Are you tired of losing potential sales due to a clunky checkout process on your WordPress site? If so, implementing a streamlined online order form could be the solution you‘ve been looking for.
Online order forms simplify the purchasing process by allowing customers to select products, enter their details, and pay all on a single page. This can significantly reduce cart abandonment rates, which average nearly 70% according to recent studies by the Baymard Institute.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll walk you through how to add a user-friendly order form to your WordPress website step-by-step. We‘ll cover everything from planning out your form fields to configuring payment processing and managing completed orders.
Why Use an Online Order Form?
Traditional e-commerce stores often use a multi-page checkout process that requires customers to add items to their cart, enter their information, select shipping, and then finally pay. While this works well for larger purchases, it can be overkill for smaller orders.
An online order form condenses this entire process into a single page, reducing friction for the customer. Benefits of using an order form include:
- Increased conversion rates and revenue
- Faster checkout process
- Easier order management
- More flexibility with product options and add-ons
- Simpler setup than a full e-commerce system
Online forms are especially well-suited for restaurants, food delivery, event ticketing, appointment booking, and other businesses that primarily sell services or virtual goods.
Planning Your Order Form
The first step to setting up an online order form is to map out what information you need to collect from customers. This will vary depending on your specific business and offerings, but here are some common fields to consider:
- Customer name
- Email address
- Phone number
- Billing/shipping address
- Delivery instructions
- Product selection
- Quantity and price
- Order notes
- Payment details
Think carefully about which fields are essential and which can be optional. You want to gather enough information to process the order, but asking for too much can overwhelm customers and hurt your conversion rates.
Here are some other factors to consider when planning your form:
Product Types and Variations
How do you want to present your products? Will you list them out individually with separate fields for quantity and price? Or do you have different variations like sizes or colors?
For businesses with larger product catalogs, listing out every item could make the form too long. Consider using a multi-select checkbox field or a set of radio buttons so customers can easily choose their preferred item and variation.
Delivery Options
Do you need to offer multiple delivery methods like in-store pickup, local delivery, or shipping? Make sure to provide fields for customers to select their preferred option and enter a delivery address if needed.
If you offer time slots for delivery or pickup, consider using a date/time picker field so customers can easily select their preferred window. This is especially important for restaurants and food delivery services.
Payment Methods
What payment methods do you plan to accept? The most common options are credit cards and PayPal, but you may also want to offer Apple Pay, Google Pay, or even cash on delivery.
Choose a payment processor that integrates with your order form plugin and can handle your expected transaction volume. We‘ll dive into specifics on payment setup later on.
Setting Up Your Order Form in WordPress
Now that you‘ve got a solid plan for your order form, it‘s time to build it in WordPress! We‘ll be using the Kali Forms plugin for this tutorial, as it offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder and robust features.
Kali Forms offers a free version, but to access payment integrations and other advanced features you‘ll need a premium license. Pricing starts at $29 per year for a single site.
To get started, install the free Kali Forms plugin on your WordPress site and activate it. Then follow these steps:
- Go to Kali Forms > Add New to create a new form
- Name your form and click "Create"
- Drag and drop the desired fields from the left panel onto your form
Kali Forms offers all the standard form fields like text, dropdown, radio buttons, and checkboxes. But it also has some specialized fields designed for order forms, including:
- Product – To list an individual product with price
- Multi-product – To offer multiple product variations and prices
- Quantity – To let customers select the number of items
- Total – To display the order subtotal or total
Use these fields to build out your product selection. If you have a lot of products, consider breaking them up into multiple sections or using conditional logic to show/hide certain options based on the customer‘s previous selections.
Organize with Page Breaks
If your form is getting lengthy, use page breaks to split it up into multiple sections. This makes the form less overwhelming and keeps customers focused on one set of fields at a time.
In Kali Forms, just drag a "Page Break" field onto your form where you want to start a new section. The page will automatically advance when the customer hits "Next", without actually loading a new URL.
Configure Your Form Settings
Once you‘ve added all your fields, go through the various settings tabs in Kali Forms to configure your form‘s behavior:
- Form Settings – Customize general form behavior and restrictions
- Notifications – Set up email notifications for admins and customers
- Confirmations – Create a success message or redirect customers after submission
- Styling – Adjust the form‘s appearance with custom CSS
- Spam Prevention – Enable honeypot, reCAPTCHA, or Akismet for protection
Make sure to set up email notifications for both yourself and the customer after an order is placed. You may also want to customize the confirmation message or redirect to a thank you page.
Accepting Payments and Managing Orders
Of course, no order form is complete without a way to accept payments! Kali Forms integrates with both PayPal and Stripe for seamless payment processing.
To enable payments, install the "Kali Forms – Payments" add-on in your WordPress dashboard and activate the one(s) you plan to use. Then follow these steps:
- Go to Kali Forms > Payments to enter your API keys and configure settings
- Add a Payment field to your order form
- Select the relevant Payment fields to map the order details
For PayPal, you‘ll need to set up a developer app and generate API credentials. Make sure to use the sandbox keys for testing and the live keys when you‘re ready to accept real payments.
