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Saltech Systems WordCommerce Tutorials

Welcome to our WordPress tutorial! Below you will find all of the information need to make basic content changes to your website. Feel free to contact our team for any assistance that you need, or if you’d like to make any larger changes to your website. We’re always happy to help.

Note: The information below is meant as a general guideline to running your WooCommerce online store. Your store’s individual processes may vary depending on your business’s unique needs.

01 Frequently asked questions

  1. From the Orders Page (WooCommerce > Orders) select the order to return/refund.
  2. In the section that lists the items that were ordered, click the Refund button near the bottom left.
  3. From there, enter the quantity of each item to refund or enter the amount to refund per product.
  4. If you are managing inventory in your WooCommerce store you can check/uncheck the “restock refunded items” checkbox if you want to add this item back into your available inventory.
  5. Enter a reason for refund (optional). This will be included in your internal order notes, as well as the customers email.
  6. You then have the option to Refund manually or Refund via [your payment gateway] (Square, Stripe, PayPal, etc.).
    • If you refund manually, the order will be marked as refunded, but you will need to login to your payment gateway account and process the actual monetary refund from there.
    • If you select to refund via your payment gateway (Square, Stripe, PayPal, etc), no further steps are needed. Note, that not all payment gateways will provide this option.
  • Order Status: For partial refunds, the order status will remain completed. If you refund all products in an order, the order status will automatically change to “Refunded”.
  • Customer Notifications: Customers will receive an automated email notification when their order is fully or partially refunded.

You have two options when it comes to resending products to customers.

Option One: Manually processing the new item(s) and sending the customer a note about their new order- This is useful for when you don’t keep track of inventory in your store and don’t need to worry about creating a new shipping label on the backend of your site.

  1. After you package and ship your new item, go to the order you’re replacing (WooCommerce > Orders > Select the order to view)
  2. On the right side of this page, add a new Order Note. Make sure “Note to customer” is selected so that they will be notified. Click “add” to send  the email to your customer.
    Screenshot showing where 'note to customer' dropdown and add button are on edit order page

Option Two: Create a new, manual order on your website – This option comes in handy when you need to keep track of inventory on your website, and it will allow you to create a new shipping label from the backend of your website (if you are utilizing either of these functionalities)
Screenshot showing process of adding a manual order through your website

 

  1. From the WooCommerce orders overview screen (WooCommerce > Orders), click the Add Order button at the top.
  2. From the Add New Order Screen:
    • A: Select order status: You’ll probably want to select “processing” for now.
    • B: Select the customer: Type the customers name into the drop down, if they’ve placed an order on your site before they should show up and it will automatically load the customers information (address, phone number, etc.). If they don’t show up in the drop down you will need to manually add this info by click the   next to Billing & Shipping.
    • C: Under the customers billing information leave the payment method as “N/A” since we won’t actually be charging anything for this.
    • D: Under “Customer Provided Note” you can enter a note the replacement items. This note will show up on the customers email notification.
    • E: In the next box click the Add Item(s) button: From here you can select Add product(s). Since nothing will actually be charged for this order you don’t need to add shipping or taxes. A popup will appear where you can search for products to add and enter the quantity.
    • F: Near the top right of this screen, under “Order Actions” click the Create button. Clicking this button will send a notification to your customer about the new order, and it will also send a new email to the admin email about the new order.
  3. After the new order is created, you can process the order as you normally would. Create packing label, shipping label, and then mark the order complete after you’ve shipped it.

Order notes are useful for keeping track of a variety of things on individual orders. Use private notes to keep track of internal matters, and use customer notes to keep your customers updated on their order. You may also notice notes from your payment gateway when charges are complete, or an order fails.  Notes will be color coded so you can tell what the note is from, and who was notified:

  • Purple Notes: System status notes > often times coming from your payment gateway.
  • Gray Notes: General status updates, such as status changes or private notes. Customers do not see these notes but may receive notification of them, e.g., when the status changes from processing to completed, an email may be sent (depending on your settings).
  • Blue Notes: Notes to the customer. Customers receive notes via email.

To add a note:

  1. Use the text area to add the content of the note.
  2. Select Private note or Note to customer in the dropdown.
  3. Select Add

Screenshot highlighting where order notes are on the Edit Order page

When a payment fails on an order, you will receive a “Failed Order” email and the order will be marked as “Failed” on the WooCommerce orders page.

If you click to view the failed order, in the Order Notes section, you may see a purple note from your payment gateway about why the order failed. It might say “Card was declined” or something of the like.

  1. Log in to your payment gateway (Stripe, Square, Authorize.net, PayPal, etc.) to see if the payment went through or not. There have been some situations that cause an order to be falsely marked as failed in WooCommerce. If it is the case that the payment was actually successful, simply change the order status back to processing, and continue with order fulfillment as usual.
  2. Notify your customer. Your customer will not be notified automatically that their payment has failed – so you will need to reach out to them directly. The easiest way to do this is by adding a customer note to the order. (See the above “Adding notes to orders” for more information on how to send customer notes). The customer will be notified with this note via email.Customer Payment Page Link: From the order page, you can access a unique URL where your customer can pay for their order again, without needing to resubmit their whole order. To find this link, click “Customer Payment Page →” right above the order status near the top of the page.
    Screenshot showing the link to the customer payment page

    This will open up a page with the order summary, and credit card fields so the customer can reenter their payment method. The URL will look something like: https://yourdomain.com/checkout/order-pay/3377?pay_for_order=true&key=wc_order_ofn8Mm9JiSZ9P

    You can send this link to your customer in the order note, or you can give them a call and enter their credit card information over the phone if you prefer.

