Tutorial on How to Manage Your WooCommerce Orders

WooCommerce is arguably the most popular WordPress plugin for those looking for eCommerce solutions. While it’s reasonably easy to navigate, it’s understandable that you want to be cautious with a plugin that deals with money. For that reason, we’ve prepared a series of WooCommerce tutorials to get you acquainted with the platform. Next up: WooCommerce orders!

With its friendly user interface, WooCommerce is the best option for your online store. It’s also a great tool to help you keep a record of sales, tracking each order on the site. In all, it offers a way of connecting to your e-shop in an integrated way. That said, it’s time to talk about WooCommerce orders!

WooCommerce Orders

These are the attributes of placed WooCommerce orders:

• The customer has already completed the checkout process.
• The site has assigned the order a unique ID.
• You, the online store owner, can view this ID number from your WordPress dashboard.

Getting to Know the WooCommerce Orders Dashboard

Now that we’ve settled on what WooCommerce orders entail, here’s how to reach the dashboard:

• On the WordPress dashboard, go to WooCommerce > Orders.
• Organize how you want orders displayed. On the first row of options, you’ll find different ways to filter orders: by date, status, and customer. You’ll also be able to perform Bulk Actions such as Mark processing, Mark on-hold, Mark completed and even Move to Trash.
• Below, you’ll be able to see details of each order. These are Order, Purchased, Ship to, Customer Message, Order Notes, Date, Total, and Actions. Much like you’d do when updating a blog post, you can edit each order separately by clicking on its ID.

Generally speaking, the order management page is pretty similar to post management pages, so it should be easy to navigate. That said, below you can find what each of the columns allows you to see and do.

Order

The very first column shows the order’s details. Here, you’ll find:

• The Order ID. A unique identification code for each request, and one the customer received upon completing the checkout. It’s non-sequential and very similar to a Post ID.
• Each order’s status. If you hover the mouse at the left of the ID, you’ll find an icon showcasing each order’s current status.
• Information about the customer, specifically their name and email.

Purchased

Here, you’ll find the number of items the customer bought in the order, whether it’s just one or several.

Ship To

Just as the name would suggest, this column includes shipping details. You’ll find:

• The address the customer specified.
• The shipping method the customer chose.

Customer Message

While this field isn’t mandatory, customers can leave you a message. You’ll need to hover your mouse over this icon to see if there are any messages from the customer. Only store owners/admins can see this.

Order Notes

Another optional field, in Order Notes you’ll find any extra details the customer left for you.

Date

Here, you’ll find the specific time in which the customer placed the order.

Total

This column refers specifically to money amounts. You’ll find:

• The full price the customer paid, regardless of the number of items.
• How the customer paid for the order. Here, you'll see whether they used a card, PayPal, a bank transfer, or any other method.

Actions

In this column, you’ll be able to change the actions you take on the order. You’ll find three icons here:

• Processing. This marks when the order is still ongoing.
• Completed. You can update this once the customer has received the order.
• Edit. Here, you can edit the current status of each order.

It’s important to note that you can change the details of each order at any given time. WooCommerce orders can be managed just as regular posts, so you can edit whatever column you need changing.

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