LearnDash WooCommerce Integration: How to Sell Your Online Courses with Ease

Falguni Thareja
August 11, 2021
LearnDash WooCommerce Integration: How to Sell Your Online Courses with Ease

Do you have a LearnDash course that you wish to sell?

Not sure how to set up a shopping cart for your courses and wish for a smoother payment process?

Not having a streamlined checkout process can hamper the brand’s image, while professional-looking sales and checkout pages can boost it up.

The answer? Integrate LearnDash with WooCommerce!

Use the robust eCommerce engine to sell your LearnDash courses.

In this tutorial, we will show you how you can integrate LearnDash with WooCommerce to sell online courses- both through storefront and sales funnel methods.

Without waiting any longer, let’s just jump right into LearnDash LMS WooCommerce integration.

Why Use WooCommerce to Sell Your Course?

WooCommerce is WordPress’ most popular plugin with over 5+ million installs. It is free, flexible, and allows the users to have ownership of their store and its contents.

WooCommerce is an agile platform, perfect for selling any product - even online courses. 

LearnDash is a powerful learning management system for hosting courses. Their team continuously invests in research & development to roll out fresh updates that creators need.

Currently, LearnDash integrates with Easy Digital Downloads, SmartCart, 2checkout, and a few more plugins to collect payments, but none of the others come close to the flexibility and affordability that WooCommerce offers.

Why wouldn’t you want it?!

Let's look at why integrate WooCommerce with LearnDash:

  • Robust eCommerce Engine: It's built to collect payments - Integrates with 100+ of different payment gateways, allowing you to offer a choice to your prospects.
  • Ecosystem of Plugins: It has an ecosystem of plugins built on top of it. Think of memberships and subscriptions for your digital products - you can do it all here.
  • Highly Flexible: It lets you fully customize the checkout flow - You can build global checkouts and dedicated sales funnels on top of WooCommerce. Flexibility is the name of the game.
  • Custom Discount Coupon Codes: You can create desirable offers and offer custom discount codes to make them irresistable.
  • Improves AOV: You can make more money per transaction with order bumps and one-click Upsells added to the mix.
  • Automated Campaigns: It allows you to setup automated email notifications by integrating WooCommerce with some of the most well known CRMs.

Where else can you find these features and more?

So without a doubt, WooCommerce serves as the perfect medium to build your online store and pitch it to the prospects.

If you're looking for a LearnDash WooCommerce integration plugin, then the answer is right here.

But before that, let's look at two ways you can sell your LearnDash courses with WooCommerce.

Two Ways to Sell Your LearnDash Courses with WooCommerce

Now let’s discuss ways you can sell your courses online with WooCommerce. There are two ways to sell your products, and they are:

  • Storefront Checkout Method
  • Sales Funnel Method

Now, let’s look closer at each of these methods.

Method #1: Storefront Checkout

Like in a physical storefront, where you display the products for sale to attract customers, you can also list all the courses the users can enroll in.

Many online course websites like Udemy and Foundr Courses use this method to sell their products.

You can show the courses in a grid format, and the user would need to click on the desired course to open its product description page to view the lesson plans, course reviews, and more details.

Then they can add the product to the shopping cart and proceed to checkout. The customer can even add more than one course to the cart to purchase.

Let’s look at some pros and cons of this method:

Pros and Cons of the following LearnDash WooCommerce Method:

  • Ideal for selling multiple courses - Users can add multiple courses to their cart and checkout with more than one course.
  • Many steps involved in the flow leading to drop-offs at each step - The user clicks through the product page, cart page, checkout and finally the 'buy button'.
  • Higher Friction in the prcoess - The process is not optimized to maximize the course sales

Method #2: Sales Funnel

In a course sales funnel, you’d have a dedicated sales page to explain the course in detail, along with previous course takers’ testimonials, and more to make the course more appealing to the user.

Such funnels allow a more frictionless experience to the user, as the prospect is directed to the checkout page from the sales page. 

Alternatively, you can also have a one-page checkout designed for your courses. 

One-page checkout is where the checkout form is embedded on the sales page itself, and the user doesn’t need to exit the page and move to a new one to make the purchase.

There aren’t many options provided to the users to get distracted from. So they either purchase the course or exit the funnel.

A great example of such a funnel is Gabby Bernstein's meditation challenge.

Dedicated Sales Page

Now, looks at this method’s merits and demerits:

  • A dedicated sales page allows you to expand your sales pitch- You can use testimonials, about section, why section, FAQs, and more to seize the deal.
  • It is a fiction-free method - After clicking the button on the sales page, the user lands on the checkout where they can fill out the form - and complete the purchase. So there are only a couple of steps in the process.

How to Sell LearnDash Course Through WooCommerce {Method #1: Storefront Checkout}

Now that we have discussed all the components that go into creating and selling optimized and converting online courses let’s get to building.

Follow along these steps to sell your LearnDash courses on WooCommerce Storefront.

Step 1: Create a LearnDash Course

Before we get into all the nitty-gritty of designing a WooCommerce store to sell the course, the first step is to create the LearnDash courses.

In LearnDash > Courses, add a new course and give it a title.

