2021 WooCommerce Guide – 5 Quick Fixes That Save You Time and Money

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Even with WooCommerce’s many configuration options and thousands of plugins, WooCommerce can throw unexpected errors at the most inconvenient times, even for the most skilled developer.

We are fortunate enough that our team gets to help online store owners worldwide keep all aspects of their WooCommerce stores up to date.

It’s frustrating when you waste your time and resources trying to figure out which files and code are causing the problems rather than focusing on your customers. Here are five of the most common WooCommerce issues we hear about and how we resolve them step-by-step as part of our very own WooCommerce guide.

1. How to Find the WooCommerce API/Rest API Developer Features

WooCommerce and WordPress offer API features to encourage development on the platform. The types of projects created and their uses are endless. However, for most people, the vast array of functionalities and code lines can be overwhelming and complicated.

Chances are you’re using extra plugins and software to manage your WooCommerce stores right now. For example, these extensions can help you automate and edit your product descriptions in bulk. Maybe you need the API to conduct a specific task. For example, Facebook for WooCommerce uses APIs to link the two services together.

How to Find the WooCommerce API/Rest API Developer Features

Quick Fix: Navigate to Advanced Settings

The first step of using the WooCommerce API is to enable it. To allow the WooCommerce REST API, log in to your WordPress site’s admin and head to the navigation bars WooCommerce, then Settings, then Advanced.

Next, head to the Legacy API tab and enable the legacy REST API.

After enabling the WooCommerce REST API, you must create an API key. The key you generate will authenticate your request to the API. An API key is necessary to ensure that WooCommerce serves only authentic API requests.

On the WordPress Admin page, click on REST API to add a key. Enter the description, select the user, and click on Generate API Key. These contain your consumer key and your secret key.

2. WooCommerce – Export Orders To CSV

WooCommerce Export Orders To CSV

If you’re using different platforms or using multiple WordPress sites throughout your sales process, you’ll likely need to export all your orders into one database. These exports could be useful for stock control, shipping, and accounting purposes. But ‘export orders’ isn’t the most comfortable WooCommerce setting to find without knowing where to look.

Quick Fix: Select the Export to CSV option

Export customer and order data using WooCommerce > CSV Export > Export under the bulk export tool.

You can filter orders by status, export orders with specific product categories, or only export orders with a particular product. Additionally, you can export orders based on the date. Moreover, using the bulk export feature, you can export customers by date according to their purchase or registration date.

3. Bundle Products by Product Category in Online Stores

Bundle Products by Product Category in Online Stores

Bundling products is an excellent way of encouraging product add-ons and maximising your potential for increased revenue. If you have a wide range of product variations, bundling by product category and type is an excellent way to increase your average transaction value.

Offering unique bundles is a great way to widen your inventory with tailored descriptions and shipping options. It makes buying additional products quicker and easier for people, which in turn increases sales and revenue.

Quick Fix: Add a new product and select group product setting

For the first step, navigate to Products and select New Product. Then move on to writing your descriptions. Note that a bundled product requires related products to be linked. To do this, you should already have some items in your store that you want to bundle up.

Scroll to the Product Data box to find the Grouped Products option. Choose it from the drop-down menu and click on the Linked Products tab to add the group to the site. Then, in the group products field, you can add the type of products that make up the bundle.

The Grouped products field lets you put in the name of an existing product. It comes up as a suggestion if that product already exists in your store. All other settings can remain at their defaults.

To conclude, choose a product image and assign a product category for your bundle. Then, add a category for your bundled products. Finally, publish your bundle or update it to make the changes live.

4. How To Set Custom Fields, Attributes, and Descriptions

One of the best features of WordPress and WooCommerce is the endless amount of customisations you can implement. Many of these can help answer any questions your customers may have saving them the need to contact you.

How To Set Custom Fields, Attributes, and Descriptions

Think of Custom Product Attributes as extra descriptions of items, where the default settings don’t give all the information. Examples may include alternative shipping details, similar product URLs, or checkout notices.

Custom fields are a great way to enhance the user experience. These fields can showcase the extra benefits of your digital products and physical products, in turn increasing the average sale value at the checkout.

Quick Fix: Use a WooCommerce Plugin

The easiest way to deal with custom fields is to install a plugin. One example is the free Advanced Custom Fields plugin. From there, you can follow the navigation within the plugin and set up the fields as you wish.

5. WordPress is Not Sending Emails

Nothing is more frustrating than discovering your customer isn’t getting any emails through, whether that’s the latest industry articles or descriptions to hit your store.

A temporary solution is to let your customers know about your offers on social media until the issues resolve themselves. That said, sorting these issues out with your WooCommerce site should be your biggest priority.

WordPress is Not Sending Emails

Quick Fix: Update WooCommerce Plugins, Themes, and Extensions

Check you have the newest version of WordPress and WooCommerce. You should also check that all your WordPress files and plugin files are up to date. WooCommerce plugin development happens at speed, so plugin conflicts will inevitably occur at some stage.

This approach should be the first port of call. There may be an extension or theme conflicting with your email provider, causing compatibility issues. In the latter case, you can disable these plugin version updates one-by-one to find out which update has caused the problem. If that’s working fine, send test emails to your accounts (e.g., @gmail.com) to see if they end up in spam.

It’s common for WordPress emails to bypass your inbox and get blocked. In this case, it’s better to use an alternative mailer such as Mailchimp, especially if you don’t have a WordPress specialist on your team.

If you are technically minded, it’s also worth ensuring that you are not using default PHP mail functions. This is unreliable and often leads to delivery failure. We recommend ensuring a third-party email send system like Mailchimp or SendGrid is in place for more reliable delivery. Alternatively, connecting to a valid email via an SMTP plugin usually improves deliverability.

Save Money and Resources With This WooCommerce Guide

These quick fixes are only the beginning. In most cases, a settings change or software update for WordPress and WooCommerce will fix any broken code, but you might find that you and your team still end up stuck on the finer details.

We know time is precious, so we’ve answered all your burning questions and let you in on our top five tips to keep your WooCommerce site running efficiently throughout this WooCommerce guide.

Jason
Jason
In 1999 I created my very first website, it all went from there. Founder of WP Manager (wpmanager.co.uk). WordPress Developer with a passion for technology and travel.

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