How to manage your online store

Discover how you can manage your website to improve your customer experience.

We build our ecommerce websites with Woocommerce to be as automated as possible – but there are still some things you can do to manage your online store better. This post will go through some basic tips which not only help you manage your store but also your customer’s experience.

Update order status

It may not seem like much but updating your order statuses as you send out your orders not only lets you know where an order is at but also lets your customers know. Once an order has been made and the payment successful it will be marked as Processing. From here you can update it to complete once you have sent out the order to the customer. Customers will receive automated emails at each step (depending on your website setup), letting them know exactly what stage their order is at. Communication is key to forming a relationship with your customers.

To update the status of an order check out the video or follow the steps below:

1. Go to Woocommerce > Orders.
2. Click on an order to edit.
3. Under Status, select the new status.
4. Click Update to save changes.

The below diagram shows the order processes:

If you like you can also send a personalised note to the customer under Order Notes. This will send out an email to the customer with your note. Order notes are a great place to add the tracking number for shipping if you have one.

More info: https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/managing-orders/

Update product stock

There is nothing online customers dislike more than ordering an item but then finding out that it is not in stock. Make sure to keep your stock numbers up to date or if you are not managing stock numbers you can just set the product as out of stock.

To adjust the stock check out the video or follow the steps below:

1. Go to Products > All Products.
2. You can either:
   a. Click Quick Edit and where is says the Stock Qty or Stock Status as needed, then click Update.
   b. OR click on the product, click the Inventory tab, then adjust the Stock Qty or Stock Status as needed. Click Update once you have made the changes.

Add a sale price to a product

Sales are a great way to drive traffic to your site and encourage purchases. You can setup sales prices per product or setup a coupon to apply to multiple products.

To setup a sales price on an individual product check out the video or follow the steps below:

1. Go to Products > All Products.
2. You can either:
   a. Click Quick Edit and where is says Sale add the sale price, then click Update.
   b. OR click on the product, in the General tab, add in the sale price. You can also schedule the sale with a start date and end date. Click Update once you have made the changes.

Coupons

To setup a new coupon check out the video or follow the steps below:

1. Go to either Woocommerce > Coupons or Marketing > Coupons (depending on your version of Woocommerce).
2. Click Add Coupon.
3. Create a coupon code (eg. SUMMERSALE)
4. Add a description (eg. 10% off all swimsuits this summer!)
5. Under the General tab:
   a. Select the Type of discount:
   i. Percentage is a percent discount to the cart.
   ii. Fixed Cart Discount is a fixed $ amount to the cart.
   iii. Fixed Product Discount is a fixed $ amount to each product which matches the rules set in the coupon.
   b. Add the Coupon Amount.
   c. Check if the coupon allows free shipping.
   d. Set a Coupon Expiration Date if required.
6. Under the Usage Restriction tab:
   a. If you would like a minimum amount for the coupon to work, add a Minimum Spend.
   b. If you would like a maximum amount for the coupon to work, add a Maximum Spend.
   c. To disallow the coupon to work with other coupons, check Individual Use Only.
   d. To disallow the coupon to work with sale items, check Exclude Sale Items.
   e. Under Products, if you only want this coupon to be available for certain products, start typing the name and add them here.
   f. Under Exclude Products, if you only want this coupon to be available for all BUT certain products, start typing the name and add the excluded products here.
   g. Under Product Categories, if you only want this coupon to be available for certain product categories, start typing the name and add them here.
   h. Under Exclude Categories, if you only want this coupon to be available for all BUT certain product categories, start typing the name and add the excluded categories here.
   i. To limit the coupon to only certain user/s you can add in email address of them under Allowed Emails.
7. Under the Usage Limits tab:
   a. Usage Limit Per Coupon will limit the coupon to the amount added.
   b. Usage Limit Per User will limit the coupon uses per user to the amount added.
   8. Click Publish to make the coupon live.

Coupons will not be visible to the average user so make sure to promote the coupon on your website, with a social media post or in a newsletter.

More info: https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/coupon-management/

Woocommerce Analytics

You can easily see how well your shop is going by looking at the built in Woocommerce Analytics. Just to go Analytics > Overview (for older versions of Woocommerce go to Woocommerce > Reports).

Woocommerce analytics displays:

• Total sales
• Net Sales
• Orders
• Items Sold
• Monthly performance graphs
• Top product category sales
• Top product sales

For the current month. You can also display old data and view custom time frames. Woocommerce Analytics is a great way to see the most popular products and perhaps what products need a bit more promotion. This is a great way to decide on what could go on sale next.

More info: https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-analytics/