Then in the Builder tab, add sections, lessons, and quizzes within the courses to enrich the content provided to the students to enroll.

To learn how to set up your first LearnDash course, read our previous post on generating leads with free course funnels.

Next, go to the Settings tab to set the course access settings.

Mark the course as 'Closed' as that would prevent the course from being sold through any medium other than WooCommerce. Then, set the price and link the button URL to the WooCommerce product page once you've created one.

Once you're done with the settings, ensure that the course you’ve created is published.

Step 2: Installing the WooCommerce Add-on

The first thing you need to do is install the WooCommerce add-on for LearnDash. Just go to LearnDash > Add-ons to add and activate the WooCommerce for LearnDash add-on.

You can also get the add-on integration from the LearnDash website.

Step 3: Adding a Product in WooCommerce and Assigning a Course

Next, to add a new product, head to Products > Add New.

Fill in the details about the product - from the course name (product title) to its description and prices.

Then, select Course from the Product Data dropdown and assign the LearnDash course by its title in the LearnDash Course section.

You can even associate more than one course with a particular product if you want.

Then to complete the whole product creation process, add the product to a category, add tags to the product, set product image, and more.

When you’re satisfied with the product created, hit Publish.

Now, it's time to design the LearnDash course page so that we can sell on WooCommerce.

Step 4: Design the Course Page

Before moving ahead, we need to design the course page to attract the audience and urge them to buy the course.

To edit the course page, go to LearnDash > Courses > Your Course.

Now add Gutenberg blocks to add texts, images, and videos on the page. Make the copy informative yet easy to comprehend, so the reader gets a good gist of the course.

When you are done, click on Update to save the design of the course page.

Now, you're all set to make use of the LearnDash integration with WooCommerce.

Step 5: View the Course Created

Once you’ve published the product, click on View the Product to get an idea of how the courses look on the website. The added lessons will automatically appear on the page.

Click on Take This Course to land on the WooCommerce product page, where you'll see this LearnDash course.

Adding the courses to the checkout, you’d see that the checkout page looks bland without any personalization added to it.

That’s where FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) comes into play.

FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) helps you design a professional, on-brand checkout that gives the prospects the final push to make the purchase and not abandon with cold feet.

Let's look at how we can create a LearnDash WooCommerce sales funnel using FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels).

Create a Converting Global Checkout with FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) for Your Storefront

In case you’re not willing to invest too much time designing dedicated checkouts for each of your LearnDash courses, you can always create a compelling global checkout instead.

A good checkout page should look professional and on-brand, and our FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) checkout page templates enable you to create just that.

  • FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) allows you to create custom checkouts with guarantee, testimonials, etc to make the product appear convincing.
  • The users can adjust the quantity of the products in the cart, delete a product or even undo deleting a cart product - all on the checkout page.
  • FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) has a collapsible order summary option that saves space on the screen for other details and form fields to be shown.

And so much more.

Let's start creating a sales funnel for selling LearnDash courses on WooCommerce:

Step 1: Add a New Funnel

For that, first, go into FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) > Funnels, click on Add New, and give the funnel a name.

From the template option provided, import a Two-Step Mentor Checkout Page template in Elementor.

Step 2: Edit the Checkout Form Fields

When the funnel steps page opens, you’ll see checkout added to the funnel with two prompts saying - “No Products” and “No Bumps”.

We don’t need any products added to this checkout as this will be a global checkout page and not a dedicated product-specific page.

Click on the pencil icon next to the checkout step name to begin editing the page.

Then go to the Fields tab to add and delete the form fields based on your requirements, as we did here.

Click save to lock in the changes. Also, to minimize cart abandonment, optimize your checkout page.

Step 3: Customize the Checkout Page

After the form fields, let’s get to the design of the checkout page.

In the Design tab, click on Edit to open the page in the chosen page builder (which in this case is Elementor).

Now customize the checkout using the Elementor widgets and delete any unwanted sections from the pre-designed template.

When you’re satisfied with the page's look, hit Update to save the changes made to the checkout design.

Step 4: Add an Order Bump

Boost up the revenue generated from an order by adding order bumps to the checkout page. Customers can add these bumps to their shopping cart before payment with just one click.

Here, we'll add a short LearnDash course to be offered as an order bump on the WooCommerce checkout.

To do so, click on + Order Bump on the funnel steps page and name the bump.

Next, add a product (another short-course in this case) and save changes.

Select a bump skin, add the content, and more from the Design tab.

Next, you can set conditions for this order bump visibility on the checkout page in the Rules section.

Save changes, and then the users would be able to view and add this product to their cart as an Order Bump.

Step 5: Add a Thankyou Page to the Checkout

As important as it is to have convincing LearnDash course pages and checkouts, it is equally as important to have beautifully designed, converting WooCommerce thankyou pages.

To the funnel where you've created the global checkout, add another step - a Thankyou Page.

Then, click on the pencil icon next to the page name to import a template. Here we will be importing the Mentor template design in Elementor.

Next, in Design, click on Edit to open the page in Elementor page builder and customize it as you wish.

You can even add and link a button on the thankyou page to your facebook group, so that the customers can stay connected to you even after the purchase.

