Industry: Art & Culture
Services Delivered: Full custom WordPress build, WooCommerce integration, product importer, custom theme and plugin development
Turning WooCommerce Into a Gallery Platform — Built for Artists, Not Just Products
This project started as a request for some WooCommerce tweaks — but quickly expanded into a full custom build tailored to the needs of a contemporary art gallery.
They needed more than just an online shop. They needed a flexible platform to showcase artists, manage exhibitions, display artworks for sale or enquiry, and streamline product uploads via spreadsheet. WooCommerce wasn’t built for this kind of content — but with the right customisations, it became a perfect fit.
What They Needed
- A way to import and manage hundreds of artworks from a spreadsheet
- Flexible product handling for works sold online, by request, or already sold
- Custom post types for artists and exhibitions
- A tailored product layout that replaces standard WooCommerce fields with terminology and structure more suited to artwork — such as title, size, and material — instead of the usual SKU and pricing emphasis
- The ability to showcase catalogues and past events
- A lightweight, future-proof build — no bloated page builders or off-the-shelf hacks
How I Helped
Built from the Ground Up
While initially positioned as a WooCommerce customisation, it became clear that a full site build was the best path forward. I created a clean foundation using a child theme based on Kadence — chosen for its performance, flexibility, and native support for Gutenberg blocks.
Tailored Plugin Stack
I developed two custom plugins:
- Gallery Core — for handling artist profiles, events, taxonomy enhancements, and frontend display logic.
- Art Importer — a purpose-built CSV importer that maps spreadsheet data to WooCommerce products, with logic for price visibility, artist attribution, custom metadata, and image handling.
The importer was later refactored to be reusable, complete with basic documentation and error handling, so it can be used for future updates.
Custom Layouts & Logic
Product listings were extensively modified to reflect the gallery’s needs:
- Artworks display title, size, material, and availability status
- Pricing logic conditionally shows “Price on Request” or purchase options
- Sold items are marked as “Sold” — not “Out of Stock”
- Filterable taxonomies (e.g. Medium, Artist, Limited Edition) added for easier navigation
Events, Catalogues, and Artist Profiles
- Custom post types were created for artists and events, including categorisation by past, current, and upcoming exhibitions.
- Embedded catalogues were added using a lightweight PDF viewer plugin, replacing a previous dependency on Issuu.
- Each artist has a dedicated page displaying their biography and associated artworks — similar to how many WooCommerce stores present brand or designer pages using product taxonomies.
Challenges
- Handling image imports from an external source with login-based access required rewriting the importer to avoid timeouts.
- WooCommerce’s native structures weren’t a natural fit for art gallery inventory, so significant reworking was needed for product schemas and display logic.
Outcome
- A modern, elegant gallery site — fully editable by non-technical users
- Product import system tailored to their exact data format
- Reusable tools for ongoing management and content updates
- Clear separation between online purchases and enquiry-based works
- Solid foundation for showcasing exhibitions, artists, and catalogues
This project is a great example of turning WooCommerce into something it was never designed for — and making it work cleanly, intuitively, and reliably.
