Build a box (mix and match)

What it is

Build a box lets a customer fill a box with several different products from a pool you choose, each with its own quantity, where the total has to hit a size you set. It is the classic mix and match: pick any 6 chocolates, build your own 6-pack, choose any 4 sauces, fill a hamper.

It is the pick-many companion to choice slots, which are pick-one. Both are part of the Builder (Pro).

Turn it on

A box is a choice slot in box mode. Add a choice slot to your bundle, then:

• Set How many can they choose? to Build a box.
• The Min and Max become the box size (the total number of items). For “pick any 6” set both to 6; for a range set, say, Min 4 and Max 8.
• Optionally set Max per product, the most a customer can take of any one item (for example up to 3 of each). Leave it at 0 for no per-product limit.
• Optionally set Max different products, the most distinct items a box can hold (for “pick any 6, up to 3 flavours”). Leave it at 0 for no limit.
• Choose the products the box can be filled from, the same way you build any choice slot’s pool: hand-pick products, pull in a whole category, or both. A category pool keeps itself current: add a product to that category later and customers can pick it from the box automatically, with no edit to the bundle. And the odd product a category holds that you never want offered can be crossed off: see Leave products out.

Sizes and pack options

Instead of one fixed box size, you can offer set sizes or packs, each a flat price for an exact number of items: a 1.7kg bucket that holds 10, a 3kg bucket that holds 20, a 4kg bucket that holds 30. The customer picks a size first, then fills it.

Add them on the choice slot under Sizes / pack options, giving each a label, a price and the number of items it holds. The storefront shows the sizes as tappable tiles, then the fill grid below.

When sizes set the price they take over: per-item prices, quantity breaks and the slot discount no longer apply, because each size is one flat price. Leave sizes empty for ordinary per-item pricing (with optional quantity breaks, below).

Sizes suit pick-and-mix buckets, hampers, coffee bags, chocolate boxes and meat boxes: anything “pick a pack, then fill it”. Set them up fastest in the creation wizard: choose Build-your-own box, then Different sizes.

What the customer sees

The pool shows as a grid of product cards, each with a quantity stepper. As they add items:

• A “3 of 6 added” meter and a progress bar fill up.
• The live total updates with every pick.
• Add to cart stays disabled until the box total is in range, so a half-filled box cannot be bought by mistake.

Every pick shows in the cart and on the order, and on the warehouse pick list, like any other bundle.

Products with options

If a product in the pool has options (a t-shirt in several colours and sizes, say), its card shows a Choose an option dropdown. The customer picks the colour and size they want, then sets the quantity, all on the same card. The card waits for an option before it counts towards the box, so a half-chosen pick cannot slip through.

Each product is chosen one option at a time on its card, unless you show it as a card per variation, below. For a colour and size run of one product inside a fixed bundle line, the quantity grid remains its own layout.

This makes a box ideal for a build your own kit: pick a tee, a hoodie and a cap, each in its own colour and size, up to the kit size you set. And when the choice is noise rather than the point, take it off the customer’s plate with a Default size, below.

A card per variation

Sometimes the variations are the range: one product whose variations are the flavours, the colours, the designs. For that pool, switch the product’s Shows as control (beside it in the pool settings) from One card to a card per variation:

• Every variation becomes its own card with its own photo, counter and stock, and customers mix them freely in one box. One product can fill the whole wall: a flavour product with twelve flavours becomes twelve cards. The photo is the image set on the variation itself (edit the product, open Variations, set an image on each); a variation without one falls back to the product’s main image, which is why an untouched product shows the same picture on every card.
• Each card carries both names, the variation leading: the flavour or colour is the bold title and the product name sits above it as a small line. Five flavours of one product read as five different cards, and several products that all come in a “1 Pack” variation stay tellable apart in one pool.
• Click a variation in the editor to leave it out of this box; click it again to bring it back. Variations you add to the product later join by themselves, the same way a category pool keeps itself current.
• A sold out variation keeps its card, greyed and marked sold out, instead of quietly vanishing, and stock counts down per variation as boxes sell.
• A product with two option types, like colour and size, shows as one card that opens into a quantity grid instead, since a card per combination would be a wall of near-identical tiles.
• Any size rule on the box still applies. Cards and grids offer exactly what the box will accept, so a rule pinning the weight to 100g leaves the customer choosing the flavour and nothing else.
• Shows as is set per product, beside it in the pool, so it applies to products you picked by hand. A pool that fills itself from a category keeps the classic card.

