Hey Store Owners – WooCommerce 4 is now available!

This is the first major release of the year for WooCommerce and it brings some great enhancements and new features I think you’re going to love. If you want to read the nitty gritty details, hop on over to the article on the Official WooCommerce Blog, otherwise here are the top points you’ll care most about as a store owner.

• A new, improved version of WooCommerce Admin. Some of you may have this installed in your site admin and some may not. This plugin got off to a bit of a rough start, but it’s actually matured nicely. It’s a much needed improvement over the older reports in WooCommerce and this latest version brings performance improvements, new reports, a new dashboard, and new store management tools. If you’re not running this plugin already, it’s something to look forward to. If you’re one of our WordPress Maintenance subscribers, just let us know you want this plugin installed and we’ll “make it so.”
• A new activity panel will provide an alternative and possibly better order management workflow than before.
• A New Onboarding Experience will help you store owners who are configuring your own WooCommerce setup. Setting up your shop will be much simpler with WooCommerce 4.0. As always, you should contact us if you need professional assistance.
• Additional goodies in this update include enhancements to the order edit screen, fixes for WooCommerce Blocks, updates for compatibility with Brexit and VAT, and improved email handling. As always, there are numerous tweaks and fixes that accompany every WooCommerce update.

For Our WordPress Maintenance Subscribers

You already know this, but we’ve got your back! WooCommerce 4.0 will be tried and tested before we upgrade your website. We’re in no rush, and we’ll be keeping an eye on the status of plugin updates and other underlying tech that your website relies on. When things are ready to ensure a smooth upgrade, we’ll take care of it. It shouldn’t be long.

For Store Owners Handing Things Themselves

If you’ve been doing the maintenance work of keeping everything up to date, then you already know the dos and don’ts when it comes to major updates from WordPress or WooCommerce. Be patient and wait for the plugin and theme developers to release updates for compatibility with WooCommerce 4.0, and always make sure you have at least one full backup to bail yourself out if the update goes sideways. If you’re worried about that, let us handle it.