I built a WooCommerce checkout plugin to solve a boring but expensive problem: customers often enter addresses that are technically valid, but useless for delivery teams. Apartment blocks, rural roads, gated communities, and missing unit numbers all create failed deliveries and support overhead.
The plugin adds a map-based location picker directly to checkout, so customers can search, autocomplete, or drop a pin on the exact delivery spot. Instead of relying only on free text, the order stores coordinates alongside the address. That gives merchants something precise enough to use for routing, driver handoff, and order verification.
Under the hood, I used OpenStreetMap instead of Google Maps, which avoids API keys, billing setup, and quota issues. The map is embedded in the WooCommerce checkout flow and can auto-detect the customer's current location when the browser allows it. I also added address search with local prioritization, so results are biased toward the area the user is currently viewing.
On the WooCommerce side, the selected location is saved into order data and rendered back in useful places, including the admin order screen and the thank-you page. That means store owners can confirm the delivery point without opening a separate tool, and customers can immediately verify that the pin they chose was captured correctly.
I also included mobile-first behavior, because this kind of UI fails fast on small screens if drag, zoom, and marker placement are clunky. For delivery workflows, there is a QR code option that encodes the saved location, so a driver can scan and open navigation without manually typing coordinates.
The result is a checkout step that turns vague addresses into structured location data. If you want to see the plugin, check out WooCommerce Checkout Map.
Top comments (0)