WooCommerce 3.6 RC2 was released today with changes to the planned Marketplace Suggestions feature after core developers received overwhelmingly negative feedback on its implementation. This RC removes the ads from the product listings, which was one of the most controversial placements for them. It also adds a new setting to turn Marketplace Suggestions off entirely.…
In one of the most unpopular changes in the history of the WooCommerce open source project, version 3.6 will introduce “Marketplace Suggestions.” The update adds suggestions to the products admin screen, which vary based on whether it’s an empty state or within the list of products. “They are contextual mentions of official extensions that may…
Ecwid’s e-commerce plugin for WordPress is now fully integrated with the Gutenberg editor. The cloud-based store builder, pronounced “eck-wid,” is short for e-commerce widgets, but the service has fully embraced blocks in its latest releases. The new default Storefront block comes pre-installed and embeds the entire Ecwid store on a page, including product listing, filters,…
This week marks the first public release of WooCommerce’s new mobile app for Android and the improved version for iOS. WooCommerce began beta testing the Android app late last year and the original iOS app has been updated to offer the same features. This first release should be considered a basic start that is mostly…
WooCommerce Blocks 1.3.0 was released yesterday with six new blocks. Previously, the plugin allowed users to display a grid of products by category. The new version introduces a Featured Product Block with design options for customizing nearly everything about the display, including color overlay, price and description, text alignment, call-to-action button, and the product photo.…
WooCommerce 3.5 was released this week. It’s a minor update that has been in development since May and began testing in September. The release should be backwards compatible to version 3.0 of the plugin but users are always advised to test all of their themes and extensions before updating. Store owners can expect to see…
WooSesh, the free virtual conference devoted to WooCommerce kicked off earlier today. Todd Wilkins, Head of eCommerce at Automattic, Kelly Hoffman, Head of Design for eCommerce at Automattic, and Aviva Pinchas, Product Lead of the WooCommerce Marketplace at Automattic got things started with the keynote presentation. Wilkins highlighted what the team has accomplished since last…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I have a lengthy discussion about the numerous Accessibility concerns being raised by members of the community. We also talk about the WordPress 5.0 release date, tempers flaring in the WordPress core Slack channel, dealing with political situations within the WordPress project, and more. We share our thoughts…
WooSesh, the virtual WooCommerce conference, is now less than two weeks away. The two-day event will be held October 18-19 and is free for all attendees who join the livestream. Organizers Patrick Rauland and Brian Richards published the schedule this week with descriptions for each session. Day 1 will feature speakers on a variety of…
The first official WooCommerce Android app is now in open beta. The companion mobile app allows users to manage their WooCommerce stores on the go. Store owners who want to test the unreleased version of the mobile app can sign up with the Google Play Store. The WooCommerce app requires Jetpack to connect stores to…
At the end of 2017, WooCommerce published some of their “Wootenberg experiments”, one of the first previews of what e-commerce might look like in the Gutenberg era. Gutenberg’s handling of meta boxes has greatly evolved since that time and the WooCommerce Gutenberg Products Block feature plugin is now active on more than 20,000 sites. The…
WooSesh, a new two-day virtual conference focused on WooCommerce topics, will be held October 18-19. While wrapping up another successful edition of WordSesh, Brian Richards announced WooSesh as the next event coming under the WordSesh brand. On Wednesday, nearly 500 attendees joined WordSesh. People tuned in from around the world, although the audience was heavily…
WooCommerce is celebrating 10th years of Woo this week. Over the past several years WooCommerce has grown to become a dominant player among e-commerce solutions on the web. E-commerce Usage Distribution stats from BuiltWith currently rank WooCommerce as the most commonly used platform for stores in the top 1 million sites. Performance and scalability were…
In this episode, John James Jacoby starts the show by giving everyone a status update on bbPress 2.6. We review the new privacy features in WordPress 4.9.6 Beta 1 and provide feedback. We tell you what’s new in Gutenberg 2.8 and comment on WooCommerce’s new Products insertion block. Last but not least, John describes watching…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I start the show by sharing our thoughts on Mark Zuckberberg’s congressional hearing. We then discuss what’s new in Gutenberg 2.6 and describe our user experience. We let you know what’s in WooCommerce 3.3.5 and discuss what the development team is doing to prepare for GDPR compliance. Stories…