooCommerce store pickup feature: the classic checkout and the new-ish Gutenberg Blocks.

Let’s explore both methods.

Option 1: The “Legacy” local pickup with the classic WooCommerce checkout

The original method of configuring local pickup in WooCommerce is still available in the “classic” checkout system. You can set it up via WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping → Shipping Zones. Once set up, local pickup becomes an option on the checkout page for any customer whose address matches that shipping zone.

Limitations of the legacy local pickup

• ❌No option to let customers choose pickup locations. You can’t present multiple pickup points or locations within a single zone.
• ❌No pickup time slots or scheduling. Customers can’t pick a date or time for pickup during checkout.
• ❌No per-product pickup rules. You can’t allow pickup for certain product types and restrict it for others.
• ❌No conditional logic. Want to hide pickup when certain products are in the cart? You’re out of luck.

Option 2: The new checkout with Gutenberg blocks

In 2023, WooCommerce started rolling out Gutenberg-based checkout blocks, which offers a different approach to the checkout flow. You can set it up via WooCommerce → Checkout → Customize with Site Editor. Note that this only works with block-based themes.

Limitations of the Gutenberg Block-based local pickup

• ❌Every customer is shown all pickup locations. Every pickup point you add appears during the checkout flow for every customer, even if they’re halfway across the country or on another continent.
• ❌No time slots or scheduling controls. Same issue as the classic version.
• ❌No hybrid shipping options for the same order. If there are multiple items in the cart and one is eligible for home delivery only, it removes the Local Pickup option altogether from checkout, even though one of the items could be picked up.
• ❌If the “Hide Shipping Costs Until Address Is Entered” box is checked, it won’t display local pickup. This adds unnecessary friction to the checkout flow. Customers who want to make sure they can pick up their order from your store before completing the purchase might choose to abandon their carts.

The default WooCommerce pickup in store feature was designed to be simple, and it is. But for many businesses, it’s too simple. Businesses with multiple pickup locations, varying pickup rules, or those that want to enable time slots, will find the default feature too restricting.

Introducing a powerful WooCommerce store pickup plugin

WooCommerce Local Pickup is an advanced plugin preferred by store admins who want to offer customers the flexibility to collect their orders from one or more physical locations, rather than relying solely on shipping.

Thousands of businesses — including those with multiple locations, different schedules, product-level rules, etc. — use it to offer a seamless, flexible store pickup experience.

Once set up, it allows customers to choose between store pickup and home delivery during checkout. Customers who opt for in-store pickup can then select the preferred pickup point for each item in their cart from a user-friendly dropdown menu.

Here’s a brief rundown of some of its features.

Unlimited pickup points

There’s no limit to the number of pickup points that you can add. Each store location can be configured with its own name and address, business hours, custom info, and more.

Pickup scheduling

You can define available pickup days, time slots, and lead times, and display the schedule at checkout for customers to choose. This makes it possible for staff at pickup points to prep and fulfill orders more efficiently.

Show pickup points conditionally

Not every pickup point should be available to every customer or order. This plugin enables you to show pickup points based on the customer’s shipping address, apply pickup rules per product or category, and disable pickup if certain product types are in the cart.

Define non-working days for each store location

Each pickup point can have its own closed dates, public holidays, staff training days, special events, or custom blackout periods. The system automatically greys out unavailable days and times to make sure customers can’t choose them during checkout.

Store-specific fees, discounts, and tax settings

You can charge a fixed or percentage-based pickup fee for specific locations, offer discounts for choosing specific pickup points, and adjust tax rules based on the pickup store location.

Specify pickup availability at the product level

It lets you define which pickup points carry which products. For example, an apparel store might allow pickup for t-shirts and accessories but require shipping for made-to-order jackets.

How do I add a pickup option in WooCommerce?

Ready to enable WooCommerce store pickup option on your website? In this section, I’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of configuring global and individual store pickup settings using the powerful WooCommerce Local Pickup plugin.

The best bit? The process is pretty straightforward and takes less than ten minutes from start to finish.

Follow along by watching the video walkthrough below if you’re a visual learner. Otherwise, read on for written guidance (with screenshots). Let’s get started.

Step 1: Enable global WooCommerce store pickup settings

1. Install and activate the WooCommerce Local Pickup plugin on your website.
2. Head to your WordPress dashboard, and find the Local Pickup → Global Settings menu on the left-hand side.
3. In the Local Pickup settings panel, tick the box labeled Enable Shipping. This activates store pickup as a shipping method on your site.
   
4. You’ll also see a field labeled Shipping Title. Change this to something customer-friendly like “Click and Collect” or “In-Store Pickup”. Note: This is what customers will see during checkout.
5. Under the Cart & Checkout Settings section, you’ll define how pickup options are presented to shoppers.
   • Choosing Locations: Decide whether customers can pick up items from different pickup locations in the same order, or whether they must select one pickup point per order.
   • Location Sort Order: Control how locations are displayed to customers, either by default order, alphabetically, or showing the most recently added ones first.
6. In the Pickup Appointments settings, you’ll fine-tune how flexible or strict your store’s pickup scheduling experience should be.
   • Mode: Choose from three options: no scheduling (pickup anytime), optional appointments (customers may choose a time slot), and required appointments (customers must book a time slot before completing the order).
     
   • Time range: Define the length of each available pickup slot e.g., every 30 minutes or 1 hour.
   • Default pickup hours: Set the daily time windows when pickups are allowed, for example, Mondays to Fridays from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
   • Default holiday dates: List specific dates (e.g., weekends or public holidays) when pickup won’t be available.
     
