When running an online store with WooCommerce, it’s important to have control over the minimum order quantities for your products. In this tutorial, we will explore how to set a minimum order quantity using the Flow Fields plugin. Flow Fields provides a simple way to create custom fields for WooCommerce products. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Install and Configure Flow Fields Plugin

First, make sure you have the Flow Fields plugin installed on your WordPress website. You can download it from the official WordPress plugin repository and activate it.

Once activated, go to the Flow Fields boxes page, create a new box for Products post type and paste the following JSON code, which will automatically create the field for you:

{"field[13][title]":"Minimum Order Quantity","field[13][slug]":"minimum-order-quantity","field[13][options]":"","field[13][type]":"number","field[13][number__min]":"","field[13][number__max]":"","field[13][number__step]":"","field[13][relationship__object_type]":"post","field[13][relationship__post_type]":"","field[13][relationship__taxonomy]":"category","field[13][placeholder]":"","field[13][width]":"","field[13][css_class]":"","field[13][prepend]":"","field[13][append]":"","":"","field[13][allow_conditions]":"on","field[13][condition][group-1][trigger][]":"","field[13][condition][group-1][operator][]":"is not empty","field[13][condition][group-1][value][]":""}

Step 2: Creating the Minimum Order Quantity Field

After importing the custom fields configuration, you will have a new section in the product edit screen called “Minimum Order Quantity.” To set the minimum order quantity for a product, follow these steps:

1. Edit the product in WooCommerce.
2. Scroll down to the “Minimum Order Quantity” section.
3. Enter the desired minimum order quantity for the product.

Step 3: Implementing the PHP Snippet

Now that we have set up the custom field, we need to implement the PHP snippet that enforces the minimum order quantity during the checkout process. Open your theme’s functions.php file or use a custom plugin to add the following code:

/**
 * Enforce minimum order quantity for WooCommerce products.
 */
function enforce_minimum_order_quantity() {
    $minimum_quantity = get_field('minimum-order-quantity');
    $cart_quantity = WC()->cart->get_cart_contents_count();

    if ($minimum_quantity > $cart_quantity) {
        wc_clear_notices();
        wc_add_notice('The minimum order quantity for this product is ' . $minimum_quantity . '.', 'error');
    }
}
add_action('woocommerce_check_cart_items', 'enforce_minimum_order_quantity');

This PHP snippet retrieves the minimum order quantity value from the custom field and compares it to the total quantity in the cart during the checkout process. If the minimum quantity is not met, an error notice will be displayed, preventing the customer from proceeding with the order.

Step 4: Testing the Minimum Order Quantity

To test the minimum order quantity functionality, add the product with a defined minimum order quantity to your cart and try to proceed to the checkout. If the quantity in the cart is below the minimum, an error notice will appear, and the customer will be prompted to increase the quantity.