WooCommerce Request a Quote Print Workflow

Applies to Cmsmart Product Designer (NBDesigner) 2.17.0 · Updated October 2026. Cmsmart Product Designer is the WooCommerce plugin formerly known as NBDesigner; "Cmsmart" is also Netbase JSC's ecommerce consultancy, which builds the custom work described below.

In short

  • Outcome: buyers on complex or bulk print jobs ask your store for a price instead of guessing one, so you stop losing them on the product page and stop quoting by email.
  • How it works: Cmsmart Product Designer's Quotes flow turns a configured design into a quote request, lists it for the merchant in Cmsmart → Quote Requests, and gives the buyer a Quotes tab in My Account to track and pay once it is priced.
  • What it takes: WooCommerce plus Cmsmart Product Designer (NBDesigner) 2.17.0, a product with print options or a price matrix, and about twenty to thirty minutes to configure and test the flow end to end.

A WooCommerce request a quote print workflow lets a buyer with a complex job — large quantities, custom sizes, mixed print options — ask your store for a price instead of guessing one on a product page with no fixed price. Cmsmart Product Designer turns that request into a trackable order your team can price and convert.

What does a slow, manual print quote process cost your store?

Cmsmart Product Designer removes the manual back-and-forth that slows down custom print quoting: a buyer configures the job online, submits it as a quote, and your team prices it from one dashboard instead of re-typing specs out of an email thread, phone call, or spreadsheet.

Teams that still price custom print jobs by hand run into the same problems:

  • Abandoned product pages. A buyer who cannot see a price for a bulk or custom-spec job often leaves rather than emailing to ask — and checkout abandonment is already high even when a price is visible: Baymard Institute's ongoing benchmark puts the average cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, and 12% of shoppers specifically cite not being able to see or calculate the total order cost up front (Baymard Institute, updated September 2025).
  • Quoting delays that lose the job before it is even priced. Shops turning a quote around within a day saw a 19% higher quote-to-book ratio than slower shops (Modern Machine Shop, December 2025) — a pattern that repeats across quote-based industries, where win rates fall from around 78% for a reply inside 30 minutes to under 10% for a next-day reply (GoFreight, March 2026).
  • Re-keyed specs and avoidable reprints. Print options and quantities typed from an email into a spreadsheet are an easy place to introduce the mistake that causes a reprint.
  • Staff time spent on jobs that never close. A manually priced enquiry costs the same estimator time whether or not the buyer orders.
  • No shared record once the quote is answered. A price emailed from someone's personal inbox is invisible to the rest of the team, with no way for the buyer to accept it except by reply.

What would a WooCommerce request a quote print workflow look like for your shop?

Picture a buyer configuring a bulk banner order with mixed sizes late at night: Cmsmart Product Designer lets them submit it as a quote instead of guessing a price, your team opens Cmsmart → Quote Requests the next morning, sets the number, and the buyer pays straight from their account — no email thread required.

Buyer chooser for uploading or designing online before a print job is configured
Before a buyer can request a quote, they configure the job the same way as any other design-enabled product: upload a finished design or design it online.

Example scenario. A print shop sells banners with material and finishing options that do not fit a simple price-per-unit. A buyer configures size, material and quantity in the online designer, then submits a quote instead of adding to cart. It appears in Cmsmart → Quote Requests with the configuration attached; a merchant prices it and the buyer is notified. The buyer pays from the Quotes tab in their account, and the order moves through the same print-ready PDF pipeline as any other Cmsmart order.

How does Cmsmart's request-a-quote flow work for print products?

Cmsmart Product Designer stores a quote the same way it stores an order: the buyer's configuration, print options and artwork travel together from the product page into Cmsmart → Quote Requests, so your team prices the real job instead of a description of it.

If you are planning a full print storefront rather than a single quoting flow, start with Cmsmart's web-to-print hub. For this flow specifically, these building blocks carry a request from product page to paid order:

  • Product configuration (in the plugin today). Print options and a price matrix describe the variables a job can have — size, material, finishing, quantity breaks — configured on the product in Cmsmart → Printing Options.
  • Request a quote button and form (in the plugin today). Turning on Request a quote for the product adds a button beside or in place of Add to Cart; you build the quote form field by field in wp-admin, and for quote-only products the price and Add to Cart button can be hidden entirely.
  • Quote capture (in the plugin today). Submitting that form, part of the plugin's Quotes feature since version 2.12.0, turns the configured design into a quote request tied to the buyer's account, carried through WooCommerce's own order storage (HPOS-safe) rather than a separate database.
  • Merchant pricing queue (in the plugin today). Cmsmart → Quote Requests lists open requests to review and price, using the same stat-card dashboard layout as Cmsmart → Orders.
  • Buyer self-service (in the plugin today). A Quotes tab sits in My Account next to Orders, listing Status, Quote, Date, Total and Actions, with a detail page per request.
  • Custom pricing and routing (custom development). Rules that price a quote automatically from the matrix, route it to the right estimator, or sync it to an ERP or MIS are not part of the core plugin; Cmsmart builds these for more involved quoting rules.

