How to Add Order Status in WooCommerce: A Beginner’s Guide
Selling online with WooCommerce is exciting, but keeping track of your orders can quickly become overwhelming. Knowing the status of each order – whether it’s processing, shipped, or delivered – is crucial for both you and your customers. This guide will walk you through adding and managing order statuses in WooCommerce, even if you’re a complete newbie.
Why Manage Order Statuses?
Imagine this: you receive a frantic email from a customer asking about their order. You have hundreds of orders to sift through. Without a clear order status system, finding that specific order and providing an update will take precious time and could frustrate your customer.
Efficient order status management streamlines your workflow, improves customer satisfaction, and helps you run your business more smoothly. It allows you:
- To easily track the progress of each order.
- To proactively update customers on their order’s journey.
- To automate email notifications based on order status changes.
- To analyze sales data based on order status (e.g., how many orders are currently processing).
- Using WooCommerce’s built-in options (easiest): This is perfect for basic adjustments.
- Using a plugin (more advanced): Plugins provide more flexibility and features, but require installation and configuration.
- “Awaiting Payment”
- “Custom Packaging Required”
- “Ready for Pickup”
- WooCommerce Custom Order Status: This plugin lets you add custom statuses, Learn more about How To Use Woocommerce App assign colors to them, and even add specific actions that trigger based on the status.
- Order Status Manager for WooCommerce: Offers similar functionality to WooCommerce Custom Order Status, sometimes with additional features.
Methods to Add Order Status in WooCommerce
There are two main ways to add or modify order statuses in WooCommerce:
Method 1: Using WooCommerce’s Built-in Options
WooCommerce comes with several default order statuses like “Processing,” “Completed,” “On-hold,” etc. You can modify these or add new ones *within certain limits*. You can’t completely create new workflows.
Let’s say you want to add a “Shipped via Xpress Delivery” status:
1. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Status: This will take you to the Order Statuses page.
2. Add a New Status: While you can’t truly add *new* statuses in the traditional sense, you can rename existing ones or create a variation. You might rename an unused status (like “On hold”) to “Shipped via Xpress Delivery”. Remember, changing labels may affect existing orders.
3. Save Changes: Click the “Save changes” button. Now, your new status will appear in the dropdown menu when you’re updating individual orders.
Limitations: You’re essentially re-purposing existing statuses. You cannot create entirely new workflows (e.g., a status that triggers a specific action). For more complex scenarios, you’ll need a plugin.
Method 2: Using a WooCommerce Plugin (for more advanced customization)
Plugins offer significantly more control. For example, you could add statuses like:
Popular plugins that allow extensive order status customization include:
Important Note: Always research a plugin thoroughly before installing it, checking reviews and ensuring compatibility with your WooCommerce version.
After Adding the Status: Updating Orders
Once you’ve added a new (or modified) status, you can update individual orders:
1. Go to WooCommerce > Orders.
2. Select the order you want to update.
3. Change the status in the “Order status” dropdown.
4. Save Changes.
Conclusion
Adding and managing order statuses in WooCommerce significantly improves your workflow and customer experience. While WooCommerce’s built-in options are sufficient for minor adjustments, plugins offer more advanced customization for complex requirements. Choose the method that best suits your needs and start streamlining your order management today!
