WooCommerce Bites Archives - Page 2 of 19

WooCommerce Email Marketing: Respecting Unsubscribers

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a debate surfaced around what store owners do with email subscribers who hit the “unsubscribe” button.

The conversation explored legal obligations, ethical marketing practices, and possible technical workarounds—like uploading unsubscribed users to ad platforms.

While it started as a question of curiosity, it opened the door to a much-needed conversation on respectful email marketing in WooCommerce.

So, what should you actually do when someone unsubscribes?

WooCommerce Guest Checkout for Existing Customers

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, we discussed a user-friendly idea for WooCommerce checkouts: what if logged-out customers—who already have an account—could skip the login step but still breeze through checkout?

It started with a basic Ajax-powered email check at checkout, but the conversation quickly evolved into login links, security concerns, and UX tradeoffs. This idea came from frustration with friction-heavy checkouts.

So, how could this work—and is it actually helpful?

WooCommerce Cart Discounts Without Coupons

A US one dollar bill placed on a wooden table with a blurred plant nearby.

In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a familiar WooCommerce frustration came up: why isn’t there a simple $cart->add_discount() function, like there is for $cart->add_fee()?

Store owners and developers often want to apply a quick, programmatic discount without needing to set up a coupon. But currently, WooCommerce doesn’t offer a built-in method for this.

In our Slack chat, we explored common workarounds, drawbacks of using negative fees, and how a built-in method could solve many headaches.

So why does this limitation exist—and what can we do about it?

Should Clients Add WooCommerce Products Themselves?

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, we discussed the best approach when onboarding a client to a newly built WooCommerce store—especially when it comes to adding their products for the first time.

Should you walk them through the WordPress admin UI and teach them how to do it manually? Or do you require them to compile their inventory in a spreadsheet that can then be imported?

The trigger for this discussion was a tweet wondering what other developers typically do: teach or template? The real answer, unsurprisingly, is “it depends.”

Are Negative Fees Allowed at WooCommerce Checkout?

In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, the topic of using negative fees at WooCommerce checkout sparked a deeper discussion around best practices, analytics accuracy, invoicing compliance, and alternatives to coupon codes.

For example, many developers have used the woocommerce_cart_calculate_fees hook to dynamically apply discounts like this: $cart->add_fee( 'Discount', -10, false );

This approach may seem like a convenient way to apply a discount without relying on coupons—but is it safe, reliable, or even allowed?

Turns out, there are several downsides.

Tools like Metorik warn that negative fees can mess up reporting and reconciliation. Some invoicing systems and local tax laws even forbid negative invoice lines altogether.

So what’s the best way to offer automated discounts at checkout without triggering these issues? In this post, we’ll break down the pros and cons of negative fees, and explore alternative methods to achieve the same result the right way.

WooCommerce: Redirect Empty Paginated Category Pages (404)

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a WooCommerce developer faced a common but frustrating issue: their website was generating 404 errors for paginated product category URLs that no longer had enough products to justify multiple pages.

For example, /product-category/toys-gifts/page/3/ would show a 404 error if there weren’t enough products to fill that third page. This often happens when products are removed or recategorized, and while the base category URL remains valid, these deeper pagination URLs become orphaned.

The goal was to redirect those invalid paginated URLs back to the main category page to avoid broken links and improve user experience. What followed was a conversation about WooCommerce pagination, 404 behavior, and a working solution.

WooCommerce: Add a Free Subscription After SSO

In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a member asked whether it was possible to programmatically assign a free WooCommerce Subscription to a new user right after single sign-on (SSO), without any user interaction.

The twist: this needed to happen during just-in-time (JIT) provisioning. While the user was comfortable with SSO mechanics, WooCommerce Subscriptions posed a few uncertainties.

The thread turned into a helpful discussion on what’s possible and what risks to watch out for.

WooCommerce: Send Payments to Different Bank Accounts

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a member asked whether it’s possible to send payments for specific products to one bank account, and all other payments to a different one.

This came up in the context of WooCommerce and name-your-price donations, but it’s a more general question that has wide relevance for multi-vendor stores, fundraising sites, and complex payment workflows.

The short answer? Not with default WooCommerce functionality. But let’s go over the options and workarounds that were discussed.

Why Is There Still No Wise Payment Gateway for WooCommerce?

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a question came up that many WooCommerce store owners might relate to: how is it possible that, in 2025, there is still no direct integration between WooCommerce and Wise (formerly TransferWise)?

For businesses selling high-ticket items, digital services, or working with international clients, Wise offers low-fee, real exchange rate bank transfers across borders—something PayPal and Stripe can’t compete with when it comes to cost.

