Using Marks

This walkthrough goes from a fresh install to badges on the storefront, then covers thresholds, the manual badge and shortcode placement.

1. Turn on the badges you need

Open the Marks menu, switch the global toggle on, and tick the automatic badges that match how you sell — usually Sale and New to start, adding Low stock and Bestseller as your catalogue grows. Customise a label or leave it blank for the default wording.

2. Choose where badges show

Set placement: the single product page, the shop and category listings, or both. Most stores enable both so a promo reads the same on the grid and on the product page.

3. Tune the thresholds

The thresholds decide when automatic badges fire:

• Newness window — shorten it (for example to 14 days) if your catalogue turns over fast, so New stays meaningful.
• Low-stock level — set the quantity at which urgency helps, for example 5.
• Bestseller sales count — set it where a product genuinely qualifies as a top seller.
• Free-shipping class slugs — list the shipping-class slugs that should earn a Free shipping badge.

To check Low stock quickly, temporarily raise the threshold on a stock-managed product and confirm the badge appears at the expected quantity.

4. Keep the sale promo clean

If you enabled the Sale badge, turn on Hide the WooCommerce sale flash so the theme’s default corner Sale! does not compete with the Marks badge. Shoppers then see one clear promo label.

5. Set the appearance and caps

Pick a shape (pill or square), decide on uppercase, and set the per-context caps so a heavily-flagged product shows your most important badges rather than a stack of every rule at once.

6. Add a manual badge

For merchandising that the automatic rules cannot express — Staff pick, Editor’s choice — set the store-wide manual label and colour under the manual badge section, then add the meta _marks_manual_text (and optionally _marks_manual_style) to the products that should carry it. It renders alongside the automatic badges until the cap is reached.

7. Place badges with the shortcode

To show a product’s badge group outside the default templates — in a page, post or widget — use [marks_badges]. It uses the current product in loops and on the product page; pass id and context to target a specific product and render style:

[marks_badges]
[marks_badges id="123" context="loop"]

The shortcode enqueues badge CSS on that page when badges are present.

Performance and rendering

Badges are CSS-only — there is no JavaScript on listings — and they sit over the product image, so the grid never reflows (no Cumulative Layout Shift). Rules read from WooCommerce data you already trust.

Polski overlap

Polski includes its own product badges. Do not run Marks if that module is enabled — pick one badge system. See Standalone storefront plugins.