Overview
Birmingham Hill Armory is an online marketplace offering a wide selection of firearms, ammunition, optics, and accessories, catering to customers nationwide. They provide Federal Firearms License (FFL) services, including firearm transfers, NFA Class 3 transfers, and private party transfers. The company also helps customers source hard-to-find products through wholesale partners.
The client contacted Virtina to resolve checkout page usability issues caused by plugin constraints. Their WooCommerce-based checkout relies on the outdated [woocommerce_checkout] shortcode, leading to misaligned elements and styling inconsistencies that negatively impact user experience. The goal is to optimize the checkout process while ensuring compatibility with the existing plugin setup.
Project Objective
This project aims to fix the checkout page layout for a better user experience. This includes aligning the Customer Details and Order Review sections, making the FFL dropdown visible for easy selection, and removing unnecessary blank spaces below the FFL First Name and Last Name fields. All fixes must be compatible with the existing WooCommerce and WordPress plugin setup while ensuring a seamless checkout process.
Requirements and Challenges
The project required restructuring the checkout form to stack the Customer Details and Order Review sections correctly while ensuring the visibility of FFL dropdown values. Excessive blank space needed to be eliminated without disrupting the existing layout. Maintaining compatibility with the [woocommerce_checkout] shortcode and ensuring mobile responsiveness and cross-browser compatibility was essential.
Challenges included an outdated WooCommerce checkout structure due to plugin dependencies, potential CSS conflicts affecting the FFL dropdown, and the need for checkout template modifications that wouldn’t disrupt other site functionalities. Thorough testing was critical to prevent issues and ensure a seamless checkout experience.
Solutions
Virtina identified the root cause of the checkout page misalignment and applied custom CSS adjustments to properly stack the Customer Details and Order Review sections. We ensured a consistent structure across all screen sizes using flexbox and grid layout techniques. We inspected the affected CSS properties and modified styles such as z-index, background colors, and padding to fix the FFL dropdown visibility issue, ensuring all dropdown options were visible and accessible.
We also eliminated excessive blank space by refining WooCommerce form field styling, adjusting unnecessary padding and margins, and optimizing the layout for a more compact and user-friendly experience. Extensive cross-browser testing verified the stability of these changes. Before deployment, we conducted thorough testing in a staging environment, validating the checkout process on desktop and mobile devices to ensure seamless functionality. The final fixes were then successfully implemented on the live site.
Results
Virtina successfully optimized the checkout experience, ensuring a seamless and user-friendly process. The Customer Details and Order Review sections were aligned correctly, improving readability and ease of navigation. The FFL dropdown values became fully visible, allowing users to choose without issues. We created a cleaner, more professional checkout interface that enhanced usability by eliminating excessive blank space. These improvements streamlined the checkout process, reducing friction and improving user experience. As a result, the client now benefits from a more efficient, visually optimized, and conversion-friendly checkout system.
Conclusion
Virtina optimized Birmingham Hill Armory’s checkout, resolving alignment issues, dropdown visibility, and excess space. These fixes enhanced usability, reduced cart abandonment, and ensured full WooCommerce compatibility. Rigorous testing confirmed seamless functionality, delivering a streamlined and efficient checkout experience.