    Customer Note Example:

    Hello [Customer Name],

    Thanks for your recent order! The credit card you used for payment has failed to go through. <a href=”paste Customer Order Page URL BETWEEN these quotation marks “> Click here to repay on your customer order page.</a>

    Thanks for your business!
    [Your Name]

 

Screenshot showing WooCommerce's page for manually adding an order

  1. Go to: WooCommerce > Orders.
  2. Click Add New at the top of the page. The Single Order page appears.
  3. Enter Customer Details (Name, Billing, Shipping Addresses)
  4. Select an order status (Select “Pending Payment” for unpaid orders – learn how to take payments manually in the next FAQ question!)
  5. Click the Add Items button to add products and other fees to the order.
  6. Click the Add Coupon button if you need to apply a coupon to the order.
  7. Click the Recalculate button to calculate the total price for the new order.
  8. Click the blue Create button to create the order.
  9. Under the Order Actions drop down, select “Email Invoice/Order details to customer” to send the customer the new order email.

Orders that are “Pending payment”  or “failed” can be paid for through the payment link.

  1. Customer Payment Page Link: From the order page, you can access a unique URL where your customer can pay for their order again, without needing to resubmit their whole order. To find this link, click “Customer Payment Page →” right above the order status near the top of the page.
    Screenshot showing the link to the customer payment page

    This will open up a page with the order summary, and credit card fields so the customer can reenter their payment method. The URL will look something like: https://yourdomain.com/checkout/order-pay/3377?pay_for_order=true&key=wc_order_ofn8Mm9JiSZ9P

    You can send this link to your customer in the order note, or you can give them a call and enter their credit card information over the phone if you prefer.

02 Fulfilling orders

In most circumstances we will cover this process with you individually when your ecommerce store goes live to make sure all of your needs are covered. All businesses will fulfill their orders in a different manner, but here is a general guideline on the steps to take.

  1. View the order on your websites backend by going to WooCommerce > Orders.
  2. Click on an order to view order details.
  3. Get the item(s) ready to ship.
  4. Generate Invoice/Packing Slip (if applicable, see below for more information)
  5. Generate a shipping label (if applicable, see below for more specifics based on your shipping provider) + add tracking number
  6. Change the order status to complete – the customer will receive an email saying that their order has been shipped.
  7. Ship the order!

*This is a free add-on feature for your ecommerce store. If your store does not yet include this feature, please contact our team to get it added.

  1. From the order page (WooCommerce > Orders > Select order), scroll towards the bottom, right side of the page to the “Order Printing” box.
  2. Click on which item you’d like to print. The Invoice, Delivery Note, and Receipt, will each include the same information. The primary difference is the title that is printed at the top.
    Screenshot showing 'Print Invoice', 'Print Delivery Note', and 'Print Receipt' buttons
  3. Your browsers printing settings will pop-up and you can print as needed.

NoteMeasure and weigh packages carefully, and choose the correct service when using USPS-provided packaging. The USPS automatically assesses all packages and bills your credit card for those with insufficient postage. For more information, see Understanding the US Postal Service’s Automated Package

In order to get accurate shipping rates & shipping labels, weight/dimensions need to be provided for all products.

Generating USPS Shipping Labels

  1. Go to WooCommerce > Orders and select an order to fulfill. 
  2. Make note of customers selected shipping method: In the customers order, you can see which shipping method was selected by the customer. Pay attention to this if your customers are allowed to select various shipping methods at checkout.
    Screenshot showing the customer shipping method
    Also note, that if you are using calculated shipping costs for your customer checkout, that your shipping label cost may not be exactly the same amount that the customer paid.
  3. Click the large pink “Create Shipping Label” button at the top of the screen.
    Create a shipping label in WooCommerce
  4. If this is your first time printing a label, you’ll need to enter the full address that you are shipping from – click verify address button.
  5. Confirm the Package details, or select packaging from the dropdown. Then select Use these packages.
  6. Select Shipping Rate and whether an Adult signature is required (optional).
  7. Buy shipping labels or Add credit card. What you see depends on if you previously entered a payment method.
    • “Buy Shipping Label” means you have a credit card on file and are ready to purchase.
    • “Add Credit Card” means you need to add a credit card to your WordPress.com account before you can purchase shipping labels through your website.
  8. View the shipping label in Print mode, after selecting Buy shipping labels and a display automatically appears. Note: Some browsers require you to select the Print button.
  9. Print. Or Save this label. Repeat the process for all Orders you’re fulfilling.

