What’s new with Woo: December 2023

It’s the holiday season, and we’re filled with cheer — it’s the busiest time of the year! (Terrible rhyme, I’m sorry.) To help you prepare for the rush of sales, promotions, gift buying, and customer service, we’ve been working around the clock (literally, because of our fully distributed team) to help prepare your Woo stores for the busy season.

That being said, if you need additional help getting your store into Santa’s workshop-level shape, our Happiness Engineers are ready to help! (And if you need to rebuild the whole workshop, consider hiring one of our certified Woo Partners to do the heavy lifting).

So, what’s new with Woo and WooCommerce? We’re glad you asked! (P.S. If you’d like to hear about updates on a monthly cadence, you can subscribe to the newsletter here.)

The Woo Gift Guide

‘Tis the season for online shopping! If you’re still looking for gift ideas in the wake of the Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) rush, this post is for you. This year’s gift guide features options from over 30 Woo merchants, in categories like homegoods, personal care, and my favorite, coffee. Check out the list and support the Woo community this holiday season!

Didn’t see your favorite store in the guide? Nominate them for the 2024 gift guide! (Link will bring you to a Google form.)

WooCommerce (the brand) is now Woo!

At the end of October, we announced the move to Woo and woocommerce.com. “Woo” is how many loyal customers have referred to us for years, and now we’re leaning into that name for our brand. The product is still called WooCommerce, built and maintained by the community and the folks at Woo. This also allows us to standardize and streamline the names of our products and services (WooCommerce Payments has become WooPayments, for example). 

But don’t worry — you’ll still be able to find everything you need in the same place it’s always been (even if you find yourself typing in WooCommerce.com for a while). Read the announcement post, and reach out to our Happiness Engineers if you need additional support. 

No surcharges from USPS during the 2023 holiday season 

If you’re shipping to the U.S. during the holidays, you might be pleased to hear that the U.S. Postal Service will not levy any additional surcharges for customers this holiday season, as posted in the USPS Newsroom. Here are the cutoff dates for domestic shipping, and here is information on international shipping services.  

Check out the USPS Shipping Method extension to add this option to your store.

Building a  better, faster checkout experience

High-performance order storage

In October, we introduced high-performance order storage  (HPOS) to WooCommerce. HPOS is a major database upgrade that stores order information in a commerce-first system — meaning faster checkout, order creation, order lookup. HPOS is optional, but available to enable for all Woo stores. Learn more about HPOS in this blog post.

WooPay

WooPay helps convert more shoppers through secure one-click checkout. It allows customers to pay instantly and speed through purchases with a single tap. Merchants can enable WooPay for free within WooPayments. Learn more and get started today with our WooPay documentation.

Block-based checkout 

New block-based checkout helps you build an experience optimized for checkout. These blocks are part of our ground-up rebuild of the checkout flow, based on industry best practices and offering better conversion rates and shopper engagement. With the improved experience, merchants have increased flexibility and customization options without the need for coding. 

Features:

• New cart and checkout shopper experience on mobile and desktop
• No-code customization
• Better local pickup flow

Benefits:

• Optimized experience focused on conversion
• More control over the experience without using code

Learn more about block-based checkout.

Generative AI in the Woo Mobile App

Did you know that you can manage your store on the go? We’re always making improvements to our mobile app. The latest update allows you to use generative AI to create product listings directly from the Woo Mobile App. Whether you’re adding your first product or your 101st, generative AI reduces the amount of manual input (i.e. writing product information) you’ll need to do for each product.

If you’re not using the Woo Mobile app yet, be sure to check it out.

WooSesh Recap

WooSesh is a virtual conference for store builders, and this year our team presented the State of the Woo. If you missed it, catch the replay on the WooSesh website.
We’d also like to congratulate Woo Partner Maksimer, who picked up the Agency of the Year award at WooSesh earlier this month. 

