Product Options and Price Calculation Formulas for WooCommerce – Uni CPO (Premium)

WooCommerce cannot sell something cut to measure

It is a structural limitation and the reason this plugin exists, and it affects more businesses than it seems.

A normal shop stores one price per product: this shirt, twenty. But there are whole catalogues where the price does not exist until the customer states the dimensions: a blind one metre twenty by two ten, cut glass, fabric by the metre, printed vinyl, a made-to-measure board, a tarpaulin, a worktop.

The price there is a formula: width times height times price per square metre, plus the finish supplement, plus the cutting. WooCommerce cannot handle that, and the usual way out is publishing "price on request", which is where half the sales get lost because people do not request: they go to whoever gives them a number.

Uni CPO adds custom options to WooCommerce products and calculates the price using any mathematical formula.

What it brings

• Formula-based price calculation, rather than variants with fixed prices.
• Many field types: text, file, radio buttons, checkboxes, dropdowns, date and time, range slider, colour palette and textarea.
• Structural elements such as headings, dividers and notes, so a long form stays readable.
• File upload, which in printing and signage is essential.

Why a formula is not the same as variants

Worth understanding the difference because it decides whether you need this plugin.

WooCommerce variants are finite combinations each with its own price: size M in blue, twenty-two. If you have five sizes and four colours, that is twenty combinations and you enter them.

A formula is infinite. If you sell blinds at any size between fifty and three hundred centimetres, to the centimetre, that is tens of thousands of combinations. They do not get entered: they get calculated.

The practical rule: if you can write every option into a table, use variants. If the customer types a number, you need a formula.

The three things to settle before publishing

Minimums and maximums. Without limits, somebody will order a twelve metre blind or a two centimetre one, and the cart will accept it. Every numeric field needs its real manufacturing range.

The permitted increments. If you only cut in five centimetre steps, the field has to prevent 137. Otherwise you will receive orders you cannot manufacture and have to call and renegotiate.

Shipping, which is where the sums break. A made-to-measure product has no fixed weight or volume, and WooCommerce calculates carriage from those. If you sell two metre glass and the system charges the postage of an envelope, every sale costs you money. Shipping calculation has to be solved alongside pricing, not afterwards.

Requirements

It needs WordPress and WooCommerce. And the real prior work: writing your pricing formula. If today you calculate it by eye or on workshop experience, it has to be turned into arithmetic before it can be programmed, and that exercise usually reveals that some products were being sold below cost.

Alternatives in the catalogue

If your price depends not on dimensions but on a closed set of options, you do not need this: WooCommerce variants handle it, and Measurement Price Calculator covers the specific case of selling by unit of measure with a more direct approach.

If the price has to be negotiated rather than calculated, then it is not a cart but a quote: Request a Quote turns the buy button into a request, and it is the right answer in industry and on large orders.

If what you want is giving an estimate to capture the lead, without selling yet, that is a calculator rather than a product: Cost Calculator Builder or Stylish Cost Calculator.

And if the customer uploads a file to personalise the product, Customer Upload Files handles that side, and WooCommerce Attach Me! lets you send the proof back attached to the order for approval before manufacturing.

Frequently asked questions

How does it differ from variants?
Variants are finite combinations with fixed prices. A formula calculates the price from a number the customer types.

Can I sell by square metre?
Yes, that is its main case: width times height times price, plus supplements.

Does it support file upload?
Yes, among its field types, which in printing and signage is essential.

What about 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.

Do the dimensions need limits?
Yes, minimums, maximums and increments. Without those you will receive orders you cannot manufacture.

What is the hardest part of building it?
Writing your formula. Turning workshop pricing into arithmetic usually reveals things.