The Opt-In Checkbox: How It Works
The opt-in checkbox is the core of WP Smart Consent. It’s the element your visitors actually see and interact with — everything else in the plugin exists to support it.
Where It Appears#
The checkbox is injected automatically into whichever checkout pages and forms you’ve enabled in the Integrations panel. You don’t place it manually or add a shortcode — WP Smart Consent hooks into each platform natively and inserts the checkbox in the correct position.
For checkout integrations, the checkbox appears above the payment or submit button. For form integrations, placement depends on the form plugin — typically above or adjacent to the submit button as well.
What the Visitor Sees#
The checkbox displays the opt-in label you’ve configured in Settings alongside a standard HTML checkbox input. Nothing else — no extra copy, no pre-filled fields, no popups. It’s intentionally minimal so it fits naturally into whatever form or checkout design you’re using.
What Happens When They Tick It#
When a visitor ticks the checkbox and completes their purchase or form submission, WP Smart Consent:
- Captures their name and email from the submission data
- Records the opt-in event in the Customers Log (if logging is enabled)
- Forwards the contact to every enabled CRM or ESP destination in real time
All three happen in the same request — there’s no queue, no delay, and no separate cron job required for the forwarding step.
What Happens When They Don’t#
If the visitor leaves the checkbox unticked and completes the submission, nothing happens. The order or form entry is processed normally by the host plugin — WP Smart Consent simply doesn’t fire. No data is captured, no log entry is written, nothing is forwarded.
Pre-Checked vs. Unchecked#
By default the checkbox arrives empty. You can enable the Pre-Checked setting in the dashboard to have it ticked by default, but for most sites — particularly those with EU visitors — an unchecked default is the right choice. The GDPR geo-detection feature lets you pre-check for non-EU visitors automatically while keeping it unchecked for EU visitors, without any manual logic on your part.
The Label#
The checkbox label is set globally in the Settings tab and applies to every integration. If you’re running a multilingual site with WPML or Polylang, you can set a different label per language. The label is plain text — no HTML.