New on the blog: Multichannel, shipping and fulfillment, and B2B ecommerce

Compare the Top Marketplaces for Multichannel Selling Worldwide

Selling on multiple marketplaces can expand your reach and introduce you to new customers around the globe. We’ve compared several of the world’s top online marketplaces to help you set your multichannel sales strategy.

Shipping Methods and Fulfillment: Everything You Need to Know

Time to get ship-shape, matey! Kathryn has everything you need to know about shipping methods and fulfillment — from the basics to the bigger picture. In this post, learn about packaging, different carriers and methods, and fulfillment solutions that fit your business.

How to Choose a B2B Ecommerce Platform

It’s a myth that online stores are only for consumer-facing organizations. They’re a powerful tool for selling business-to-business (B2B), too. This post covers what you need to know — with examples.

A new look and feel for the WooCommerce Marketplace

We recently refreshed the WooCommerce Marketplace view, available in your WooCommerce dashboard. In your dashboard sidebar, click on WooCommerce, and then select Extensions from the sub-menu. 

The Marketplace changes came about as part of an effort to streamline the merchant experience when searching for extensions by making them easier to view and browse. This new experience is available both on your desktop and in the Woo Mobile App. 

Buy Now, Pay Later with WooPayments

Afterpay, Klarna, and Affirm are now available via WooPayments. Activate buy now, pay later (BNPL) instantly from your WooPayments dashboard. BNPL is transforming the way people pay and how much they buy: 70% of users say they spend more with BNPL than they would otherwise, according to Lending Tree.

Learn more about buy now, pay later on WooPayments.

Easyship

Easyship offers up to 91% off rates from over 250 different shipping carriers and simplifies logistics in a single dashboard. Sync orders, automate tax calculations, offer dynamic rates at checkout, and give shoppers a branded tracking experience.

Enable seamless shipping with Easyship.

Bespoke

Bespoke is a modern shop theme built exclusively for WooCommerce that provides customization options for your store’s colors, fonts, layouts, and more. Bespoke also offers advanced product filtering options based on categories, attributes, and price ranges. 

Install the Bespoke theme today.

Role Based Tax

Personalize your tax offerings and take full control of how your store shows and assigns taxes using Role Based Tax. Customize tax rates based on customer types, tailor display settings to comply with local requirements, and assign tax exemptions at the product or user level. 

Enable custom taxes with Role Based Tax.

Sezzle

In September, we announced our expanded partnership with Sezzle to provide buy now, pay later. Sezzle is a certified B Corp on a mission to financially empower the next generation. Eligible merchants can begin integrating Sezzle’s payment solutions into their online stores immediately. Read the announcement here or get started with Sezzle. 

Canal

In October, we launched a partnership with Canal, a modern dropshipping solution that connects direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands with other brands’ influencers, content creators, and online retailers. Canal simplifies sourcing for merchants as both a dropshipper and marketplace, while also driving creative marketing campaigns, revenue, and sales. Read the announcement here or get started with Canal for WooCommerce.

More new extensions in the Marketplace

It’s been a busy couple of months. In addition to the partnerships with Sezzle and Canal, we’re excited to feature new solutions from:

• Bankful: A comprehensive payment solution for high-risk and subscription sellers. 
• Veem: A secure checkout solution ideal for processing large transactions. Veem offers greater payment options, including cards, bank transfers, and checks. 
• Geekseller: An extension that transforms your WooCommerce store into a multichannel order management hub
• AdRoll: A marketing and advertising platform integrated directly with your WooCommerce store. Watch AdRoll’s product webinar to learn more. 
• Amazon for WooCommerce: Sync your WooCommerce store with Amazon to reach a wider audience and efficiently manage your products.

We hope this recap was helpful. Are there any other things you’d like to see included in these posts? Let us know in the comments!

The Woo team wishes you all the best for the remainder of 2023 and into the new year. We’ll be back with the third edition of What’s New with Woo in early 2024! 

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Julia Callicrate