Nothing changes for any existing box until you switch a product over, and it pairs naturally with pack sizes: pick a size, mix the variations freely, pay the size’s flat price. It is the way to build a pick-and-mix from a single variable product.

Shorter names on the cards

A listing title written for search, “Elevate BC Gummies THC 240 MG (12pcs)”, swamps a small card. In the bundle editor’s Product cards section, every product and every variation carries a small pencil: type a card name and the card shows that instead.

• The rename is display only. The real WooCommerce name stays on the product, in the cart, on orders and in emails, so your admin and your records never change.
• Both lines have their own pencil: the small product line and the bold variation title can each be shortened, so a card can read “Sauced” over “Watermelon Gelato”.
• Set it once, it applies everywhere that product appears, every box, every bundle. Clear the field and the real name returns.
• Card names travel with the product in a bundle export.

One size for the whole box

Sometimes the option dropdowns are the point (a kit in your colour and size). And sometimes they are in the way: a sweet shop selling 100g bags does not want every card opening a size chooser.

Default size appears on the slot as soon as its pool holds a product with options, and decides what fills the box:

• Customer picks: every card keeps its dropdown, exactly as before.
• Smallest of each or Largest of each: every product goes in at its own smallest or largest option.
• A specific size: name the size, say 100g, and every product is offered at that size only. A product that does not come in that size uses its own smallest instead, so nothing drops out of the pool.

When the rule leaves a product exactly one option there is nothing left to choose, so its card drops the dropdown entirely and becomes tap to add.

Size overrides handle the exception. The pool follows the default size while a product you name uses its own: everything at 100g, one bag at 125g. The picker offers exactly the pool’s products, category pools included, so an override can never point at something outside the box.

Two behaviours worth knowing. A set size that is sold out shows its product as sold out rather than quietly offering a different size at a different price. And a pool whose products carry several option types (a weight and a flavour, say) takes one rule per option type: pin each type to a value, or leave a type open for the customer to choose. Per-product overrides carry the same per-type values, so one product can differ on just one type while following the rest.

The wizard’s Build-your-own box step carries the same controls: a Default size choice, a size pick on each product chip, and the Item prices switch below.

Item prices

Every box slot has an Item prices switch. Hide removes the small price under each product card and keeps per-line prices out of the “What’s inside” readback in the order panel, for a cleaner “just pick what you like” box. The box total and the From price still show, so the customer always sees exactly what they will pay.

Pricing

A box uses the bundle’s normal pricing. With percentage or set-amount pricing it costs the sum of what was picked (with any bundle discount). For a flat “any 6 for £20” deal, set the bundle to a fixed price: the box decides what is in it, the fixed price decides how much.

Quantity breaks reward bigger boxes: set tiers so the more the customer adds, the bigger the discount. The box sells the deal itself: the whole ladder is shown above the products (“3+ items: 10% off · 6+ items: 15% off · 10+ items: 20% off”), the nudge appears before the first pick (“add 3 more for 10% off”), and once a tier is reached the note shows the active discount alongside the next rung (“10% off · add 3 more for 15% off”). These use the bundle’s quantity tiers.

Good to know

• The box pool can mix simple products and products with variations, shown as one chooser card or as a card per variation, side by side in one pool.
• A box and the quantity grid are two different selection styles; a slot uses one or the other.