Kitero - Composite Products for WooCommerce Free documentation

Kitero adds a Composite product type to WooCommerce. You define the choices, called components, and list the products a shopper can pick for each one. The shopper builds their product on the product page, and the total updates as they choose.

A gift hamper, a build your own skincare routine, a made to order desk setup and a spare parts kit all work the same way. Each one is a parent product made of choices, and its price comes from what the customer selected. Every choice is written to the cart, the checkout, the order and the confirmation email.

The plugin is for WooCommerce store owners who want to sell configurable products without setting up a separate product for every combination. Stock stays on the products the shopper picks, so your inventory stays accurate.

Kitero is a free plugin on WordPress.org. It needs WooCommerce, so install and activate WooCommerce 8.0 or newer first.

Go to Kitero > Dashboard for an overview of the plugin.

At the top you see counts of your composite products, the ready made kit templates and the products available as options.

Quick actions link to the main tasks:

• Create a composite product: set the product type to Composite, then pick a template or build it yourself.
• Manage composite products: opens the list of every composite product.
• Settings: defaults for layout, option style, catalog price and add to cart.
• Documentation: every option explained inside the dashboard.
• Run the setup again: revisit the defaults at any time. Nothing you have built is changed.

Recent composite products lists your latest composite products with their number of components, status, and Edit and View links.

Composite products are edited in the normal WooCommerce product editor. Set the product type to Composite product. Two tabs then appear: Composite and Composite display.

Composite tab

Press Add component to add a choice the shopper makes. Each component card has these fields:

• Component name: the heading the shopper sees for this step. It is also the label used in the cart, the order and the confirmation email. Required.
• Short description: optional helper text under the heading, for example a sizing note.
• How options are shown: a thumbnail grid, larger cards with a description, a compact radio list or a dropdown. You set this per component.
• Required: when ticked, the shopper cannot add the product to the cart until they choose an option here. When unticked, the shopper can skip the component or click a chosen option again to clear it.
• Minimum quantity and Maximum quantity: how many units of the chosen option are included. Set both to the same value for a fixed quantity.
• Let the shopper change the quantity: shows plus and minus buttons on the product page. They only appear when the maximum is higher than the minimum.
• Adjust the price of whatever is chosen here and Amount: apply a discount or an extra fee to the option picked in this component, as a percentage or a fixed amount. A discount can never take a line below zero.
• Products: the options the shopper picks from. Search by name or SKU. A variable product is listed as its individual variations. Drag the rows to reorder them.

The composite product itself does not need a price. The total comes from the products the shopper chooses.

Composite display tab

• Layout: All components visible shows every choice at once and suits two or three components. Accordion keeps one section open at a time and keeps a long build readable on a phone.
• Minimum and maximum items: how many items the shopper must choose in total, for example at least 3 and at most 6 for a box of treats. Items are counted by quantity across every component. The product page shows the limit and a running count, and the cart checks it again. Leave both empty for no limit.

Kit templates

Five ready made kit templates build the components in one click: custom PC, gift hamper, meal kit, skincare routine and coffee kit. You then edit the product as usual.

Go to Kitero > Composite products to see every product that uses the Composite type.

The table shows each product's number of Components and Options, its Layout, its Catalog price, its Status and its Date. You can sort by product name and date, and use Search products to find a product.

Click Add new to create another composite product, or click a product name to edit it.

Go to Kitero > Composite orders to see orders that contain at least one composite product.

The table lists the Order, Customer, Composite items, Status, Total and Date. Open an order to see exactly which options the customer chose. Each choice is recorded on its own line.

Until your first composite product is sold, the table shows "No orders contain a composite product yet."

Go to Kitero > Settings for the defaults that apply to every composite product. Some can still be changed per product where that makes sense.

The screen has three groups:

• Product page: the default layout and option style for new products and components, whether configurations are added to the cart without a page reload, the Add to cart button text, and whether out of stock options are shown greyed out.
• Catalog: how the price appears on shop and category pages, and the text of the catalog button that opens the product page.
• Admin: how many results the component product search returns, and whether plugin data is deleted when you delete the plugin.

Click Save settings when you are done. See the settings reference below for every field.

Go to Kitero > Setup to run the welcome wizard. It asks a few quick questions to set the defaults for every composite product you build. It takes about a minute, and you can change any of it later.

The wizard has four steps: Layout, Options, Shop and Done.

The first step asks how shoppers should move through the choices:

• All components visible: everything on one page. Best for two or three choices.
• Accordion (one section open at a time): collapsible sections. Good for four to six choices.

This applies to new composite products. You can override it on any single product. Click Continue to move on, or Skip for now to leave the wizard. You can run it again from the dashboard at any time, and nothing you have built is changed.

Go to Kitero > Documentation to read the built in guide without leaving your site. It covers:

• Getting started
• Component options
• Layouts and styles
• Global settings, with the default of each setting
• Pricing and stock
• For developers, with a list of hooks
• Troubleshooting

Use the links at the top of the page to jump to a section.

How the total is worked out

The total is the sum of the chosen options, each multiplied by its quantity. It updates live as the shopper chooses. It is calculated again on the server before anything is added to the cart, so an edited page cannot produce a cheaper order.

Catalog price

The lowest price counts required components only, because an optional component can be skipped. The highest price counts every component at its dearest option and highest quantity. Choose how this appears in the shop with Price display under Kitero > Settings.

Stock

Stock is held by the chosen products, not by the composite parent. When an order reduces stock, the stock of each chosen item is reduced by its quantity and an order note records the change. Cancelling the order puts the stock back. Options that are out of stock cannot be selected, and the cart is checked again before checkout.

Kitero replaces the standard add to cart area on a composite product page with a configuration form.

• Each component appears as its own section with its name and a Required or Optional label.
• Options are shown in the style you chose for that component: thumbnails, cards, a radio list or a dropdown. Each option shows its name and price, and cards also show the short description.
• An optional choice can be cleared by clicking the selected option again.
• When you set a minimum or maximum number of items for the kit, the form shows the limit and a running count of chosen items.
• A Total updates as the shopper chooses, above the Add to cart button (or your own button text).

On shop and category pages, composite products show a price range, a starting price or no price, depending on the Price display setting. The catalog button (Configure unless you change it) opens the product page.

After adding to the cart, each choice is listed on its own line in the cart, and the choices are carried through to checkout, the order and the confirmation email.