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The fact that there are millions of eCommerce sites worldwide might mistakenly lead one to think that they are all the same in terms of functions. But this is not true, as different shops require different functionalities.
However, a good number of eCommerce sites use certain techniques such as minimum and maximum spending limits within the store. These limits can revolve around the number of products that can be purchased or the value of the shopping cart itself.
The most striking case is obviously related to the B2B world, or wholesale stores, where setting a minimum number of purchasable products is vital for the very nature of the business, as we have explained in an article dedicated to wholesale selling on WooCommerce.
But there are numerous other reasons why a seller might want to set similar limits for each order in their store, such as:
- To increase the AOV – Setting a minimum purchase limit undoubtedly helps to increase the average order value, thus achieving certain revenue goals. The AOV is one of the major determinants of a store’s success and there are numerous strategies that can be used to increase it.
- For promotional sales – Setting a maximum limit on a specific product can help prevent a single customer from buying and reselling exclusive products.
- To discourage small customers – Although it is generally not advisable to turn away any type of customer, in cases of high order processing costs or transaction fees, it may be necessary to increase the order value or eliminate that type of customer to avoid being penalized.
- To better control inventory – Both in terms of protecting products and encouraging customers to make multiple purchases.
Of course, there can be many other reasons, but let’s see how you can introduce this feature on WooCommerce by using a single plugin that will allow you to set several types of limits.
Setting a Minimum Order Quantity in Your eCommerce Store
The plugin we will talk about today is WooCommerce Minimum Maximum Quantity, and it’s perfect for setting various types of limits in no time. We will look into each of these limits in detail in the following sections.
How to Set Product Quantity Restrictions
Once the plugin is installed and activated, simply go to YITH > Minimum Maximum Quantity to access the dashboard which is divided into:
- General Settings – Where you can manage the limits set by the plugin.
- Message Settings – Where you can customize how the plugin communicates any active limits to customers.
- Bulk Actions – Where you can apply limits to multiple products at once.
There are two ways you can set quantity restrictions.
You can create a global rule by going to General Settings, where the first two sections are dedicated to this function.
In the first section, you can set a quantity restriction for the cart, deciding the minimum and maximum number of products that can be added to the cart to complete the order:

In the second section, you can set a minimum and maximum quantity for each product:

To clarify these two points:
- Cart restriction – By setting a minimum value, such as 10, the total number of products in the cart must match or exceed this value (they can be different products).
- Product restriction – By setting the same minimum value, let’s say 10, customers will need to add at least 10 of the same product to the cart to complete the order.
If you want to apply these rules only to a specific product or create a different rule for it, you can do so directly on the product edit page.

If you want to exempt the product from these rules (therefore giving customers full freedom to order), check the box labeled “Exclude product”:

If, instead, you want to set specific limits for this product, click on “Override product restrictions”.

By doing so, regardless of the global rules you’ve set in the plugin dashboard, this specific product will follow its own personalized restrictions.
As you can see, this is very simple to set up.
WooCommerce Minimum Order: How to Set Amount Restrictions
In addition to quantity limits, you can also set spending limits. These do not apply to individual products but to the cart value, product category, or product tag. Going back to the first section we saw in the General Settings tab, you can enable cart spend restrictions:

Set the values of your choice, and you’re done!
Setting Restrictions for Tags and Categories
Both categories and tags are systems that WooCommerce offers to better manage large quantities of products (and to help customers in their navigation). For this reason, the plugin allows you to create limits and apply them directly to entire categories and tags. In General Settings, you will find the “Category restrictions” section:

Here’s where you can set both quantity and spending limits.
And the same for tags:

How to Exclude Products from Rules
If you want to exclude specific products from the rules created with the plugin, you have two ways of doing this. In the first case, as we saw earlier, you can simply exclude each product with the dedicated option that’s on the product edit page:

Of course, this is a great solution when you need to exclude a single product. If you need to exclude several products, you’ll have to take a different approach.
To do this, go to the third tab on the plugin dashboard, Bulk Actions:

Here, you can create all the types of rules we saw and apply them to individual products, entire categories, or tags. You can also exclude individual products, categories, or tags from the global rules set in the plugin.
To do this, click on “+ Add rule” and you will see a page like this:

All you need to do is enable the option to “Exclude”. The options below will disappear and the products included in this rule will have no limits set on them:

As you’ve seen, the plugin is extremely easy to use, and you can activate all its settings in just a few minutes.
How to Enable Quantity/Amount Error Messages
All plugin communications can be customized in the Message Settings tab:

Here you can enable, disable, and customize all messages, including those on the product page and in the cart. This tab contains over 40 different messages for every scenario (minimum and maximum quantity, minimum and maximum value, based on cart content, products, categories, etc.).
Editing the messages is also really simple and quick, and you’ll even find the placeholders you can use below each message box.
Conclusion
Whether you manage a B2B online store or want to set limits to increase the cart value, YITH WooCommerce Minimum Maximum Quantity is the plugin for you. Thanks to it, you can create any type of restriction in just a moment and you get full control over which products to exclude or apply them to.
The only thing you should never set a limit to is the success of your eCommerce store!