With Stripe, you‘ll need to enter your publishable and secret keys. These can be found in your Stripe dashboard under Developers > API Keys.
Once your payment integration is set up, customers will be able to enter their credit card details or log into their PayPal account right on your order form. The payment will be processed immediately upon submission.
Order Management Features
When a customer submits an order through your form, the details will be stored in your WordPress database for easy reference.
To view and manage orders, go to Kali Forms > Entries. Click on an individual entry to see the specific order details, customer information, and payment status.
You can also export entries to CSV for further analysis or integration with other tools. Kali Forms supports storing submitted form data in custom fields, so you can map the order details to fields in your CRM or other external systems.
Integrating with Your Tech Stack
Speaking of integrations, Kali Forms plays nicely with many popular marketing and communication tools. Connecting your order form to the rest of your tech stack can streamline your workflow and provide a better experience for customers.
Some key integrations to consider are:
Email Marketing
Kali Forms offers direct integration with popular email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and HubSpot. Connecting your order form to your email list allows you to:
- Automatically add customers to your subscriber list
- Tag customers based on their order details for segmentation
- Send customers an order confirmation or receipt
- Notify them when their order status changes
To set this up, install the Kali Forms newsletter add-on and enter your API keys. Then map your form fields to the appropriate subscriber fields in your email platform.
Analytics
Want to track conversions from your order form and see how it‘s contributing to your bottom line? Just enter your Google Analytics ID in the Kali Forms settings.
With analytics enabled, you can see key metrics like:
- Number of form impressions and submissions
- Conversion rate and drop-off points
- Time to complete an order
- Revenue generated from the form
Use these insights to optimize your form design and product offerings over time.
Zapier
Kali Forms also integrates with Zapier, a popular automation tool that connects over 2,000 apps. With Zapier, you can do things like:
- Create a new lead in your CRM when an order is placed
- Add the customer to your email or SMS list
- Alert your team in Slack about new orders
- Generate an invoice or packing slip in Google Drive
The possibilities are endless! Just set up a "zap" with Kali Forms as the trigger app and map the order details to your desired action steps.
Form Design Best Practices
With the technical pieces in place, let‘s talk about best practices for designing an order form that converts. Here are some tips:
- Keep it concise – Only ask for the information you really need
- Use a multi-step layout – Break the form into bite-sized chunks
- Optimize for mobile – Make sure it looks good and functions well on smaller screens
- Write clear labels and microcopy – Guide customers through each field
- Include trust signals – Add security badges, testimonials, or FAQs near the payment section
- Offer multiple payment options – Let customers pay how they prefer
- Provide an order summary – List out all selected products and prices before payment
- Send an order confirmation – Recap the details and set expectations for next steps
It‘s also a good idea to display your contact information and a support link in case customers have questions or issues with their order.
When to Use an Online Order Form
We‘ve covered a lot of ground in this guide, but you may be wondering if an online order form is really the right choice for your business.
Consider using an order form if you:
- Primarily sell services, digital goods, or made-to-order products
- Want to offer a quick checkout process without a full shopping cart
- Have a limited number of products or variations
- Want more control over the ordering process than a standard e-commerce platform allows
- Process a high volume of orders and need a way to streamline fulfillment
On the flip side, a traditional shopping cart may be better if you:
- Have a large product catalog with many categories
- Want customers to be able to easily add and remove items
- Need a full-featured system with inventory management, tax calculations, shipping options, etc.
Luckily, WordPress has solutions for both scenarios! If you decide an order form isn‘t the right fit, you can always use an e-commerce plugin like WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads instead.
Alternative Form Plugins
While we used Kali Forms for this tutorial, there are several other excellent form plugins for WordPress that support online orders and payments. Some top options are:
- Gravity Forms – One of the most popular WordPress form builders with extensive add-ons
- Ninja Forms – Another powerful drag-and-drop builder with payment integrations
- WPForms – A beginner-friendly plugin with pre-built form templates
- Formidable Forms – Feature-rich form builder with payment options and entry management
All of these plugins offer similar functionality to Kali Forms, so it ultimately comes down to personal preference and your specific needs. Test out a few to see which interface you prefer.
Wrapping Up
Adding an online order form to your WordPress site is a great way to simplify the checkout process and increase conversions. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can create a user-friendly form that collects all the necessary information and accepts payments securely.
Just remember to:
- Plan out your form fields and layout based on your product offerings and business needs
- Use a trusted form plugin like Kali Forms to build your form with a drag-and-drop interface
- Integrate with your payment processor of choice to collect credit card payments or PayPal transfers
- Customize your form settings and confirmations to provide a seamless ordering experience
- Manage orders and communicate with customers through the form entry dashboard and email integrations
- Follow form design best practices to optimize for conversions and user experience
- Connect your form to other tools in your marketing stack to automate post-purchase follow-up
Whether you‘re a restaurant owner, e-book author, coach, or any other kind of online entrepreneur, implementing an optimized order form on your WordPress site is sure to streamline your sales process and make life easier for you and your customers.