   • Default lead time: Enter how long it takes your team to prep an order before it’s ready to be picked up.
   • Default deadline: Specify how long an order will stay at the pickup location before it’s canceled or returned.
     
7. Fee adjustment: Manage pricing rules for pickup orders either by adding a pickup fee (flat or percentage) or offering a pickup discount. You can also opt to leave the price unchanged.
8. Turn on the Pickup Location Tax option to determine whether orders slated for in-store pickup should include taxes based on the pickup points’ tax rules.

Step 2: Enable individual WooCommerce store pickup settings

1. From your WordPress admin, go to Local Pickup → Pickup Locations.
2. Tap “Add New”.
3. Turn on the “Status” button.
   
4. Under “Pickup Title”, enter a name for this pickup point. This title will show up on the checkout page, so make sure it’s clear and simple enough for customers to recognize. Something like “Click and Collect – Downtown NYC” or “Warehouse #3 – West Side”.
5. Next, fill out the store’s address and contact information. Note: Customers will use the phone number you add here for order queries or directions, so make sure it’s active.
   
6. You can use the “Note or Details” field to add useful information, such as pickup instructions, landmarks, or parking notes if needed.
7. Go to the Pickup Appointments Settings area and define this pickup point’s working hours, lead times, holidays, and time slots.
   • Pickup hours: Choose which days and times customers can pick up orders. For example, you might allow pickups from this location on Mondays through Saturdays from 9 AM to 8 PM.
     
   • Holiday dates: Define days that this store will be closed to pickups.
   • Lead time: Define the amount of prep time required before an order becomes available for pickup.
   • Deadline: Set how long a prepared order will remain available at this pickup location before it’s canceled or returned.
8. Fee adjustment: Add a fixed or percentage-based charge or offer a pickup discount to encourage pickups from this location. Also, you can choose no extra fee.
   
9. Filter for Locations: If certain products or categories are only available for pickup at this specific location, you can configure that here.
10. Finally, scroll down and click “Add Location”.

That’s all. Your new pickup point will now be live and visible to customers who match the cart contents and conditions you’ve set. Before making it live, test that the correct locations appear based on the products, and the pickup hours and holiday work as expected.

Here’s a preview of how the store pickup option appears to a customer on the checkout page on an apparel and fashion accessories website.

FAQs about WooCommerce store pickup

How do I handle pickup orders during holidays or closures?

WooCommerce’s in-built system doesn’t include the option to define business days, holidays, and time slots. A workaround is to mention available days and holidays using the “notes” field or add it to a prominent page elsewhere on your website. However, this isn’t ideal.

The best way to handle pickup orders during holidays or closures is to use a plugin like WooCommerce Local Pickup by The Dotstore (free and pro versions available). It enables you to define non-working days or holiday closures for each pickup point. For example, you can block specific dates like January 1st or December 25th, set recurring closures (e.g., “closed every Sunday”), and add one-off days (e.g., annual stock count, maintenance, public strikes).

WooCommerce Local Pickup also lets you add set lead times that define how many hours or days are needed to prep orders for pickup and automatically shift pickup availability past your cutoff. At checkout, customers won’t be able to select the pickup option entirely for that period.

Can I completely remove shipping options and only offer local pickup?

Yes, if you want to run your WooCommerce store as pickup-only, you can completely disable all shipping options and only offer local pickup at checkout. You need two plugins for this setup: WooCommerce Local Pickup (free and pro versions available) and Hide Shipping Method For WooCommerce (free and pro versions available), both by The Dotstore.

WooCommerce Local Pickup empowers you to add unlimited pickup points, pickup date and time scheduling, store-specific fees and discounts, and much more. Hide Shipping Method For WooCommerce lets you automatically disable and hide shipping options at checkout.

How do I add a date and time picker for pickup selection during checkout?

Adding a date and time picker for the store pickup option in WooCommerce makes the pickup experience smoother for both your customers and your staff. WooCommerce’s default local pickup settings don’t include the option to add a date and time picker, but you can enable this with the powerful WooCommerce Local Pickup plugin by The Dotstore.

WooCommerce Local Pickup enables you to add a modern, user-friendly date and time picker at checkout and define lead time to allow your staff enough buffer time to prep orders for pickup.

Ready to add WooCommerce store pickup?

If your business has any kind of physical location, offering store pickup can reduce your shipping costs, shorten order fulfillment times, and boost customer engagement.

Even though WooCommerce offers two default methods to set up store pickup, they aren’t ideal for growing businesses. Not to mention, they aren’t the most straightforward to set up store pickup unless you have expert-level knowledge of the WooCommerce admin.

The Dotstore’s WooCommerce Local Pickup plugin is perfect for businesses that want to offer pickup only or combine shipping and local delivery. Best of all? Setup takes less than 10 minutes as its interface is modern and simple for non-technical store admins to use.

With WooCommerce Local Pickup, you can:

• Add unlimited pickup points with their own business hours, instructions, and blackout dates.
• Enable date and time slot selection so your customers choose when to collect their orders during checkout.
• Control pickup availability by product, category, and customer location.
• Use smart conditional logic to show only the right pickup locations based on what’s in the cart.
• Charge pickup fees or offer discounts to incentivize customers to pick up orders from specific locations.
• Much more.

Get WooCommerce Local Pickup’s free or premium version today.