How to Manage Orders (Status Changes) in WooCommerce
Learn how to process new orders, what each “Status” means, and how to automatically notify your customers.
Every time a customer completes a purchase, WooCommerce creates a new order and assigns it a specific “Order Status.” Properly tracking these statuses prevents shipping errors and reduces the number of calls from customers asking, «Where is my package?».
Where Are the Orders?
Log in to the WordPress admin panel. From the left-hand side menu, click on WooCommerce and then to the Orders. There you will see the complete list of recent purchases, including customer names, dates, and amounts.
[ Screenshot: The main orders screen with the colored status indicators ]
Understanding Basic Conditions
Before you change anything, it's important to know what each indicator you see means:
How Do We Change the Situation?
There are two ways to change the status of an order when you ship it:
Method A (The Quick Way): In the main order list, you can hover your mouse over an order and click the “checkmark” icon that appears at the edge to immediately convert it to Comprehensive.
Method B (The Analytical Method): Click on the customer's name to open the order. In the field Status, click the drop-down menu, select the new status (e.g., Completed), and click the button Update in the right-hand column.
Every time you change a status from “In Progress” to “Completed,” WooCommerce automatically sends a nice email to the customer letting them know that their order has been shipped. Don’t skip this step—it keeps the customer calm and informed!
[ Screenshot: The "Status" drop-down menu in the order editing screen ]
Bulk Status Change (To Save Time)
If, at the end of the day, you have 20 orders that need to be marked as “Completed,” you don’t need to go through them one by one:
- Check the boxes to the left of the orders you want to change.
- Go to the top of the panel and click the menu Bulk Actions.
- Select the Status changed to "Completed" (Change status to "Completed").
- Click the button Apply next to him.
If a customer calls you to cancel an order, change the status to Cancelled. Do not permanently delete it (Recycle Bin). When you change the status to “Canceled,” WooCommerce automatically returns the products to your warehouse inventory so that someone else can purchase them.
[ Screenshot: The Bulk Actions menu and the Apply button ]
Would you like automatic voucher issuance and integration with a courier service?;
Manually updating statuses and entering customer information into courier systems wastes hours of time every day. At Skynetix, we can connect your e-shop to special Smart Plugins (ACS, General Postal Service, BoxNow, etc.) so that as soon as you change the status to “Completed,” the shipping voucher is automatically generated and printed!