Reprinting Shipping Label or Requesting A Refund

Lost your shipping label? Don’t need a shipping label any more? Reprint or request a shipping label by expanding the ellipsis menu to access these options.

Screenshot showing where to reprint or request refund for a USPS label

 

In order to get accurate shipping rates & shipping labels, weight/dimensions need to be provided for all products.

To print FedEx shipping labels:

  1. Go to the order page
  2. Scroll to the bottom where you’ll see a FedEx box
  3. In most cases, packages will be automatically generated based on the weight, dimensions, and settings that are set up in your store. If needed, you can adjust these dimensions.
  4. Select the desired service for each package.
  5. Calculate the cost if you’ve made any updates.
  6. Click “Create Shipment”
  7. The cost of the shipping label will be charged based on your FedEx account settings and the shipping label will be sent to your email.

Screenshot showing FedEx shipping label settings

03 Product management

Simple Products: covers the vast majority of any products you may sell. Simple products are shipped and have no options to choose from. For example, a book.

Variable Products: a product with variations, each of which may have a different SKU, price, stock option, etc. For example, a t-shirt available in different colors and/or sizes. 

You’ll notice that for variable products, most of the settings below will be set per variation.

  1. From the WordPress dashboard click Products in the left side bar. To edit a product. Hover over the title and select the “Edit” link.
  2. From the Edit Product Page, scroll down to the Product Data box.
  3. For Simple Products, click the “Inventory” tab on the left
    • If stock management at product level is enabled, type in the new quantity in the Stock Quantity input.
      Screenshot showing how to update product inventory
    • If stock management at product level is not enabled, then select the updated Stock Status from the dropdown.
      Screenshot showing 'Stock status' option
  4. For Variable Products, select the “Variations” tab on the left, expand the variation that you want to update the inventory for.
    • If stock management at product level is enabled, type in the new quantity in the Stock Quantity input.
      Screenshot showing stock quantity for variable products
    • If stock management at product level is not enabled, then select the updated Stock Status from the dropdown.
      Screenshot showing stock status for variable products
  1. From the Edit Product page, scroll down to the Product Data box.
  2. For Simple Products: from the “General” tab, change the Regular Price or enter a sales price. Sale prices can also be scheduled by clicking the “schedule” link and then selecting start and end dates for the sale.
    Screenshot showing where to update price and sale price for a simple product
  3. For Variable Products: Prices need to be adjusted per variation. Select the “Variations” tab, expand each variation, and enter the new price adjustments.Screenshot showing where to update price and sale price for a variable product

Sale prices in your store will be displayed with a “SALE” badge on your product image, and the original price will be crossed out next to the sale price.

Product descriptions & information can be located in 3 different places on your product.

Screenshot showing where product short description, main description tab, and custom description tabs are displayed on a product's page

 

Short Description: Is displayed on the right side of the product page, above the “add to cart” button.

  • To update the Short Description: Go to the edit product page, scroll towards the bottom past the Product Data box. You will see a box titled Product Short Description. Update the text in this box as needed.
    Screenshot showing where short product description can be edited

Main Product Description: This is displayed in the Description tab, below the product images.

  • To update this description: from the Edit Product page, edit the text in the large text box directly below the product title.
    Screenshot showing where main product description can be edited

Custom Tabs: Your online store might also use “Custom Tabs” to display & organize even more information in additional tabs below the product image. Custom tabs can contain almost anything you need – product specifications, instructions, and more!

This is an add-on feature so if you would like to add custom tabs to your store, just let us know!

  • To update tab content: In the product data box, select the tab called “Custom Tabs”.
  • From there you can see all your current tabs, change the title and text content.
  • On the right side you can use the arrows to rearrange tabs, or the “Remove” button to delete a tab.
  • At the bottom you can add a new tab, or save changes to your tabs.

Screenshot showing where custom tabs can be added and edited

 

The easiest way to add a new product is to duplicate an existing product that is similar to your new product.

Below is a quick overview of add/edit product page:
How to add a new product in Woo Commerce

 

  1. From the Products page (WooCommerce > Products), hover over the product to duplicate, click the “Duplicate” link.
  2. A new Edit Product page will appear, change the Title and Permalink as needed.
  3. Update the main product description if needed (see above “Changing & updating product descriptions” for more information on product descriptions)
  4. In the Product Data box, update the following information
    • General Tab: Price, & Tax information
    • Inventory: Sku (if needed), Stock
    • Shipping: Weight, dimensions, Shipping class, etc (if needed)
    • Linked Products (optional): depending on your store these products may be displayed at the bottom of product pages to encourage customers to buy more products.
    • Attributes (for variable products): these can be added if a product will have multiple variations/options such as size, color, etc.
    • Variations (for variable products): from this tab you will set price, inventory, and shipping info for each variation based on the attributes listed above.
    • Advanced: In this tab you can add a Purchase Note. This will be included in customer emails when they order this product. The menu order is useful for when you want your products in a very specific order in your store
  5. Below the Product Data tab is the Product Short Description. Update this as needed.
  6. In the right side bar of this screen select CategoriesTags, and Product Images as needed.
  7. In the top right click the Publish button to make the product live. You can also Save Draft to publish later.