How to show real "recent sales" popups in WooCommerce (free, no fake orders)

A small popup like "Someone in Shah Alam bought Office Chair, 2 hours ago" tells new visitors that real people buy from your shop. It is called social proof, and it works best when it is true.

Many sales popup plugins can invent orders. That is a false claim to your customers, and in many countries it breaks consumer law. This guide sets up popups that only ever show real, paid orders, using our free plugin Underpixel Sales Popup.

What the popup shows

• The product photo, product name, the buyer's city and how long ago.
• Only orders that are Processing or Completed. Refunded, cancelled, failed, pending and on-hold orders never appear.
• Orders from the last 7 days. If there are none, nothing is shown: no empty box, no sample.
• Never shown: surname, address, postcode, phone, email, price or quantity.

Step 1: Install the plugin

• In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add New Plugin.
• Search for Underpixel Sales Popup, then click Install Now and Activate. WooCommerce must be active.

Step 2: Answer the first question

Go to WooCommerce > Sales Popup. It asks: "Do you sell to customers in Europe?" Your answer sets whether buyers must opt in to appear in the popup (stricter, for Europe) or can opt out.

Step 3: Choose how much of the buyer to show

• Open the Privacy tab.
• Name: no name ("Someone", the default), half a name (Ai***) or first name.
• Location: city (default), state, or none.

Step 4: Let buyers choose at checkout

Your checkout gets one box: "Show my purchase in the store's recent sales popup". If a buyer unticks it, that order never appears. It works on both the classic checkout and the Block checkout.

Step 5: Pick the position

On the Popup tab, choose bottom-left or bottom-right, and whether to hide it on phones. The settings show a live preview of your newest real sale. The popup takes your theme's fonts and colours.

Good to know

• It works with page caching: the list of orders loads after the page.
• A visitor never sees their own order.
• Add a line to your privacy policy saying your shop shows recent purchases (product, town and time) and that buyers can opt out at checkout.

When you need more

Pro adds your own time window (1 to 90 days, for slower shops), "5 people bought this in the last 24 hours" on product pages, a real review popup from your 4 and 5 star reviews, a real "Only 3 left" line from your stock, a "Best seller this week" badge, page and product rules, your own colours and wording, and a report of views, clicks and orders. Every number comes from your real data.