WooCommerce is a popular, powerful, extendable, and simple eCommerce platform for WordPress that gives you complete control over your store. One doesn’t need to look further for another platform because of its advanced capabilities and scalability. The possibilities are endless when it comes to WooCommerce. It is an all-in-one resource for managing your online store and provides retailers with a wide range of features. These limitless features bring with them an array of issues that you can resolve immediately with experience and expertise.
In this blog, we attempted to resolve the most common WooCommerce issues you and many other eCommerce merchants encountered. You will find this helpful while you seek assistance for WooCommerce development services.
Slow loading Page
eCommerce stores have large databases, which causes your website to move slowly. If the website is not fast-loading it can adversely affect your store. Amazon.com would lose billions if its website was even one second slower! Websites that load quickly increase page views and keep customers engaged, increasing conversions. The issue here could be with your web hosting provider.
Cheap web hosting plans may be better options when starting with an eCommerce store, but as time and traffic increase, you may want to consider premium versions from the best web hosting providers. With shared hosting plans, you share server resources with others, which may use less bandwidth but slows down your website. So, in general, avoid them. You are also working for your safety. Go for managed hosting, which is more expensive but more effective at driving traffic.
Consider the following tips to improve the hosting services.
- Minimize CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
- Remove JavaScript Render Blocking
- Utilize your browser’s cache.
- Enhance server response time
- Use a Content Distribution Network (CDN)
- For your website, always use optimized images
Plugins and Themes Conflict
Third-party applications struggle to sync with WooCommerce because it is a self-contained platform. The conflict between plugins and themes need to be identified and to find the culprit, we must first determine where the problem originated.
Theme Discord
- Navigate to Appearance Themes.
- Set and activate any default theme to see if the problem persists.
After doing all these, if the issue is rectified, then the problem is the theme.
Plugin Incompatibility
Even after identifying and rectifying, if issues still persist then the culprit is the plugin.
So, how do you resolve WooCommerce plugin issues?
- Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins.
- Deactivate all plugins that are not WooCommerce extensions.
- If the problem goes away, one of your plugins is to blame.
- You must isolate the problematic plugin by activating each one individually.
And once you’ve identified the bad guy, you can uninstall the plugin and replace it with something more appropriate.
Reactivating and deactivating plugins is simple, but if you ever find yourself stuck, always turn to your backups. The good thing is that hosting providers provide a backup plan. Jetpack Backup is a plugin that reliably restores your website’s data if you want more options.
Utilize a staging area. It is a replica of your live production site where you can test theme and plugin conflicts without disrupting your live website. This way, you can avoid losing interest and work together to solve your WooCommerce problems.
Cache Issues
Browser caching saves data locally on the browsers of your users. If you haven’t removed the login pages from the caching system, the customers’ reset password process page will stop loading.
Users cannot reset their passwords, resulting in help requests for login errors. However, this can be problematic for your WooCommerce store if not correctly configured.
Similar WooCommerce issues may occur if you make significant changes to your website and need to clear caches. So, before you launch a new WooCommerce store, consider using WordPress caching plugins.
Download Links Missing From Completed Order Emails
This will reflect poorly on your website and may impact your purchase and customer satisfaction rates. And the cause for this is most likely due to the absence of SQL tables from your database. A few new SQL tables are added to your database when WooCommerce is activated. It’s possible for this process to fail if the SQL table prefix is longer than 64 characters. The only solution to this issue is to change the name of your SQL log table. This is probable with the assistance of a plugin.
Using programs like phpMyAdmin, you are able to alter the names and prefixes of all tables. Then, in wp-config.php, modify the prefix value. Deactivate and reactivate WooCommerce now. As a result, WooCommerce will be compelled to create the necessary SQL tables. Always back up your database and website before reactivating WooCommerce or performing any other action. To avoid possible issues, keep the prefix of your WordPress SQL table under 20 characters.
Email Notification Errors
Email notification issues are at the top of the list of support questions for WordPress sites. WooCommerce errors happen after customers place orders in your eCommerce store. Emails are only occasionally received by administrators.
Review Your WooCommerce Email Configuration
You must check two major options after navigating to WooCommerce email settings:
Individual Email Notifications
Individual email notification troubleshooting in WooCommerce can be a critical step in ensuring smooth communication with your customers and team members. You can fix issues with individual email notifications by using the common issues and solutions listed below:
- Examine email configuration and email templates
- Examine plugin and theme conflicts
- Debug mode should be enabled
- WooCommerce and plugins should be updated
- Contact the hosting company
Email Sender Preferences
Examine the email sender options for any issues. Enter your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the WooCommerce Settings section.
After that, double-check the From address and name. You are able to enter your name and email address correctly.
Go to WooCommerce > Settings > email to check for issues in individual notification emails.
Check to see if the recipient’s email is entered correctly after turning on the notification setting if it isn’t already. Your emails might also be getting delivered to the spam folder. You can get help with this from your hosting provider. So approaching them is a wise choice.
WooCommerce Image Size Compatibility
High-quality images are one of the most crucial components for your eCommerce store’s smooth operation. These are especially important if you’re showing your customer carousels and galleries. Consider purchasing a Shirt online without first seeing it. You can’t touch or feel your product, which is the biggest drawback of an eCommerce store. The only thing left to do is to visually examine your product.
No matter how detailed an explanation you provide for a product, displaying perfect pictures of the product will increase customer satisfaction and trust. Blurry images can reduce sales and conversion rates and even scare away customers, whereas bright and clear images can increase sales. The size and production time of superior-quality images are also higher. But never mind as it delivers better results!
Resolving WooCommerce Blurry Image Problems
- Save the images in their proper sizes. For the majority of the themes, they must be 800 x 800px.
- It is important to properly compress images. The standard file size is 2 MB.
- Upgrading to WooCommerce’s latest version makes your images responsive and relieves you of the burden of manually optimizing them.
Summary
WooCommerce is a reliable eCommerce platform with its own set of challenges. Knowing how WooCommerce works, and common issues, and implementing operational troubleshooting measures can help you provide a seamless shopping experience for your customers. With these tips in mind, you’ll be well-prepared to face any challenges and take your online store to new heights.