How does that compare with pricing custom print jobs by hand?

StepManual quoting by emailCmsmart request-a-quote
Buyer submits a jobDescribes it in an email or a callConfigures it on the product page, with the design attached
Where the request livesOne inbox, one person's memoryCmsmart → Quote Requests, visible to the whole team
PricingRe-typed from notes into a replyEntered against the configuration the buyer actually submitted
Buyer follow-upSearches their inbox for the replyOpens the Quotes tab in My Account
Accepting and payingA second email thread, then a manual orderPays from the quote, which becomes a normal WooCommerce order

Cmsmart insight: most of the reprints we see trace back to a spec that changed between the quote email and the order, not to the press. Keeping the original configuration attached to the quote is what this flow really solves for.

What's the business value of taking quotes online, and how do you measure it?

Cmsmart Product Designer turns a quoting habit into a measurable process: every request lands in Cmsmart → Quote Requests with a timestamp, so you can see how fast your team actually responds and connect that speed to how many quotes become orders.

BenefitHow it shows up in your businessKPI to track
Fewer abandoned product pagesBuyers with complex jobs submit a quote instead of leavingQuote requests per month vs. product-page visits
Faster quote turnaroundRequests queue in one dashboard instead of an inboxAverage time from request to priced quote
Higher quote-to-order rateBuyers accept and pay from their own accountQuotes priced vs. quotes converted to paid orders
Less estimator time per jobSpecs and artwork arrive attached, not re-typedMinutes spent per quote, from request to price sent
Fewer price-related reprintsThe order carries the exact configuration that was quotedReprints flagged as a pricing or spec mismatch

Quick ROI check. Multiply monthly custom-quote enquiries by the minutes your team spends per enquiry and your estimator's hourly cost: that is roughly what manual quoting costs today. Multiply the same enquiry count by your quote-to-order rate and average order value to see what faster, trackable quoting is worth if that rate improves. Use your own figures — the formula is the point. If you want help setting the pricing rules behind it, talk to an ecommerce expert.

How do you set up WooCommerce request a quote print options in Cmsmart Product Designer?

You turn on request-a-quote pricing in Cmsmart Product Designer by configuring print options or a price matrix on the product, confirming the plugin is current, and letting the Quotes flow that already ships with the plugin handle the request, the review queue and the buyer's own Quotes tab.

  1. Confirm your site runs the current Cmsmart Product Designer (NBDesigner) 2.17.0 or later on the Plugins screen, so the Quotes flow and print-ready pipeline are active.
    Cmsmart Product Designer NBDesigner plugin row showing version 2.17.0 on the Plugins screen
    Confirm the active version on wp-admin → Plugins before you configure quoting.
  2. Open Cmsmart → Printing Options and decide which options or price-matrix rows apply to the product — size, material, finishing and quantity breaks are the usual variables behind a request a quote print setup.
    Printing options and price matrix list behind a WooCommerce request a quote print setup
    Printing Options holds the price matrix and variables a quote will be priced against.
  3. Attach those printing options to the product and confirm it still opens the online designer or upload flow, since a quote carries the same configuration and artwork as a normal order.
    Design-enabled product page with the start and upload design button buyers use before a quote
    The product page a buyer configures before they submit a quote.
  4. Turn on Request a quote for the product and build the quote form field by field in wp-admin. For a quote-only product, you can also hide the price and the Add to Cart button so Request a quote is the only path forward.
  5. Test the flow as a buyer: configure the product, submit it as a quote instead of adding it to cart, and confirm the request appears for you to price.
  6. Open Cmsmart → Quote Requests and review the request: the buyer's configuration and artwork are attached, so you price the actual job.
    Cmsmart admin dashboard with stat cards, the same layout Quote Requests uses for pricing queues
    Cmsmart → Quote Requests uses the same stat-card dashboard and aggregate-query metrics as Cmsmart → Orders, shown here.
  7. Enter the price and send it; the buyer is notified and the status pill updates.
  8. Check the buyer's side: the Quotes tab in My Account lists Status, Quote, Date, Total and Actions, with a detail page per request.
  9. Once the buyer pays, the quote becomes a normal WooCommerce order and moves into the same production pipeline: Create PDF renders the file, and a print-ready PDF that matches the order is generated automatically when automatic export is on.
    Print-ready PDF status marked Ready after an order built from a request a quote print job
    Print-ready status on the order screen once the paid quote has rendered.
  10. Download the production files — SVG, high-resolution PNG, CMYK JPG with its ICC profile, or PDF — from the order's Download design panel, or Cmsmart → Files for a production-wide view.
  11. For deep settings beyond this flow — DPI minimums, upload types, ICC/CMYK output — use Cmsmart's price-matrix setup guide.