Or, you can link it to the 'My Course' page of you website. Copy and paste the link to the website page in the area provided, and whenever a customer would click on it, they would be auto-logged in and can access the course they just purchased.

Click Update and your customized thank you page would pop up after the product is purchased through the global checkout page you just marked.

With the button on the thank you page, you may direct the customers to your Facebook group or let them access the online course.

To let students access the dashboard area where they can view courses when logged in, you'd need to create a category and paste a shortcode.

Click here to learn more about that and enable the course takers to access their course directly from the thank you page.

Step 6: Mark the Checkout as Global

Now that your checkout page is all ready let’s mark it as global so that your site visitors can view it.

Go to FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) > Settings > Checkouts, and from the drop-down options, choose the name of the checkout page you just created to replace the default global checkout.

Remember to save changes.

Step 7: Change the WooCommerce Settings to Optimally Sell Online Courses

If you wish that an account should be created for your course takers as and when they purchase the products through the storefront, enable these settings in WooCommerce to have the most frictionless flow.

Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Accounts & Privacy. In here make the following changes:

  • Guest Checkout Settings: Under guest checkout, uncheck both checkboxes as we do not want a user to place any order without creating an account. When they create an account, you save their details for future reference. Also, having a "Signin with existing account" can make the page confusing, so we will avoid that too by not enabling the setting.
  • Account Creation Settings: In here, enable the checkbox that allows users to create an account when they are on the checkout page. Also, enable automatic creation of account's username and password on purchase.

How to Sell LearnDash Courses using WooCommerce {Method #2: Sales Funnel}

Another way of selling course, as we discussed earlier, is through a sales funnel. To sell LearnDash courses using this WooCommerce method, you’d need to follow the following steps:

Step 1: Add a New Funnel

As a sales funnel will be the sale medium, we need to add a new funnel to our library. For that, click on the Add New button and name your new funnel.

FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) beautifully integrates with Elementor, Divi, and Oxygen page builder; but you can use any builder of your choice as well.

Here, from the available template, we will import the Challenger Sales Funnel template in Elementor.

This template will add 4 steps to your funnel - Landing Page, Checkout Page, On Click Upsell Page, and Thank You Page - and the template design will be applied to each of these steps automatically.

You can add or delete any of the steps in the funnel as per your desire.

Step 2: Add Product to the Checkout Page

As this would be a product-specific checkout page, we are going to add a product here.

Click on the pencil icon to begin editing, and go to the Products tab. Click on Add Product to search and add the desired product to the page.

If you want, you can even offer a discount on the product(s) added.

You can customize the form fields and page design, as we discussed earlier in the post.

Once you're done, let's add some of our LearnDash courses as WooCommerce upsells.

Step 3: Add Product to the One-Click Upsell Page

We have already seen how you can add an order bump to a checkout. We have also discussed how you can add products to the order bump. But, that is not the only way to boost your store's AOV.

Another brilliant way to improve the store's revenue generated is through the post-purchase WooCommerce upsells.

This page appears after the checkout and before the thank you page. It displays offers to compliment the customer's primary purchase, making it difficult for the customer to reject.

You can even add more than one product to the offer, and more than one offer to the upsell page.

Therefore, adding two or more of your LearnDash courses here on WooCommerce can help increase your revenue.

FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) even allows you to interlink two or more offers based on the user's purchase behaviour of accepting or rejecting the previous offer. This can be done with Dynamic Offer Path.

Step 4: Customize the Funnel Steps

You can customize each page of the funnel in Elementor, just like we customized the checkout page design above.

FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) offers custom widgets for most of the pages, that would assist you to create beautifully converting sales funnels on WordPress.

Edit and customize all the pages added to the funnel, like the one-click upsell and the thank you page, to have a smooth and uniform flow to your funnel.

Step 5: Test the Sales Funnel

Finally, after designing and customizing the funnel pages, test out the funnel to check if it is working fluidly.

And that’s it!

That’s how you create a sales funnel to sell LearnDash online courses in WooCommerce.

Now when a user stumbles on your ad, they will be directed to the sales page of this course funnel and go through the whole guided path of purchasing the course and more.

How easy was that?!

Ready to Sell LearnDash Courses with WooCommerce?

Now you know that if you have a LearnDash course to sell, WooCommerce is the ultimate platform to make the sale.

Want to sell the courses through storefront or sales funnels, WooCommerce gives you the liberty to choose the method of sale and its design, as per your liking.

No other platform would offer you as much flexibility or as many options as WooCommerce does.

You must have also realized that setting up your LearnDash courses with WooCommerce is just one part of the equation. You still need to generate leads by offering free courses, follow-up with customers using post-purchase upsells, and more.

All of this can be done with FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels), as we have shown you in this post above.

So install your WooCommerce for LearnDash plugin now, and sell your courses online using the beautiful course pages and checkouts designed in FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels).

Author: Falguni Thareja
Falguni writes about designing sales funnels, marketing automation, WordPress plugins, and more. Her how-to posts are in-depth and well-researched. When she's not writing about funnels or bringing more sales for WooCommerce stores, she's writing about her life experiences on Medium.
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