Extendons Woocommerce Measurement Price Calculator

Hardly anybody needs a formula engine: they need the price per square metre

Worth saying because in this category it is very easy to overbuy.

There are plugins that let you write any mathematical expression and compose the price however you like. They are powerful and there are cases that call for them. But most shops selling by measure do not have a formula problem: they have a much simpler and far more common one, which is multiplying.

Wallpaper by the metre. Flooring by the square metre. Blinds by width and height. Liquids by the litre. Fabric by the linear metre. All of that is a multiplication with a unit price, and that does not need a formula engine: it needs a measurement calculator.

This Extendons plugin does exactly that: the customer enters the dimensions and the price appears immediately, by length, area, volume or weight.

What it brings

• Price by unit of measure: length, area, volume and weight.
• Immediate calculation as the variables get entered, with no reload.
• Built for variable-size products: blinds, wallpaper, liquids, flooring.

This category's real problem is not the arithmetic: it is the rounding

Here is what breaks these shops and appears in no product description.

You sell laminate flooring at so much per square metre. The customer measures their living room, it is eighteen metres, they enter it and pay for eighteen. But laminate comes in boxes of two point four metres. Eighteen metres is seven and a half boxes, so in fact you have to send eight boxes, meaning nineteen point two metres. You charged for eighteen and shipped nineteen point two.

Multiply that by every order in the year and there goes the whole margin.

And there is a second half, the customer's: the fitter always asks for between five and ten per cent extra for cuts and wastage. If your site sells them exactly the metres of their living room, they will run short and have to place a second order, probably from a different batch and a different shade.

So before configuring anything, three things have to be decided: whether the system rounds up to the real sales unit, whether it suggests an extra percentage for wastage, and whether the price the customer sees is for what they asked for or for what they will receive. Answering that wrongly does not produce an error, it produces a business losing money without knowing.

And shipping, which is the other half of the sums

A variable-size product has no fixed weight or volume, and WooCommerce calculates carriage from those two figures. If you sell three metre rolls and the system charges standard parcel postage, every large sale costs you money.

Shipping calculation has to be solved at the same time as pricing, not afterwards.

Requirements

It needs WordPress and WooCommerce. And clarity about your real sales units, which is the prior work that decides whether this goes well.

Alternatives in the catalogue

If your price is not a multiplication but a formula with several variables and supplements, then you do need the engine: Uni CPO calculates the price with any mathematical expression and supports file upload, which printing and signage require. SUMO Measurement Price Calculator is the other option on the same ground as this one.

If the price has to be negotiated rather than calculated, the right piece is a different one: Request a Quote turns the buy button into a request.

If what you want is an estimate to capture a lead rather than a sale, that is a calculator separate from the product: Cost Calculator Builder or Stylish Cost Calculator.

And on the design side, if you are building the whole shop: Gardis for blinds and curtains, TileMax for flooring and tiling, and Corgan for carpentry and wood floors.

Frequently asked questions

What units does it support?
Length, area, volume and weight, which cover most variable-size products.

How does it differ from a formula engine?
This multiplies by a measurement. The engine allows any expression, and it is needed less often than it seems.

Does it round to the sales unit?
That is what to check and configure before publishing. Without it, you ship more than you charge for.

Should I suggest extra metres for wastage?
Yes on flooring and coverings. The fitter will ask for them anyway, and you avoid a second order from another batch.

And shipping costs?
They have to be solved at the same time. A made-to-measure product has no fixed weight and carriage is calculated from it.

Is it suitable for liquids?
Yes, volume calculation is among its intended cases.