Cmsmart insight: test the whole path as a buyer before you launch it. A quote button that does not actually reach Cmsmart → Quote Requests is worse than no quote option at all, because the buyer thinks they are waiting on you.

How can Cmsmart extend request-a-quote for your print shop?

Cmsmart builds the parts of a quoting workflow that go beyond a merchant typing in a number: automatic price-matrix quoting, approval chains for B2B buyers, ERP/MIS sync, and AI preflight on the files behind a quote, all delivered as custom development on top of Cmsmart Product Designer.

  • Automatic price-matrix quoting. Cmsmart builds a pricing engine that reads your existing price matrix and proposes a price automatically, with a manual override for anything outside it, instead of an estimator typing the same number in by hand.
  • Approval chains for B2B buyers. Cmsmart builds multi-step approval into the quote-to-order flow, so a wholesale or corporate account's second signature happens before production starts, not after.
  • ERP/MIS and print-API sync. Cmsmart connects Quote Requests to your ERP, MIS or print-estimating system, so a priced job becomes a production ticket without the spec drifting through a re-type.
  • AI preflight on quote artwork. Cmsmart adds AI preflight to the quote review step, flagging resolution, bleed and colour-profile issues before a price goes out, not after the buyer has paid.
  • Custom intake fields. Cmsmart builds the extra quote-form fields your print catalogue needs beyond size, material and quantity — artwork notes, delivery dates, purchase-order numbers.

Each follows the same delivery path: discovery, solution design, build sprints, QA, launch, and ongoing support — see how on Cmsmart's project delivery page.

Plan my request-a-quote workflow

Why work with Cmsmart on your print shop's quoting workflow?

Cmsmart has built WooCommerce print and quoting workflows since 2012 as Netbase JSC's ecommerce consultancy, backing Cmsmart Product Designer with the same team that built it — real client delivery work, not a theoretical integration.

Cmsmart has delivered 6,300+ client projects and 4,600+ completed projects since 2012, including 500+ custom development projects, and supports 1,800+ live stores across 80+ countries. Cmsmart is rated 4.2 on Trustpilot from 404 reviews (Trustpilot); reviewer Dimitris calls the plugin an ideal solution for printing companies (Trustpilot review).

For more on the pricing side of this flow, see Cmsmart's guides on web-to-print and print API integrations, or visit the pricing options product page to see what ships without a quote step at all.

Frequently asked questions about WooCommerce request a quote for print products

Is request-a-quote a built-in part of Cmsmart Product Designer?

Yes. Cmsmart Product Designer has shipped a Quotes flow since version 2.12.0: a Quotes tab in My Account for buyers and a Cmsmart → Quote Requests dashboard for merchants, both carried through WooCommerce's own order storage.

Which products should use quotes instead of a fixed price?

Products where the price genuinely depends on the configuration — large or mixed quantities, custom sizes, several finishing options — are the best fit. If a simple price matrix already covers your catalogue, check Cmsmart's pricing options page before adding a quote step at all.

Does a quote carry the buyer's design and print options automatically?

Yes. A quote is built from the same configuration — print options and the design the buyer created or uploaded — that a normal order carries, so your team prices the real job instead of a description of it.

What happens after we price a quote?

The buyer is notified and can review and pay it from the Quotes tab in My Account. Once paid, it becomes a normal WooCommerce order and moves through the same print-ready PDF pipeline as any other order.

Can the quote price itself automatically from our price matrix?

Not out of the box — a merchant enters the price for each request today. Cmsmart builds automatic price-matrix quoting as custom development for stores that want the number proposed for them.

Can we hide the price and Add to Cart button for quote-only products?

Yes. For a product set to quote only, Cmsmart Product Designer can hide the price and the Add to Cart button entirely, leaving the Request a quote button as the only way to configure and submit the job (Cmsmart B2B request a quote).

How long does it take to add a custom quoting extension?

It depends on scope: custom intake fields often ship in days, while ERP/MIS sync or approval chains take a few weeks of discovery and build. Cmsmart scopes the timeline during a short discovery call before any build work starts.