---
title: Contact form
summary: Take messages from your contact page, keep them in WooCommerce and answer them by email.
url: https://lanternwp.com/docs/contact-form
updated: 2026-10-13
---

# Contact form

LanternWP Companion adds a contact form to your store: name, email, a topic, the order a message is about and the message itself. Messages arrive by email and are kept under **WooCommerce → Messages**, so none is lost if an email does not arrive.

## Where the form appears

On a LanternWP contact page, the form fills the panel beside your contact details by itself. To use it anywhere else, add the **Contact Form** block to a page.

If you prefer another forms plugin, put its form into the contact panel instead: the panel then shows that form, in the theme's look.

Without a form in the panel, the contact details show as a row of cards instead.

## The contact page

The LanternWP theme builds a contact page from sections, each a pattern you insert from the **Contact** category, in any order and on any page:

- **Contact: ways to reach us**: your email and address beside the contact form.
- **Contact: help shortcuts**: cards that lead to the customer's orders and to your shipping and returns page.
- **Contact: questions**: a few questions with their answers and a link to all of them.
- **Contact: visit us**: a photo of your store, its opening hours and a button.

Replace the example text, hours and photo with your own. The demos show three ways to combine them, and importing a demo also sets its topics.

## Topics

Go to **WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → Contact form** and enter the topics people choose from, one per line, such as "An order" or "A repair". Without topics, the form does not ask for one.

## Emails

Two emails are under **WooCommerce → Settings → Emails**, in your store's email style:

- **Contact message** goes to you for every message. Choose who receives it under **Recipient(s)**. Replying to it answers the sender.
- **Contact message received** tells the sender you have their message. It is off until you turn it on, and it never repeats what they wrote.

## Messages about an order

A signed-in customer sees their name and email filled in and chooses one of their orders. On an order's page in their account, **Ask about this order** opens the contact page with that order chosen. Set the page under **Contact page** in the contact form settings; without one, Companion uses the page with the address `/contact/`.

When a message names an order that belongs to the sender, it is linked from the message and added to the order as a private note.

## Spam

The form stops most bots without asking anything: a field that people never see, a form sent within seconds of opening the page, and too many messages from one address are all refused. For more, turn on [bot protection](bot-protection.md) and tick **The contact form**.

## Privacy

Messages are personal data:

- They are deleted after 12 months. Change this under **WooCommerce → Settings → Accounts & Privacy → Retain contact messages**, or leave it empty to keep them.
- **Tools → Export Personal Data** and **Tools → Erase Personal Data** include them, found by the sender's email.
- **Settings → Privacy** suggests a paragraph about them for your privacy policy.