Taking WooCommerce LearnDash Integration to the Next Level

To sell, or not to sell – that is never the question!

When it comes to selling courses on LearnDash, WooCommerce is the popular choice. Not only is WooCommerce loaded with functionality, but it has numerous extensions to meet your business needs.

*Shameless plug alert* We’ve built a few WooCommerce extensions too 😀

Ahem, ahem!

Moving on.

Apart from WooCommerce extensions, a major advantage the plugin brings to the table is its ease of customization. This means you can tweak the way it works as per your specific requirements.

So, instead of merely using WooCommerce to sell courses, you can now do a lot more. And that’s what we’re going to discuss next.

Let’s dive in.

Making LearnDash Courses and WooCommerce Products Interdependent

With the WooCommerce extension for LearnDash, you can create a product in WooCommerce for one or multiple (bundled) LearnDash courses.

You can then use the features provided by WooCommerce to add sale prices, run discounts, offer different payment options and more.

But that’s about it.

Taking things to the next level would include making product purchases and course enrollments or completions interdependent or tightly coupled.

Example #1: Making Advanced Courses Available for Purchase only on Completion of Beginner Level Courses

This scenario is perfect for those who offer a different category of courses and need students to complete a certain category of courses, before moving to the next.
Does this scenario ring a bell?

It’s how students advance in schools or colleges. You need to complete courses belonging to a certain grade, before moving on to the next.

The technical side of things

To make this work, here’s what has to happen in the backend:-

1. Once a student registers, only a certain course category should be made visible. So let’s say a student registers for Grade 6 courses, then only courses belonging to Grade 6 should be shown. Grade 7 onwards should be hidden. This can be handled by adding a custom setting “Grade” for each user
2. Once the student completes Grade 6 courses (you need to monitor LearnDash course completion triggers), Grade 7 courses will be unlocked and the corresponding products will be made visible in WooCommerce for purchase

Example #2: Making Courses Available for Purchase only When a Student Earns ‘X’ Course Points

This one scenario we handled recently.

The client needed a restriction on course purchases. A student was allowed to purchase a course only when he/she had earned a certain ‘X’ – ‘Y’ points (wherein ‘X’ being the minimum points needed and ‘Y’ being the maximum).

This allows for more control on course purchases and on student progress.

The technical side of things

Here’s how this scenario can be implemented:-

1. A custom setting has to be added to each WooCommerce product that accepts a minimum and maximum course point value
2. Once a student attempts to make a purchase, the earned course points will be checked against the product’s values
3. Depending on the course points earned, the student will be allowed to make the purchase or the purchase will be blocked

Example #3: Sorting Products based on Courses Completed

More often than not students follow a pattern. They are more likely to follow the path fellow students have.

Let’s say 70% of students who’ve completed ‘ABC’ course, sign up for ‘XYZ’ course, then you can use this stat to market ‘XYZ’ course to students who’ve completed ‘ABC’ course.

Taking things to the next level involves identifying student patterns and marketing your WooCommerce courses based on them.

The technical side of things

This one’s a bit more complicated than the others:-

1. Based on courses completed, the recommended products for the user should be updated
2. WooCommerce has an extension for this, but it will have to be integrated with LearnDash course completion history

Wrapping Up

WooCommerce is an ideal plugin to sell your LearnDash courses. Not only can it meet basic requirements, but it can also be customized to handle unique scenarios. Tying course completions and purchases together can create a more predictable and controlled learning environment.

What are your thoughts on this? Are there any specific scenarios that come to your mind? Are you wondering if WooCommerce can meet those expectations?

Let us know in the comment section below.