WooCommerce: how to set orders to shipped

About this article

This article describes the process required to mark orders as shipped on ChannelEngine, when using the WooCommerce plugin.

Introduction

By default, WooCommerce has no real endpoint or method to create shipments that can be exported to ChannelEngine – unlike pure webshop CMSes, such as Magento. Most WooCommerce fulfillment plugins only place one or more comments as an order note, and mark the order as either completed or shipped. It is not possible for ChannelEngine to get the required information (or even a trigger to retrieve it) via those means.

To set an order as handled (i.e.: shipped), ChannelEngine requires a shipping method and a track-and-trace code. Only then it can export that information to the marketplace where the order originated, and mark it as completed. To get that information, the plugin adds two fields to orders.

Enter that information, be it manually or via a fulfillment plugin, and select Update to store it. That triggers an export of the shipment to the ChannelEngine API, and ensures the order is closed on ChannelEngine's end.

The alternative is that you create the shipments manually on ChannelEngine. Either way, a shipment is needed within each order, so it can be considered completed – and stop any stock reservations, if applicable.