The idea of letting a customer pay via Wise at checkout—ideally using a generated payment link—feels like a no-brainer. Yet this functionality still doesn’t exist in plugin form.

Sure, Wise offers APIs and manual tools to request payments, but there’s no smooth, automated workflow for WooCommerce.

This blog post explores the current limitations, outlines a potential workaround, and highlights why a Wise payment gateway could be a valuable addition for many WooCommerce stores focused on profitability and international reach.

WooCommerce: Completing Orders Without Triggering Hooks

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a WooCommerce user reported a problem with completing old “on-hold” orders.

Payment and delivery had already been handled manually, but when attempting to update the status to “completed” via the WooCommerce dashboard, they encountered errors from their payment provider.

This is a frustrating scenario, especially when all the store owner wants to do is tidy up order records without triggering payment gateway interactions or sending unnecessary customer emails.

Here’s what’s happening, and how to safely resolve it.

WooCommerce: Notify Admin of Abandoned Carts?

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a store owner asked if it was possible to notify the WooCommerce administrator or store manager when a customer adds a product to the cart but never completes the purchase.

This question often comes up for logged-in customers, where the store can at least identify who abandoned the cart and possibly follow up with them.

While WooCommerce does not track abandoned carts out of the box, there are various plugins that help with recovery emails and promotional reminders.

However, sending an email to the store owner every time a cart is abandoned? That opens up an entirely different discussion around usefulness, frustration, and even compliance — especially in countries where privacy regulations apply.

This article explores why WooCommerce doesn’t notify admins by default, what plugin-based alternatives exist, and how to approach cart abandonment from a practical and privacy-conscious perspective.

WooCommerce: Order Meta with HPOS and API

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a member raised an important question about WooCommerce HPOS (High-Performance Order Storage) and API compatibility.

Their developer had built a custom integration using the legacy WooCommerce API, and one of the key operations was saving metadata to orders. This metadata was used to associate internal order numbers from a third-party system.

With WooCommerce shifting toward HPOS for order management, the member wanted to confirm if their integration would require changes — especially when saving order meta. If the current implementation uses functions like $order->update_meta_data(), would that still work seamlessly with HPOS?

This is a common concern for developers who rely on programmatic access to orders, especially when orders are linked to external systems. The good news is that HPOS is designed with backward compatibility in mind, but certain practices need a closer look. Let’s go through what changes, what stays the same, and how to future-proof your API integrations.

WooCommerce: Stripe Payment Form Not Showing?

Close-up of a credit card payment being processed at a POS terminal.

In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a member reported that the Stripe payment form was not showing at checkout, regardless of which Stripe plugin they used.

They tested both the “WooCommerce Stripe Gateway” and “Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce,” but neither displayed the form.

Even after disabling all other plugins and switching to the default Twenty Twenty-Five theme, the issue persisted. They also tried both the shortcode (“Classic Checkout”) and the Gutenberg block (“Checkout Block”) — still no luck.

SPOILER ALERT: The problem seemed unrelated to any particular plugin or theme conflict. The member then checked the browser console for JavaScript errors and found a very strange message: a currency-related error where “cloudways” appeared in place of an expected currency code like USD.

This unexpected value turned out to be the root cause. After locating and correcting it, the Stripe payment form displayed correctly. Let’s take a look at what caused this, how to detect similar issues, and what steps you can take to fix them.

Can a Basic WooCommerce Site Succeed With Strong Branding?

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, members discussed the surprising simplicity of Björk’s official merch store.

Despite being a global music icon, her store runs on ~~what looks like a very minimal WooCommerce setup — using the default Storefront theme with limited customization~~ a minimal Shopify setup since August 2025.

This sparked a broader conversation around whether a simple tech stack can still deliver results when the brand is powerful enough. Let’s unpack what we can learn from this and what it means for WooCommerce developers and store owners.

WooCommerce: Add Optional Checkout Email CC: Field

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a member asked how to let customers optionally enter a second email address at checkout—specifically if they want WooCommerce emails sent to someone else too.

Their goal was to display a checkbox labeled “Send to another email address,” and, if checked, reveal an additional email field. Any email entered here should be CCed on all WooCommerce order emails.

This is a common request for B2B stores or for people who manage orders on behalf of others, such as virtual assistants, procurement officers, or accounting teams. The good news? This can be achieved without installing yet another plugin.

In this post, we’ll show you how to add a custom checkbox and email field at checkout, use JavaScript to conditionally show the field, save the additional email in the order meta and CC that email on all WooCommerce transactional emails.

Let’s get it done with a few clean snippets.

Category: WooCommerce Bites